SiC/SiCwoven fabric laminates: Design, manufacturing, mechanical properties

The SiC/SiCwf laminate design has been targeted to achieve increased residual compressive stress in thin SiCwf layers and small residual tensile stress in thick SiC layers, that would lead to a significant increase of the apparent fracture toughness of the composite. The laminates have been manufactured using rolling and hot pressing techniques. The measured apparent fracture toughness of laminates showed a significant increase over the monolith SiC ceramics. Thus, while the intrinsic fracture toughness of pure SiC ceramics is in the range of 2-3 MPa m1/2, significant increase up to 6-8 MPa m1/2 was achieved for the layered ceramics. A crack shielding by compressive residual stress was a main mechanism responsible for the significant toughening of the SiC/SiCwf laminate. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.