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In this work, pitch-based carbon fibers were utilized to reinforce silicon carbide (SiC) composites via reaction melting infiltration (RMI) method by controlling the reaction temperature and resin carbon content. Thermal conductivities and bending strengths of composites obtained under different preparation conditions were characterized by various analytical methods. Results showed the formation of SiC whiskers (SiCw) during RMI process according to vapor-solid (VS) mechanism. SiCw played an important role in toughening the Cpf/SiC composites due to crack bridging, crack deflection, and SiCw pull-out. Increase in reaction temperature during RMI process led to an initial increase in thermal conductivity along in-plane and thickness directions of composites, followed by a decline. At reaction temperature of 1600 ℃, thermal conductivities along the in-plane and thickness directions were estimated to be 203.00 and 39.59 W/(m•K), respectively. Under these conditions, bending strength was recorded as 186.15±3.95 MPa. Increase in resin carbon content before RMI process led to the generation of more SiC matrix. Thermal conductivities along in-plane and thickness directions remained stable with desirable values of 175.79 and 38.86 W/(m•K), respectively. By comparison, optimal bending strength improved to 244.62±3.07 MPa. In sum, these findings look promising for future application of pitch-based carbon fibers for reinforcement of SiC ceramic composites.


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Thermal conductivity and bending strength of SiC composites reinforced by pitch-based carbon fibers

Show Author's information Liyang CAOaYongsheng LIUa( )Yunhai ZHANGaYejie CAOa( )Jingxin LIaJie CHENaLu ZHANGbZheng QIb
Science and Technology on Thermostructural Composites Materials Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Science and Technology on Space Physics Laboratory, Beijing 100076, China

Abstract

In this work, pitch-based carbon fibers were utilized to reinforce silicon carbide (SiC) composites via reaction melting infiltration (RMI) method by controlling the reaction temperature and resin carbon content. Thermal conductivities and bending strengths of composites obtained under different preparation conditions were characterized by various analytical methods. Results showed the formation of SiC whiskers (SiCw) during RMI process according to vapor-solid (VS) mechanism. SiCw played an important role in toughening the Cpf/SiC composites due to crack bridging, crack deflection, and SiCw pull-out. Increase in reaction temperature during RMI process led to an initial increase in thermal conductivity along in-plane and thickness directions of composites, followed by a decline. At reaction temperature of 1600 ℃, thermal conductivities along the in-plane and thickness directions were estimated to be 203.00 and 39.59 W/(m•K), respectively. Under these conditions, bending strength was recorded as 186.15±3.95 MPa. Increase in resin carbon content before RMI process led to the generation of more SiC matrix. Thermal conductivities along in-plane and thickness directions remained stable with desirable values of 175.79 and 38.86 W/(m•K), respectively. By comparison, optimal bending strength improved to 244.62±3.07 MPa. In sum, these findings look promising for future application of pitch-based carbon fibers for reinforcement of SiC ceramic composites.

Keywords: thermal conductivity, bending strength, pitch-based carbon fiber, continuous carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide matrix composites (C/SiC)

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 03 May 2021
Revised: 26 July 2021
Accepted: 09 August 2021
Published: 11 January 2022
Issue date: February 2022

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© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB1106600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51602257, 92060202, 51872229, and 51972269), the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing (Wuhan University of Technology, No. 2021-KF-10), the Creative Research Foundation of the Science and Technology on Thermostructural Composite Materials Laboratory (No. JCKYS2020607001), and the Shaanxi Province Foundation for Natural Science (No. 2020JQ-169).

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