Mechanical properties and thermal shock resistance of ZrB2–SiC ceramic toughened with graphite flake and SiC whiskers

Improving the thermal shock resistance of ceramics by crack arrest blocks

“…The most common strategy to improve the thermal shock resistance is to add reinforcements into the ceramics, such as nickel, molybdenum, silicon nitride, graphite flake and silicon carbide [25][26][27][28], to optimize the lattice structure of the material. By the reduction of thermal resistance between ceramic grain boundaries, Li et al [29] showed that the thermal shock resistance of alumina ceramic can be increased from 300 to 650°C.…”

Spherical indentation with multiple partial unloading for assessing the mechanical properties of ZrB2–SiC composites

“…Nevertheless, low toughness-induced poor thermal shock resistance of ZrB 2 -SiC composites is still main obstacle to restrict their practical and potential applications [5]. Therefore, considerable efforts have been devoted to develop ZrB 2 -SiC composites reinforced with graphite flakes [6], ZrO 2 particles [7], carbon fibers [8] and carbon nanotubes [9]. Among various toughening agents, carbonaceous materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene exhibit excellent mechanical properties, and they are promising nanofillers in ceramic matrix to improve fracture toughness.…”

“…By contrast with carbonaceous materials, boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), a structural analog of CNTs, not only possess excellent mechanical properties comparable to those of CNTs, but also exhibit higher starting oxidation temperature of BNNTs ($ 900 1C) [11], which is believed to guarantee less degradation of high-temperature performances of the BNNT/(ZrB 2 -SiC) composite. Also, the choice of using soft and ductile BN platelets seems to be an attractive option to toughen brittle ceramics [6,12]. More recently, the fracture toughness of ZrB 2 -SiC composite reinforced with a mixture of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) and boron nitride nanoplatelets (BNNPs) has been reported to increase by up to 24.4% (from 3.73 7 0.11 to 4.64 7 0.36 MPa m 1/2 ) at 1.0% (BNNT-BNNP) weight fraction in our previous research [12].…”

Research on thermal shock resistance of ZrB2–SiC–AlN ceramics using an indentation-quench method

“…Recently, Zhang [5] has studied the thermal shock resistance of ZrB 2 -20%SiC w ceramics quenching in both cold and boiled water. Wang et al [12][13][14] have investigated not only the thermal shock resistance of ZrB 2 -SiC-graphite ceramics but also the effects of graphite flakes and surface oxidation on thermal shock resistance. Our previous works [15,16] have evaluated the thermal shock behavior of ZrB 2 -SiC-AlN ceramics using this method, furthermore the influence of surface heat transfer conditions on thermal shock behavior is studied.…”