Processing and mechanical characterisation of monolithic silicon carbide ceramic consolidated by sparkp lasma sintering(SPS) Silicon carbide ceramics were fabricated using the spark plasma sintering technique withoutt he use of additives. The sintering process was carriedout at four differenttemperatures in the range of 2073 -2223 Kunder two different pressures, 40 MPa and 80 MPa, under vacuum. The effects of different temperatures and pressures on the density, Vickers hardness, fracture toughness, and microstructure were examined.F ully dense monolithics iliconc arbide ceramicsw itharelative density of approximately 99 % were obtained. Increasingt he pressure from 40 to 80 MPa and the temperature from 2073 to 2223 Kresulted in an increase in the relative densities of spark plasma sintered ceramicsfrom 87 %to97.5 %and 95.5 %to99.7 %, respectively. The results revealed that the silicon carbide ceramic spark plasma sintered at 2223 Kwhile applying 80 MPa of pressure with a5 -minute soaking time under vacuum has the highest hardness and fracture toughness valueso f 31.9 GPa and 3.6 ±0.3 MPa ·m 1/2 ,respectively.