FIBER/REINFORCED COMPOSITE MATERIAL

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance strength, fracture toughness and fracture energy and to improve wear resistance and resistance to thermal impact by compositely dispersing non-oxide ceramic fibers into a matrix being a base layer and further incorporating a specific amount of diamond particles into the matrix. SOLUTION: A fiber reinforced composite material 1 having improved strength is obtained by compositely dispersing silicon carbide ceramic fibers 3 into a silicon carbide matrix 2 which is formed by, e.g. reaction-sintering. As the fibers 3, long fibers having diameters of 0.1 to 200 μm or short fibers are used, and the long fibers are arranged in the form of meshes or in parallel, and the short fibers are dispersed. The suitable volume percent of the fibers is not more than 65 vol.% based on the total volume. Further, the diamond particles 4 having high hardness, high thermal conductivity and low coefficient of thermal expansion and having an average particle size of 0.5 to 500 μm are incorporated into the matrix 2 in an amount of 0.1 to 90 wt.%. Furthermore, it is preferable to improve fracture toughness of the composite material 1 by allowing 3 to 30% residual silicon to exist.