Oxidation Kinetics and Its Impact on the Strength of Carbon Short Fiber Reinforced C/SiC Ceramics

Because of the excellent fracture toughness and oxidation resistance, carbon short fiber reinforced ceramics have a sound potential for a variety of high‐temperature applications. For the composite's reliable use in long‐term applications, however, the oxidation effects on the mechanical strength are of crucial interest and have hitherto not been investigated in detail yet. In this study, the weight change of carbon short fiber reinforced C/SiC composites with carbon fiber lengths of 9 mm (long cut fiber composite – LCFC) and 2 mm (short milled fiber composite – SMFC), respectively, are evaluated in the temperature range from 500 to 1200 °C for two different fiber orientations. Both types of composites were additionally tested in bending mode after 25 and 50 min of exposure to air at 700 °C depending on fiber orientation. After 3 h of exposure at 1000 °C, a total weight loss of up to 37% for LCFC and 47% for SMFC could be determined. The bending test carried out after 50 min exposure at 700 °C showed a dramatic decrease down to 50% of the initial flexural strength for LCFC samples with fibers orientated in parallel to the beam axis. The smallest strength decrease of around 13% was found for SMFC samples with fibers orientated perpendicularly to the beam axis. Microstructural investigations suggest strongly that oxidation along the fibers is the most dominating weakening mechanism and is therefore directly affected by the fiber orientation and length. In this work oxidation resistance and mechanical performance of short fiber reinforced C/SiC are evaluated dependent on both, fiber length and fiber orientation. The fiber distribution is determined by image analysis using micro‐computed tomography and correlated with oxidation behavior and bending strength. The results indicate a strong dependency of fiber orientation, oxidation kinetics, and mechanical performance.