Compressive creep of a silicon nitride alloy

摘要

Silicon nitride (Si{sub}3N{sub}4) is a synthetic covalent compound, employed to manufacture high creep resistance bodies. There is a general agreement that pure Si{sub}3N{sub}4 is difficult to sinter by classical methods, thus alternativetechniques have been proposed. One of them is the addition of certain sintering aids, leading to liquid-phase sintering process. For this research aluminum nitride (AIN) and a rare-earth carbonate were chosen as sintering aids. Test pieces were preparedfrom mixtures of these materials and pressureless sintered under a nitrogen-rich atmosphere. These pieces were tested by means of a compressive creep apparatus assembled at CTA/IAE/AMR