Strengthening of Titanium Silicon Carbide by Grain Orientation Control and Silicon Carbide Whisker Dispersion

摘要

Strengthening of titanium silicon carbide (Ti_3SiC_2) was investigated by the grain orientation control and silicon carbide (SiC) whisker dispersion, Ti_3SiC_2 with preferentially oriented grains was prepared by hot-pressing of milled Ti_3SiC_2 powder. Composites were also fabricated by hot-pressing of a blend of the milled Ti_3SiC_2 powder and SiC whiskers. During hot-pressing, the preferential orientation of Ti_3SiC_2 grains was achieved while the precipitation of titanium carbide (TiC) occurred. As a result, 4-point bending strength of preferentially-oriented Ti_3SiC_2 was approximately 1.5 times the randomly-oriented pure Ti_3SiC_2 in a temperature range from room temperature to 1073 K. The bending strength of Ti_3SiC_2 with 15 vol percent whiskers reached approximately 1 GPa, approximately 3 times the randomly-oriented pure Ti_3SiC_2, in the range to 1073 K. The results in this study indicate that the strengthening effect on Ti_3SiC_2was contributed from the orientation control, TiC precipitation and SiC whisker dispersion.