Tribological characteristics of A356 Al alloy-SiC(P) composite discs

The dry sliding wear and friction behaviour of A356 Al alloy and its composites containing 10 and 20 vol.% SiC(P) have been studied using pin-on-disc set up. In these tests, A356 Al alloy and its composites are used as disc whereas brake pad was used in the form of pins. Wear tests were carried out at a load of 192 N and the sliding speed was varied from 1 to 5 m/s. Tests were done for a sliding distance of 15 km. The effects of sliding velocity on the wear rate, coefficient of friction and nature of tribolayers formed on discs have been studied. Wear rates of composites as calculated by weight loss method, found to be negative at sliding speed of more than 2 m/s. Worn surfaces of pins and discs have been analyzed using scanning electron microscope. SEM and EDAX analysis of worn surfaces of composite discs showed formation of tribolayers, consisting of mixture of oxides of Al, Si, Cu, Ca, Ba, Mg, and Fe. In these layers, copper and barium content found to be increase with sliding speed in the case of composites. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cytocompatibility property evaluation of gas pressure sintered SiAlON-SiC composites with L929 fibroblast cells and Saos-2 osteoblast-like cells

Although the oxide ceramics have widely been investigated for their biocompatibility, non-oxide ceramics, such as SiAlON and SiC are yet to be explored in detail. Lack of understanding of the biocompatibility restricts the use of these ceramics in clinical trials. It is hence, essential to carry out proper and thorough study to assess cell adhesion, cytocompatibility and cell viability on the non-oxide ceramics for the potential applications. In this perspective, the present research work reports the cytocompatibility of gas pressure sintered SiAlON monolith and SiAlON-SiC composites with varying amount of SIC, using connective tissue cells (L929) and bone cells (Saos-2). The quantification of cell viability using MTT assay reveals the non-cytotoxic response. The cell viability has been found to be cell type dependent. An attempt has been made to discuss the cytocompatibility of the developed composites in the light of SiC content and type of sinter additives. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Spark plasma sintering of novel ZrB2-SiC-TiSi2 composites with better mechanical properties

We report here the development of ultrafine grained ZrB2-SiC composites using TiSi2 as the sintering aid and spark plasma sintering (SPS) as the processing technique. It was observed that the presence of TiSi2 improved the sinterability of the composites, such that near theoretical densification (99.9%) could be achieved for ZrB2-18 wt.% SiC-5 wt.% TiSi2 composites after SPS at 1600 degrees C for 10 min at 50 MPa. Use of innovative multi stage sintering (MSS) route, which involved holding the samples at lower (intermediate) temperatures for some time before holding at the final temperature, while keeping the net holding time to 10 min, allowed attainment of full densification of ZrB2-18 wt.% SiC-2.5 wt.% TiSi2 at a still lower final temperature of 1500 degrees C at 30 MPa. TEM observations, which revealed the presence of anisotropic ZrB2 grains with faceted grain boundaries and TiSi2 at the intergranular regions, suggested the occurrence of liquid phase sintering in the presence of TiSi2. No additional phase was detected in XRD as well as TEM, which confirmed the absence of any sintering reaction. The as developed composites possessed an excellent combination of Vickers hardness and indentation toughness, both of which increased with increase in TiSi2 content, such that the ZrBi2-18 wt.% SiC-5 wt.% TiSi2 (SPS processed at 1600 degrees C) possessed hardness of similar to 20 GPa and indentation toughness of similar to 5 MPa m(1/2). The use of MSS SPS at 1500 degrees C for ZrBi2-18 wt.% SiC-2.5 wt.% TiSi2 composite resulted in improvement in hardness of up to similar to 27 GPa and attainment of high flexural strength of similar to 455 MPa. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Strength of hot pressed ZrB2-SiC composite after exposure to high temperatures (1000-1700 degrees C)

Residual strength (room temperature strength after exposure in air at high temperatures) of hot pressed ZrB2-SiC composites was evaluated as function of SiC contents (10-30 vol%) as well as exposure temperatures for 5 h (1000-1700 degrees C). Multilayer oxide scale structures were found after exposures. The composition and thickness of these multilayered oxide scale structure was dependent on exposure temperature and SiC contents in composites. After exposure to 1000 degrees C for 5 h, the residual strength of ZrB2-SiC composites improved by nearly 60% compared to the as-hot pressed composites with 20 and 30 vol% SiC. On the other hand, the residual strength of these composites remained unchanged after 1500 degrees C for 5 h. A drastic degradation in residual strength was observed in composites with 20 and 30 vol% SiC after exposure to 1700 degrees C for 5 h in ZrB2-SiC. An attempt was made to correlate the microstructural changes and oxide scales with residual strength with respect to variation in SiC content and temperature of expsoure. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heat conduction mechanisms in hot pressed ZrB2 and ZrB2-SiC composites

Thermal diffusivity and conductivity of hot pressed ZrB2 with different amounts of B4C (0-5 wt%) and ZrB2-SiC composites (10-30 vol% SiC) were investigated experimentally over a wide range of temperature (25-1500 degrees C). Both thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity were found to decrease with increase in temperature for all the hot pressed ZrB2 and ZrB2-SiC composites. At around 200 degrees C, thermal conductivity of ZrB2-SiC composites was found to be composition independent. Thermal conductivity of ZrB2-SiC composites was also correlated with theoretical predictions of the Maxwell Eucken relation. The dominated mechanisms of heat transport for all hot pressed ZrB2 and ZrB2-SiC composites at room temperature were confirmed by Wiedemann Franz analysis by using measured electrical conductivity of these materials at room temperature. It was found that electronic thermal conductivity dominated for all monolithic ZrB2 whereas the phonon contribution to thermal conductivity increased with SiC contents for ZrB2-SiC composites.

Effect of hybridizing micron-sized Ti with nano-sized SiC on the microstructural evolution and mechanical response of Mg-5.6Ti composite

In this work, the effect of hybridizing micro-Ti with nano-SiC particulates on the microstructural and the mechanical behaviour of Mg-5.6Ti composite were investigated. Mg materials containing micron-sized Ti particulates hybridized with different amounts of nano-size SiC particulates were synthesized using the disintegrated melt deposition method followed by hot extrusion. The microstructural and mechanical behaviour of the developed Mg hybrid composites were studied in comparison with Mg-5.6Ti. Microstructural characterization revealed grain refinement attributed to the presence of uniformly distributed micro-Ti particles embedded with nano-SiC particulates. Electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) analyses of Mg-(5.6Ti + 1.0SiC)(BM) hybrid composite showed relatively more localized recrystallized grains and lesser tensile twin fraction, when compared to Mg-5.6Ti. The evaluation of mechanical properties indicated that the best combination of strength and ductility was observed in the Mg-(5.6Ti + 1.0SiC)(BM) hybrid composites. The superior strength properties of the Mg-(5.6Ti + x-SiC)(BM) hybrid composites when compared to Mg-5.6Ti is attributed to the presence of nano-reinforcements, the uniform distribution of the hybridized particles and the better interfacial bonding between the matrix and the reinforcement particles, achieved by nano-SiC addition.

Densification mechanisms during hot pressing of ZrB2-20 vol.% SiC composite

The dominant densification mechanisms for hot pressing of ZrB2-20 vol.% SiC composite at different hot-pressing temperatures and pressures was identified. The dominant densification mechanisms were found to change over a very short temperature range. For hot pressing at 1700 degrees C, the dominant densification mechanism was found to be mechanically driven particle fragmentation and rearrangement only, whereas at 1850 degrees C a plastic flow mechanism started to become dominant after initial particle fragmentation and rearrangement. At 2000 degrees C, the dominant mechanism changed from plastic flow to grain boundary diffusion. (c) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PECVD grown SiC cantilevers with Dry and Wet Release

Cantilevers made out of PECVD grown SiC films are reported here. The cantilevers were realized in two different methods isotropic etch (Dry release) and combination of wet etch and critical point dry release. The dry release process for Silicon isotropic etch results in excellent etch selectivity against SiC, to provide released structures. The optimized wet release process is able to overcome stiction issues to provide excellent SiC cantilevers.

Dynamic compression behavior of reactive spark plasma sintered ultrafine grained (Hf, Zr)B-2-SiC composites

This paper reports the dynamic compression behavior of ultrafine grained (Hf, Zr)B-2-SiC composites, sintered using reactive spark plasma sintering at 1600 degrees C for 10 min. Dynamic strength of similar to 2.3 GPa has been measured using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) tests in a reproducible manner at strain rates of 800-1300 s(-1). A comparison with competing boride based armor ceramics, in reference to the spectrum of properties evaluated, establishes the potential of (Hf, Zr)B-2-SiC composites for armor applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

Elasticity, stability, and ideal strength of beta-SiC in plane-wave-based ab initio calculations

On the basis of the pseudopotential plane-wave method and the local-density-functional theory, this paper studies energetics, stress-strain relation, stability, and ideal strength of beta-SiC under various loading modes, where uniform uniaxial extension and tension and biaxial proportional extension are considered along directions [001] and [111]. The lattice constant, elastic constants, and moduli of equilibrium state are calculated and the results agree well with the experimental data. As the four SI-C bonds along directions [111], [(1) over bar 11], [11(1) over bar] and [111] are not the same under the loading along [111], internal relaxation and the corresponding internal displacements must be considered. We find that, at the beginning of loading, the effect of internal displacement through the shuffle and glide plane diminishes the difference among the four Si-C bonds lengths, but will increase the difference at the subsequent loading, which will result in a crack nucleated on the {111} shuffle plane and a subsequently cleavage fracture. Thus the corresponding theoretical strength is 50.8 GPa, which agrees well with the recent experiment value, 53.4 GPa. However, with the loading along [001], internal relaxation is not important for tetragonal symmetry. Elastic constants during the uniaxial tension along [001] are calculated. Based on the stability analysis with stiffness coefficients, we find that the spinodal and Born instabilities are triggered almost at the same strain, which agrees with the previous molecular-dynamics simulation. During biaxial proportional extension, stress and strength vary proportionally with the biaxial loading ratio at the same longitudinal strain.

Microstructure and mechanical behaviour of a SiC particles reinforced Al-5Cu composite under dynamic loading

The mechanical behaviour of a composite of Al–5Cu matrix reinforced with 15% SiC particles was studied at different strain rates from 1×10−3 to 2.5×103 s−1 using both a conventional universal testing machine (for low strain-rate tests) and a split Hopkinson bar (for tests at dynamic strain rates). Whilst the yield stress of the composite increases as the strain rate increases, the maximum flow stresses, 440 MPa for compression and 450 MPa for tension, are independent of strain rate. The microstructures and defect structures of the deformed composite were studied with both scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy and were correlated to the observed mechanical behaviour. Fracture surface studies of samples after dynamic tensile testing indicates that failure of the composite is controlled by ductile failure of the aluminium matrix by the nucleation, growth and coalescence of voids.