Strengthening of porous matrix materials with evaporation/condensation sintering for composite materials applications

The need for improved fuel economy and reduced environmental emissions from power turbines has prompted the development of high temperature fiber composite materials. One use of these materials is for liners of the hot combustion regions of jet engines and land based power turbines. Stability of the composite materials against oxidative damage during long term use at high temperatures has motivated recent research into fiber composite materials composed entirely of oxide ceramics. All-oxide fiber reinforced composites containing porous, strongly bonded matrices have become of interest. The porosity provides for crack deflection along the fibers to prevent catastrophic failure of the fiber reinforcements. A new application of a processing method that produces evaporation/condensation sintering was employed to prevent shrinkage of the matrix. This processing method and the properties of the matrix, fibers, and composite were evaluated in this work.; Producing a matrix without shrinkage is important to prevent undesirable crack-like voids from forming in the matrix. These voids are caused by constraint against shrinkage by the fiber reinforcements. Dry hydrogen chloride gas produced a reactive gas atmosphere that was used to sinter the zirconia particles with minimal shrinkage because the gas promotes evaporation/condensation sintering with zirconia. Sintering of samples that did not contain fiber reinforcements was studied to evaluate the properties of the matrix material. The sintering of monoclinic, tetragonal, and cubic zirconias in the reactive gas atmosphere was compared. Additions of mullite (which did not sinter significantly at processing temperatures) further reduced the shrinkage. The effects of the processing conditions on the sintering shrinkage, microstructure development, and mechanical properties were studied. Cubic and monoclinic zirconia coarsened significantly in the HCl gas sintering atmosphere. The coarsening of the particles during the sintering process produced a porous material that was resistant to densification when heat treated in air. Tetragonal zirconia did not coarsen due to an agglomerated microstructure. The mechanical properties generally followed a volume weighted rule of mixtures relationship with the quantity of zirconia. The effect of the sintering atmosphere on fiber properties and the mechanical properties of a fiber reinforced composite produced by this approach were also presented.