An investigation of the role of processing in the high temperature creep of whisker-reinforced alumina composites

Abstract

The creep properties of polycrystalline alumina at elevated temperatures may be improved by incorporating SiC whiskers into the matrix to form a composite material. However, the present experiments show that the creep properties of SiC whisker-reinforced alumina depend upon the morphology of the whiskers contained within the alumina matrix and therefore upon the processing procedure used to fabricate the composite. A comparison is made between creep data obtained from a conventionally processed alumina composite reinforced with SiC whiskers and the results obtained under similar experimental conditions on a composite fabricated using a dispersion processing procedure.