Silicon carbide ceramic fiber is an extremely strong material designed to increase strength and thermal stability of ceramics, making them suitable for a range of industries spanning aerospace, mechanical, chemical and more.
NASA Glenn researchers have devised an efficient processing method that makes producing stronger and tailored SiC fibers more cost-effective for manufacturers integrating them into aerospace or other advanced applications.
High-temperature resistance
Silicon carbide ceramic fiber is an ideal material for high-temperature applications such as engine hot-ends in aerospace engineering, industrial machinery and automobiles, and other uses that demand high performance materials. Silicon carbide ceramic fiber reinforcements offer lightweight durability with excellent strength, toughness and wear resistance, unlike metallic superalloys which may lose structural integrity under intense temperatures.
Silicon Carbide is an inert material, meaning that it does not rust or degrade with time, making it the ideal material for applications involving high temperatures, especially those where oxidation may be an issue. Furthermore, this non-oxide material withstands corrosion from chemicals like acids, alkalis and molten salts without being damaged by radiation exposure.
Making silicon carbide ceramic fiber can be done in various ways, with one popular way being spinning yarn from silicon carbide powder into fabric structures and weaving it. Once completed, these fabric structures can then be used in various applications like ceramic matrix composites (CMC).
Silicon carbide fiber stands out as one of the key characteristics for aerospace applications due to its resistance against high temperatures for extended periods. Furthermore, these ceramics also resist abrasion and erosion; another important requirement in automotive environments.
Silicon carbide ceramics have numerous uses in different fields, from corrosion-resistant containers and pipelines for the petrochemical industry to aircraft turbines. These materials can withstand temperatures up to 2000C while still performing well under thermal shock, offering excellent machinability, mechanical strength and thermal conductivity properties.
High strength
Silicon carbide (SiC) is an advanced ceramic material containing silicon and carbon, naturally found as moissanite but mass produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of SiC can also be fused together through sintering to produce very hard ceramics used extensively across industries requiring long wear endurance such as automobile brakes and clutches.
Silicon carbide fiber-reinforced ceramics offer many advantages beyond their high strength, including good toughness and corrosion resistance. This makes them ideally suited for manufacturing components in aerospace and automotive industries such as turbine blades, rocket nozzles and engine parts; as well as resisting crack propagation under extreme temperatures.
Performance of SiC-reinforced ceramics depends on both fiber quality and matrix in which it’s embedded, so NASA Glenn Research Center scientists have devised a microwave process for creating short SiC fibers suitable for ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). This new technology produces stoichiometric fibers which closely resemble SiC monoliths in terms of properties.
These advances in production should lead to new applications of silicon carbide ceramics. Potential targets may include aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental protection and space technology. Ceramic materials tend to be lighter and offer better mechanical properties compared with metallic alternatives.
High toughness
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a hard, non-oxide ceramic with excellent high temperature resistance, typically found as the rare mineral moissanite in nature and mass produced as an abrasive or ceramic plate for bulletproof vests. SiC can also be grown as single crystal using Lely’s process and cut into gems known as synthetic moissanite for gem use; furthermore it serves as the main material in large mirrors for astronomical telescopes due to its extreme resistance against oxidation.
Silica carbide ceramic fiber stands out from carbon fiber as having superior toughness and heat resistance properties, making it the ideal material to reinforce ceramic matrix composites at higher temperatures for high-temperature applications. Furthermore, silica carbide ceramic fiber has also been utilized by aerospace and military weapons and equipment as an economical replacement for more traditionally metallic materials like steel or boron fiber.
An alumina-based ceramic matrix reinforced with silica carbide fibers has proven its superior combination of strength, stiffness, toughness and corrosion resistance – making it an excellent material choice for high temperature applications such as gas turbine engines. Unfortunately, their fracture strength limits their high temperature resistance; reinforcement techniques or improved fabrication techniques may help increase it further; hence there has been significant interest in developing ceramic matrix composites with silica carbide fiber reinforcement to increase thermal shock and fatigue resistance.
High corrosion resistance
Silicon carbide ceramic fibers boast superior corrosion resistance compared to traditional ceramic materials, and can withstand greater loads and resist stress-cracking, making them perfect for use in harsh environments like aluminum remelting furnaces and steel reheating pits, or flue gas environments with metallic contaminants.
Silicon carbide corrosion can be explained by the formation of oxide barriers which act to impede direct reaction between its substrate and an attacking species. The rate at which oxygen absorbs may depend upon temperature, substrate morphology and composition as well as environmental conditions like concentration of oxygen in the environment.
silicon carbide ceramics also boast low thermal expansion and high hardness, which enables them to remain stable under extreme temperatures – something particularly helpful in applications like optical fiber sensors where heat generated by high-powered lasers must be withstood by the material.
Kerui has developed a process to produce high strength silicon carbide fibers with increased mechanical strength and toughness, reinforced with ceramic matrixes to decrease their brittleness and enhance durability. As a result, these materials possess excellent high temperature oxidation resistance, thermal shock resilience and wear resistance characteristics.