Silicon carbide ceramic fiber is an ideal reinforcement material for high-temperature resistant composites, due to its resistance to oxidation and exceptional strength at higher temperatures. As such, its use in aerospace and military applications makes this material highly desirable.
NASA Glenn Research Center has introduced an easy and quick microwave processing method to rapidly create stronger customized SiC fiber tows quickly while improving quality in commercially available fibers. This breakthrough could spur growth in demand for this material used by future engine models for commercial and military aircraft.
High Temperature Resistance
Silicon carbide is an inorganic ceramic material with superior heat resistance, making it suitable for applications requiring heat tolerance and strength such as mechanical seals, pump parts and consumer automobile brake pads. Furthermore, silicon carbide’s corrosion-resistance makes it suitable for nuclear power or coal-fired steam generators as well. Furthermore, its excellent wear-resistance makes it suitable for industrial processes.
Silicon carbide fiber’s excellent temperature resistance makes it a valuable reinforcement material for ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). CMCs made with silicon carbide boast outstanding thermal stability and strength – ideal characteristics for aerospace, military weapons, equipment, or other high-tech applications.
Silicon carbide stands out as an exceptional material for composites due to its exceptional high-temperature resistance, as well as other outstanding qualities that make it useful. Its high elastic modulus and tensile strength enable it to withstand extreme conditions while its creep resistance, oxidation resistance and compatibility make it highly useful.
Silicon carbide ceramic fibers will become even more widely utilized across aerospace, energy and power sectors in the future. BJS Ceramics GmbH recently unveiled a pilot plant as the initial step in commercializing this advanced technology; it’s only facility of its kind in Europe and will help bring this breakthrough ceramic technology from lab scale into industry use.
High Strength
Silicon carbide ceramic fiber offers both high strength and stiffness, in comparison to carbon fiber it boasts superior creep resistance and corrosion resistance. As such, it can be used as reinforcement material in ceramic matrix composites or applied directly onto metals and alloys to increase their strength and wear resistance; additionally it can also be applied directly into sports equipment, automobiles, or civil industrial applications.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center has conducted groundbreaking research on shaped silicon carbide (SiC) fibers used for advanced ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). Developing these novel materials is crucial both to national defense as well as civilian industries.
SiC/SiC CMCs offer exceptional performance by protecting essential strategic systems from ablative and oxidizing environments for extended periods at extremely high temperatures, at significantly less cost and environmental cost than alternative solutions like metallic superalloys or monolithic ceramics.
Silicon carbide ceramic fiber was first developed in 1975 through converting organosilicon polymer into ceramics via pyrolysis. Nippon Carbon industrialized this continuous SiC fiber known as NicalonTM in 1983 for use in various aerospace applications, where its tensile strength and elastic modulus reach 2.5 GPa and 400 GPa at room temperature respectively. For enhanced thermal stability of NicalonTM ceramic fiber it may further benefit to reduce oxygen content to near-stoichiometric levels as described below.
Corrosion Resistance
Silicon carbide ceramics offer protection from corrosion, wear and abrasion at high temperatures while boasting low thermal expansion coefficient and exceptional thermal conductivity properties. Thanks to these qualities, silicon carbide ceramics are used in many industrial applications including oil & gas (burner nozzles), chemical, steel machinery manufacturing and electric power industries – as well as being utilized as matrix composite components due to their creep resistance, oxidation resistance and chemical corrosion resistance properties.
Silicon carbide ceramic boasts high modulus of elasticity and tensile strength, making it an excellent ballistic protection material. As it stops bullets while dissipating most of their energy, silicon carbide ballistic protection is often chosen over armoured steel due to its lighter weight which reduces vehicle weight and fuel consumption.
Ceramic materials boast excellent thermal and mechanical properties, but are fragile with low fracture toughness and are highly vulnerable to microstructural flaws due to corrosion. Corrosion increases surface flaws which ultimately decrease material lifetime; however woven structures of silicon carbide fibers in b-SiC matrix may help mitigate this drawback as bundles of fibers work to deflect crack propagation while increasing overall fracture toughness compared to pure b-SiC’s relatively low fracture strength toughness and high susceptibility for flaws.
Low Density
Silicon carbide ceramic fiber is an innovative material composed of carbon and silicon, boasting numerous benefits that include high temperature oxidation resistance, hardness, strength, thermal stability and corrosion resistance. Furthermore, this lightweight and wear-resistant material boasts low density making it suitable for aerospace structures or propulsion system components.
Silicon Carbide Fibers
There are various manufacturing processes for producing silicon carbide fibers. One of the more mature techniques is known as Yajima which starts by injecting liquid preceramic polymer through a spinneret to create solid green (unfired) fibers which are then subjected to intensive processing and heat treatment in various furnaces until they reach desired SiC chemistry.
Fibers can then be drawn into twisted tows or filaments for use as reinforcement in ceramic matrix composites, creating strong yet tough materials with much lower temperature degradation than pure metallic components.
Ceramic matrix composites can be created from various metals, but aluminum-silicon carbide (Al-SiC) provides the optimal combination between stiffness and weight. Furthermore, its excellent damage tolerance capabilities make this material the go-to choice for aerospace structures and propulsion systems.