Residual Stresses in Silicon Carbide–Zircon Composites from Thermal Expansion Measurements and Fiber Pushout Tests

Abstract

Coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) in the axial direction of two types of SiC fibers, monolithic zircon, monolithic SiC, and several SiCf‐zircon composites were measured in the temperature range of 50 to 1380C. The measured CTE values of composites were compared with values predicted by the rule‐of‐mixtures approach, and a small difference in measured and calculated values was ascribed to the nature of interfacial bonding and assumptions implicit in the rule‐of‐mixtures approach. Fiber pushout tests were performed on these composites and the residual stresses were extracted from the analysis of the load–displacement plots in terms of the shear‐lag and progressive debonding models. The radial and axial residual stresses arising from the mismatch in CTE were calculated and compared with values obtained from the fiber pushout tests. The fiber pushout tests in general produced lower values of the residual stresses, but the residual stresses obtained using shear‐lag analysis were in good agreement with the calculated values based on the CTE mismatch in composites with lower values of the interfacial shear stress. The influence of anisotropic fiber expansion in the radial and axial directions on the radial and axial residual stresses in composites were also examined.