Tough and wear-resistant carbon fiber reinforced TiC-based composite prepared by alloyed melt infiltration at low temperatures

Abstract

To improve the toughness and friction properties of carbon fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composite, a Cu alloy modified carbon fiber reinforced TiC based ceramic matrix composite was designed and prepared by TiCu alloy melt infiltration at low temperatures up to 1100 °C. The as-produced composite was mainly composed of carbon, TiC, Ti 3 Cu 4 , TiCu 4 and Cu phases. Due to the ductile Cu alloy introduced into the matrix, the composite showed good mechanical performance especially the fracture toughness. The flexural strength reached about 248.36 MPa while the fracture toughness was up to 15.78 MPa·m 1/2 . The high toughness of the composite was mainly attributed to the fiber bridging, fiber pull-out, interface debonding, crack propagation and deflection. The tribological performance of the as-produced composite was measured using SiC and 440C stainless steel balls as counterparts, respectively. The as-prepared composite exhibited good wear resistance and the wear mechanism was discussed based on the microstructural observations.