Impurities in silicon carbide ceramics and their role during high temperature creep

Overview & Synopsis

The high-temperature compressive creep behaviour of hot-pressed silicon carbide ceramics with different additive packages (boron and carbon or no additive) is investigated as a function of several parameters: the microstructure, the nature of the additives and that of the impurities. Additional carbon is present in all the materials investigated, as graphite precipitates of various size and amount. In materials densified with addition of boron, large precipitates of B25C and small amorphous silica pockets are identified. In the case of materials containing impurities, small precipitates of FeSi, Fe or Ti5Si3 are detected. Creep experiments are conducted on materials with no additives and on others containing boron and carbon additives, at temperatures ranging from 1 773 K to 1 973 K and under stresses from 100 to 1 100 MPa. A comparison of the creep behaviour of the various materials points out to the destructive effect of carbon precipitates on the creep rate: the stationary creep rate of the material containing carbon (and boron) additives is by a factor 2.5-5 faster, eventhough its grain size is much larger! The creep of both investigated materials is described by a power law with a stress exponent of 1.5 in a low stress range and 3.5-4 in a high stress range. The corresponding activation energies are 364 kJ/mole and 453 kJ/mole in the low stress range and about 629 kJ/mole in the high stress range. At low stresses the materials deform by grain boundary sliding compensated mainly by diffusion along the grain boundaries and to a lesser extent by limited cavitation, as a result of the barrier role played by grain boundaries for dislocations. At high stresses the grain boundaries are no longer an obstacle to dislocation motion, which becomes the dominant deformation mechanism.