Fabrication of SiC Fiber-SiC Matrix Composites by Reaction Sintering

This paper presents a new process for producing SiC fiber-SiC matrix (SiC/SiC) composites by reaction sintering. The processing strategy for the fabrication of the SiC/SiC composites involves the following: (1) infiltration of the SiC fiber fabric using a slurry consisting of Si and C precursors, (2) stacking the slurry-infiltrated SiC fiber fabric at room temperature, (3) cross-linking the stacked composites, (4) pyrolysis of the stacked composites, and (5) hot-pressing of the pyrolyzed composites. It was possible to obtain dense SiC/SiC composites with relative densities of >96% and a typical flexural strength of similar to 400 MPa.