Tensile properties and creep behavior of SiC-based fibers under various oxygen partial pressures

Three kinds of atmospheres (air, highly-pure Ar and ultra highly-pure Ar gas) with different oxygen partial pressures were applied to investigate the tensile properties and creep behavior of SiC fibers such as Hi-Nicalon (TM) and Tyranno (TM)-SA. These fibers were annealed and crept at elevated temperatures ranging from 1273-1773 K in such environments. After annealing at 1773 K, the room temperature tensile strengths of SiC-based fibers decreased with decreasing the oxygen partial pressure and the near stoichiometric fiber Tyranno (TM)-SA shows excellent strength retention. At temperatures above the 1573 K, the creep resistance of SiC fibers evaluated by bending stress relaxation (BSR) method under high oxygen partial pressure was lower than that of in low oxygen partial pressure. The microstructural features on these fibers were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).