Effects of Amounts of Carbon Source and Infiltrated Si on the Porosity and Fracture Strength of Porous Reaction Bonded SiC

A porous reaction bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) was fabricated by a molten Si infiltration method. The porosity and flexural strength of porous RBSC fabricated in this study were dependent upon the amount of carbon source used in the SiC/carbon preform as well as the amount of Si infiltrated into the SiC/ carbon preform. The porosity and flexural strength of porous RBSC were in the range of 20 vol. similar to 49 vol.% and 38 similar to 61 MPa, respectively. With increase of carbon contents and molten Si for infiltration, volume fraction of the pores was gradually decreased, and flexural strength was increased. The porous RBSCs fabricated with the same amount of molten Si show less residual Si around neck with increase of carbon source, as well as a new SiC was formed around neck which resulted in the decreased porosity and improvement of the flexural strength. In addition, decrease of the porosity and increase of the flexural strength were also obtained by increase of the amount of molten Si with the same amount of carbon source. However, it was found that the flexural strength of porous RBSC depends on the porosity rather than the amount of the newly formed SiC in neck phase between SiC particles used as a starting material.