Effect Of Temperature On The Ultimate Strength And Modulus Of Whisker‐Reinforced Ceramics

<p> Whiskers are a very attractive means of reinforcing a ceramic material. It has been shown that the whiskers dramatically improve the ultimate strength and modulus of the materials at room temperature. However, recent studies indicate that at high temperatures the improvement is less pronounced, or there is no improvement at all. In this paper a model is developed to explain why the properties are degraded at high temperature. The parameters which seem most important for high&hyphen;temperature performance are the coefficients of thermal expansion and Poisson's ratios for the constituents, the heat treatment temperature, and the coefficient of friction between the whisker and the matrix. The model compares favorably with the experimental data available, so a parametric study was done to show the effect of different parameters on the strength and modulus of the composite. Copyright &copy; 1992, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved.</p>