Development Of Radiation Hardened Ceramic Composites For Fusion Applications Technical Progress Report September 1 1993 August 31 1994

Download or read book Development of Radiation-hardened Ceramic Composites for Fusion Applications. Technical Progress Report, September 1, 1993--August 31, 1994 written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strength and toughness of continuous fiber reinforced ceramic composites (CFCC) are highly dependent on the fiber strength distribution. To first order, weaker fibers lead to low strength but higher toughness while stronger fibers lead to high strength composites of relatively low toughness. Toughness is associated with pullout of the fibers from the ceramic matrix. It has been shown previously that both strength and toughness of SiC/Nicalon{sup TM} composites are drastically changed following irradiation. This paper will present and discuss results for low oxygen Nicalon fibers irradiated at three damage levels; 0.013 dpa, 0.13 dpa, and 0.32 dpa. Single fibers were tensile tested and analyzed, using Weibull statistics, for mean strength and distribution. Tensile modulus was also determined. Using a diffractometer, the fiber grain size and percent crystallinity were determined. The initial results of these low level neutron irradiations exhibit no substantial degradation of the properties investigated. Therefore, continued research at higher doses is recommended.