Re-defining failure envelopes for silicon carbide composites based on damage process analysis by acoustic emission

Nozawa, Takashi; Ozawa, Kazumi; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu

A SiC/SiC composite is a promising candidate for a fusion DEMO blanket. Due to the inherent quasi-ductile failure of composites, determining failure scenario for this class of composites is undoubtedly important to develop design codes in practical use of them. This study aims to evaluate the failure behavior of the quasi-ductile SiC/SiC composites to provide a strength map. For this purpose, detailed tensile, compressive and in-plane shear failure behaviors were evaluated by the acoustic emission (AE) technique. The AE results distinguished damage accumulation processes by wavelet analysis. Of particular emphasis is that matrix cracking occurred prior to the PLS by both tensile and compressive loadings because the rough-surface of SiC fibers resulted in the strong frictional stress at the fiber/matrix (F/M) interface. In this paper, an updated failure envelope will be provided by referring the actual matrix cracking stresses as more realistic and reasonable failure criteria.