Establishments of Fabrication and Evaluation Methods for Innovative SiC Fiber Reinforced SiC Matrix Composites

Based on the improvement in reinforcing SiC fibers and the utilization of very fine nano-SiC powders, the well known liquid phase sintering (LPS) process was drastically improved to become a new process called the Nano Infiltration and Transient Eutectic Phase (NITE) Process. Laboratory scale NITE-SiC/SiC composites demonstrated excellent mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, hermeticity and microstructure stability which made them attractive for not only energy application but many other industrial applications. For the real deployments of these materials, mass production system and evaluation methods, together with the design code and safety assurance systems are essential. The current efforts to establish these bases were introduced.