• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.91-95
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• 2000

Powder mixtures of $\beta$-SiC-TiC in a weight ratio of 2:1 containing 5-20 wt% additives ($Al_2O_3$-$Y_2O_3$) were liquid-phase sintered at $1830^{\circ}C$ for 1h by hot-pressing and subsequently annealed at $1950^{\circ}C$ for 6h to enhance grain growth. The annealed specimens revealed a microstructure of \"in situ-toughened composite\" as a result of the $\beta$longrightarrow$\alpha$ phase transformation of SiC during annealing. The increase of the content of additives accelerated the growth of elongated $\alpha$-SiC grains with higher aspect ratio and improved fracture toughness. The fracture toughness of SiC-TiC composite containing 20 wt% additive was 6.2 MPa.$m^{1/2}$.2}$.