Failure modes at room and elevated temperatures. Technical report

Successful development of reliable ceramic composites will depend on an understanding of matrix cracking and damage mechanisms in these materials. Therefore, the objective of the Failure Models subtask is to investigate failure and damage mechanisms in fiber reinforced ceramic composites. Issues such as how fiber coatings, the fiber/matrix interface, residual stresses, and fiber volume fraction affect frictional stresses, fiber debonding, fiber pull-out and failure modes will be examined. The effect of these microstructural parameters on matrix crack initiation, propagation and damage will also be determined. The resulting observations and measurements data will be used to develop theoretical models for damage mechanisms in fiber reinforced composites. This report presents results concerning the effect of temperature on the failure modes of continuous fiber ceramic composites performed during the last quarter of FY 1993 and FY 1994. The Raman stress measurements and calculations were performed during the last quarter of FY 1994 and the first quarter of FY 1995