Correlation between microstructures of SiC-reinforced titanium matrix composite and liquid route processing parameters

A new procedure for filamentary metal matrix composite processing is described here. It consists in running carbon-coated SiC filaments through a liquid titanium bath in levitation. The liquid metal/carbon interaction must be significant enough to enable filament wetting and sufficiently low to avoid composite embrittlement. To insure both requirements, different configurations of the initial ceramic filament can be used: (1) SiC(C) filament free of any other coating, (2) SiC(C) filament coated with a carbide obtained by reactive chemical vapour deposition (R-CVD), or (3) SiC(C) previously coated by a first metal layer. In order to choose the best conditions for developing the process, the different processing configurations were studied through modelling and numerical simulations of the filament/matrix interaction. The microstructure of the interfacial zone between filament and matrix was investigated through SEM and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analyses. The microstructure of the interfacial zone between filament and matrix was investigated through SEM and AES analyses. The results show that in comparison to the first processing configuration, the best way to obtain filamentary composite semi-products without excessive fibre/matrix interaction is to use the second configuration. However, the latter requires preliminary R-CVD operations, while the third configuration leads to moderate carbon embrittlement effect without requiring additional equipment.