Potential strength of Nicalon™, Hi Nicalon™, and Hi Nicalon Type S™ monofilaments of variable diameters

This paper discusses the material strength of Nicalon™, Hi Nicalon™, and Hi Nicalon Type S™ monofilaments. The Nicalon™ family of monofilaments is shown to possess variable diameter along the gauge, and thus the strength on the supplier's data sheet might have been biased negatively from the intrinsic material strength. The material strength, or the potential strength of imaginary uniform diameter monofilaments, has been derived using modified Weibull scaling, which couples the tensile loads and measured diameters. The results revealed that the strength would improve by approximately 10% for Nicalon™ and Hi Nicalon™ monofilaments if the diameters were uniform along the gauges. In particular, imaginary Hi Nicalon Type S™ monofilaments with a uniform diameter were revealed to possess significantly improved strength; approximately 60% compared to the value on the supplier's data sheet. The authors thereby conclude that diameter control in monofilament production, not only the quality of the material, is a key factor for realizing the potential strength of Nicalon™ family SiC monofilaments.