Property of three-dimensional silica composites

Silica fibers-reinforced, fused silica composites were fabricated with repeated vacuum-assisted liquid-phase infiltration. The mechanical properties, thermal properties, and ablative properties of the samples were evaluated. The effect of the silica fiber content and treatment temperature on the flexural strength of the three-dimensional SiO2(3-D SiO2) composites also was investigated. The SiO2 composites show good mechanical properties and excellent ablative performance. The flexural strength increases with an increase in silica fiber content, and decreases with an increase in treatment temperature. When the volume fraction of the silica fiber is 50vol% and the treatment temperature is 700°C, the flexural strength of the composites reaches a maximum value of 78 MPa. By adding cyclohexanone surfactant, the infiltration property can be largely improved, resulting in the density of SiO2 composites increasing up to 1.65 g/cm3. The fracture surfaces of the flexural specimens observed using SEM, show that the pseudoplasticity and the toughening mechanisms of the composites are caused by absorption of a lot of energy by interface debonding and fiber pulling out.