The Effect of Particle Migration on the Creep-Rate of Nanocomposites

Abstract

The tensile creep behaviour of a mullite-SiC nanocomposite containing 5 vol% of SiC particles deformed under stresses from 4 to 50 MPa at 1400 °C has been studied. After grain-size effects had been accounted for, the creep-rate of the nanocomposite was found to be approximately 30× less than that of the monolithic mullite. It is suggested that this reduction is caused not by a threshold stress but by the extra work required to drive diffusion in the low diffusivity SiC particles so that they can move with the grain boundaries during creep. A model is presented which predicts the rate of creep under these conditions and gives reasonable agreement with the experiments at low stresses.