Tensile Creep of Alumina and SiC Whisker Reinforced Alumina

The present work is a report of an experimental study of the tensile creep of a polycrystalline alumina and a SiC whisker reinforced alumina composite. The focus of the work was on the composite since, as far as the authors are aware, no studies of the tensile creep of this type of material had been reported earlier. Differences in the grain size, processing and origin of the two materials inevitably clouds the interpretation of comparisons made between them; however, the study of the alumina, a more familiar material, also functioned as a means to gauge the experimental approach.