Fracture Behavior and Its Shear Lag – Monte Carlo Simulation of SiC/SiC Composite Exposed in Air at High Temperatures

It has been reported that SiC/SiC composite has high strength and toughness, but is degraded when exposed in air at high temperatures due to the propagation of the crack made by the premature fracture of the SiO2 layer. The present work aimed to describe such a behavior with a computer simulation. For this aim, the shear lag - Monte Carlo simulation method was applied. The variation of strength of the composite as a function of thickness of the SiO2 layer and change of fracture morphology with progressing oxidation could be reproduced satisfactorily by this method.