Evaluation of damage accumulation behavior and strength anisotropy of NITE SiC/SiC composites by acoustic emission, digital image correlation and electrical resistivity monitoring

Abstract Understanding the cracking process of the composites is essential to establish the design basis for practical applications. This study aims to investigate the damage accumulation process and its anisotropy for nano-infiltration transient eutectic sintered (NITE) SiC/SiC composites by various characterization techniques such as the acoustic emission (AE), digital image correlation (DIC) and electrical resistivity (ER) measurements. Cracking behavior below the proportional limit stress (PLS) was specifically addressed. Similar to the other generic SiC/SiC composites, the 1st AE event was identified below the PLS for NITE SiC/SiC composites with a dependency of fabric orientation. The DIC results support that the primary failure mode depending on fiber orientation affected more than the other minor modes did. Detailed AE waveform analysis by wavelet shows a potential to classify the failure behavior depending on architecture. Cracking below the PLS is a potential concern in component deign but the preliminary ER measurements imply that the impact of cracking below the PLS on composite function was limited.