Fibrous Monolithic Ceramics

Fibrous monolithic ceramics are an example of a laminate in which a controlled, three-dimensional structure has been introduced on a submillimeter scale. This unique structure allows this all-ceramic material to fail in a nonbrittle man-ner. Materials have been fabricated and tested with a va-riety of architectures. The influence on mechanical prop-erties at room temperature and at high temperature of the structure of the constituent phases and the architecture in which they are arranged are discussed. The elastic proper-ties of these materials can be effectively predicted using existing models. These models also can be extended to pre-dict the strength of fibrous monoliths with an arbitrary orientation and architecture. However, the mechanisms that govern the energy absorption capacity of fibrous monoliths are unique, and experimental results do not fol-low existing models. Energy dissipation occurs through two dominant mechanisms—delamination of the weak inter-phases and then frictional sliding after cracking occurs. The properties of the constituent phases that maximize en-ergy absorption are discussed. I