High Temperature Compressive Creep of Dense and Porous Cr2AlC in Air

The creep behaviours of the dense and porous Cr2AlC ceramics were investigated, being the first study on creep behaviour of not only Cr2AlC but also porous MAX phase. Creep rates of rather dense (2% of porosity) and porous Cr2AlC (53% and 75%) were measured in the temperature range 1073–1473 K during heating and subsequent cooling after high temperature exposure. The compressive creep tests were performed under stress range of 1–12 MPa. Creep rates of porous Cr2AlC were higher than the ones of the rather dense material at lower temperature but lower at higher temperature, which can be attributed to effects of the formed oxide scale and some crack healing associated with the scale formation. A comparison of the creep rates with other refractory materials reveals favourable properties of the porous Cr2AlC