High-temperature deformation of ZrO{sub 2}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiC whisker composites fabricated by two techniques

ZrO{sub 2} {minus} Al{sub 2}0{sub 3}/SiC whisker-reinforced composites, with whisker volume fractions of 0 to 28%, fabricated both by powder and precursor processing, have been deformed at temperatures of 1300--1500 C under constant compression rates of 1.7 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} to 6.8 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} s{sup {minus}1}. Above 1400 C, a stress at which the work-hardening rate became zero could be measured and correlated with whisker content. On the other hand, at 1300 C all samples broke within the elastic.regime. At 1350 C, increased whisker content appeared to inhibit fracture, so plastic behavior was obtained for samples containing 28% SiC. In the range of temperatures and compression rates, noted above, stress exponents were determined and tentatively correlated with microstructural features and their evolution during plastic deformation