Young’s Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio of Liquid Phase-Sintered Silicon Carbide

The compressive stress-strain relation (room temperature) of SiC compact (75 vol% 800 nm SiC- 25 vol% 30 nm SiC) hot-pressed with 1.6 vol% Al2O3- 0.83 vol% Gd2O3 at 1950 °C was examined at a crosshead speed of 0.05 mm/min. The dense SiC (97.8 ± 1.5 % theoretical density) possessed 796 MPa of average flexural strength, 5.27 MPa・m1/2 of fracture toughness, 8.1 of Weibull modulus, and 475 GPa of average flexural Young’s modulus. The strains of SiC compacts along directions of height and width changed nonlinearly with applied compressive stress. The apparent Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio decreased with increasing strain along the direction of height and reached constant values of 275 ± 59 GPa and 0.214 ± 0.05, respectively. The steady-state compressive Young’s modulus was independent of the flexural strength.