Mechanical behavior of fibrous ceramics with a bird's nest structure

Inspired by the structure of the bird's nest, a new fibrous ceramics with mullite fibers as the matrix and SiO2-B2O3 phase as the high-temperature binder was designed and synthesized. The most important structure feature of this fibrous material was that the binder only bonded the fibers at the crossing points. The effects of sintering temperature on the ceramic properties were studied. The fibrous ceramics exhibited significant higher elasticity and pseudoductility compared to the ceramic matrix composites reinforced with continuous fibers. The fracture mechanism of this ceramics under compression was discussed. A high porosity (74.2-78.3%), a low thermal conductivity (0.231-0.248 W/m K), a relatively high compressive strength (1.3-3.2 MPa) and a high rebound-resilience (90-98%) measured from samples indicate that this fibrous ceramics is a potential material for the high-temperature sealing. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.