Abstract
One of the key requirements in developing composites and other advanced materials is generation of a good understanding of the relationships between composition and structure on the one hand, and properties and behavior on the other. Another key requirement is application of this understanding to develop a material with the desired properties. A third key requirement is to understand the new material's failure mechanisms. All of these are wrapped in the term `characterization', which is the subject of this paper. Application of numerous materials' characterization techniques to the study of ceramic composites is described.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 631-646 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Composites Part B: Engineering |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1999 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The high temperature materials laboratory (HTML) is part of the metals and ceramics division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where it serves the primary purpose of providing equipment and staff to perform materials characterization. It is a US Department of Energy (DOE)-designated National User Facility designed to assist American industries, universities and governmental agencies develop advanced materials, by providing a skilled staff and numerous sophisticated, often one-of-a-kind, pieces of materials characterization equipment. HTML is sponsored by DOE's office of transportation technologies (OTT), energy efficiency and renewable energy. Physically, it is a 64,500 sq. ft. building on the ORNL site, in which reside six “user centers”, which are clusters of specialized equipments revolving around a specific type of properties measurements. Available are electron microscopy for microstructural and microchemical analysis, equipment for measurement of the thermophysical and mechanical properties of materials to elevated temperatures, X-ray and neutron diffraction for structure and residual stress analysis, high-speed grinding machines, and measurement of component shape, tolerances, surface finish and friction and wear properties. Users willing to publish the results of their work can perform no-cost materials characterization here, under the sponsorship of OTT. Over half of the work performed in the HTML is sponsored by other R&D programs, from DOE and other agencies. This research is also primarily characterization, and it often involves composites. Composites work has been sponsored by the continuous fiber ceramic composite (CFCC) program, the ceramic technology for advanced heat engine program, now called the propulsion system materials program, and others.