Spherical indentation of SiC

Instrumented Hertzian indentation testing was performed on several grades of SiCs and the results and preliminary interpretations are presented. The grades included hot-pressed and sintered compositions. One of the hot-pressed grades was additionally subjected to high temperature heat treatment to produce a coarsened grain microstructure to enable the examination of exaggerated grain size on indentation response. Diamond spherical indenters were used in the testing. Indentation load, indentation depth of penetration, and acoustic activity were continually measured during each indentation test. Indentation response and postmortem analysis of induced damage (e.g., ring/cone, radial and median cracking, quasi-plasticity) are compared as a function of grain size. For the case of SiC-N, the instrumented spherical indentation showed that yielding initiated at an average contact stress 12-13 GPa and that there was another event (i.e., a noticeable rate increase in compliance probably associated with extensive ring and radial crack formations) occurring around an estimated average contact stress of 19 GPa.