Workshop on Assessment of Testing Methodology for Glass, Glass-Ceramic, and Ceramic Matrix Composites - Gaithersburg, MD - February 8, 1990

A workshop on mechanical testing methodology for glass, glass-ceramic, and ceramic matrix composites was held at NIST on February 8,1990.The purpose of the workshop was to assess room-and elevated-temperature measurement techniques for whisker-and continuous-fiber reinforced ceramic composites and their constituents.Techniques being used for metal-and polymer-matrix composites as well as those developed exclusively for use with ceramic composites were discussed.Important points included the use of tensile tests, not flexure, for strength and creep measurements; the need for different tests for material development and for system design; the need to precisely control test parameters; and the importance of specimen preparation.Additional conclusions were that the same tests used for monolithic ceramics can be used for whisker-reinforced materials with few or no changes, and that interlaboratory round robin tests were needed to determine both the reproducibility and limitations of the methodologies as well as material behavior.Additional research areas identified included long-term deformation behavior of composites, environmental effects on material behavior, and the relation of constituent properties to composite properties.