Experimental Characterization of CMCs for Data-Driven Microstructure Assessment

This paper focuses on the sample preparation and material characterization of a carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbonitride (C/SiNC) ceramic matrix composite (CMC) system. C/SiNC CMC systems have desirable mechanical and thermal properties which makes them suitable for a wide variety of applications ranging from aerospace to power generation. CMCs are highly susceptible to manufacturing-induced defects, and the effect of these defects on the microscale damage behavior of the microstructure of these CMCs has not been researched. In order to perform the material characterization study, samples of the C/SiNC CMC system had to be prepared through a meticulous polishing process. After the samples were prepared, micrographs of the intratow region of the samples were captured using a confocal microscope. Feature extraction were subsequently performed on the micrographs that were captured. Different image processing techniques were applied to the captured micrographs to quantify the features that were identified.