Orientation Dependence of Plastic Deformation Behavior and Fracture Energy Absorption Mechanism around Vickers Indentation of Textured Ti₃SiC₂ Sintered Body

Abstract

In order to clarify plastic deformation behavior and mechanism of fracture energy absorption of Ti₃SiC₂, Vickers indentation tests were conducted for Ti₃SiC₂ sintered bodies with various textured orientations. Textured Ti₃SiC₂ sintered bodies were fabricated by slip casting in a strong magnetic field and spark plasma sintering (SPS), and their orientation distribution were analyzed by SEM/EBSD. It was found that for the textured Ti₃SiC₂, the plastic deformation behavior around Vickers indents such as an indent shape and a grain pile-up were strongly affected by basal slip and kink deformation. Furthermore, the fracture energy absorption mechanism around the indents also depended on the texture orientations. From our results, it is concluded that the most effective factor for suppressing the crack propagation was the grain pile-up, and the second one was crack deflections.