Abstract
RB (Rice-Bran) ceramics are new porous carbon materials made from rice bran, which is one of the main industrial wastes of Japan. The rice bran is at first mixed with phenol resin, and then, after forming, carbonized in nitrogen or vacuum atmosphere at higher than 900°C. The purpose of this study is to measure some mechanical properties of the RB ceramics. The distribution of pores is almost constant in the carbonized materials and therefore the scatter of compressive, bending strength and fracture toughness is narrow. The compressive strength is about 60MPa, the bending strength is about 18MPa, and the fracture strength is about 0.6MPam0.5.
