Thermal diffusivity measurement of SiC fibre reinforced BMAS glass ceramic composites exposed mechanical damage

Gas turbine blades in aerospace engines are one of the possible application areas for glass ceramic composites which may be subjected to various mechanical loads and can be damaged during operation. Therefore, various types of ceramic matrix composite are being evaluated for high temperature applications. Barium osumilite is a glass ceramic matrix formulation and believed to be suitable using for those applications. In this study, SiC fibre reinforced barium magnesium aluminium silicate (BMAS) glass ceramic matrix composites exposed to mechanical damage by the tensile fatigue test at the temperature of 700, 900, 1000 °C and then the effect of mechanical damage on the thermal diffusivity of the composites were investigated. The thermal diffusivity measurements were performed from 100 to 1000 °C. The obtained results indicated that the thermal diffusivity values of the composites that exposed to mechanical damage by thermal fatigue at various temperatures resulted in 32% lowering in the thermal diffusivity values of the composites fatigued at 700 °C compared with the values of as received.