Contour maps of mechanical properties in ternary ZrB2-SiC-ZrC ceramic system

Monolithic ZrB2, ZrB2-SiC, ZrB2-ZrC and ZrB2-SiC-ZrC were prepared by hot pressing in ternary ZrB2-SiC-ZrC system. They exhibited different microstructural features. Grain sizes of each phase were smaller in the ternary composites. Contour maps of mechanical properties were also plotted in ZrB2-SiC-ZrC ternary diagram based on experiments and software fitting. They established the relationships between chemical composition and properties in a visual way. Young's Modulus and Vickers hardness had linear relationships with composition, while the evolution of the strength and toughness was complicated. (C) 2015 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.