Thermal shock resistance of Ti3SiC2 ceramic under extremely rapid thermal cycling

Abstract A rapid throughput thermal shock resistance evaluation method was developed and tested on Ti3SiC2 ceramic traditionally known for its excellent thermal shock resistance. The sample was rapidly heated by the induction heating and dropped into the cooling water within 0.35 s. The three-point bending test of Ti3SiC2 after quenching at 1300 °C dropped from initial 332 MPa down to 35 MPa. The testing bars fractured after quenching at 1450 °C without any abnormal strength recovery that was instead reported in previous investigations. The degradation of residual strength might be ascribed to three factors: (i) the oxide layer on the sample surface contains a lot of pores and microcracks; (ii) large thermal tensile stresses impact on the substrate during quenching; (iii) weak grain boundaries are caused by water infiltration.