Liquid metal infiltration of silicon based alloys into porous carbonaceous materials. Part II: Experimental verification of modelling approaches by infiltration of Si-Zr alloy into idealized microchannels

In this work, the mechanisms leading to the pore closure in reactive melt infiltration (RMI) of carbon by pure silicon and a near eutectic Si-8 at-pct Zr alloy at 1500 and 1700 degrees C under vacuum were studied. Various geometrical configurations of microchannels were fabricated via laser ablation of glassy carbon plates. The micron size capillary channels allowed simplifying the complicated porosity distribution in the infiltration of powder or fibres based porous preform while keeping the physical dimensions in the range of where the physical phenomenon of pore closure takes place. The extent of infiltration was analysed by means of X-ray radiography. For RMI of pure Si, the widely accepted decrease in capillary radius by the formation of a solid state SiC layer by the reaction of liquid Si and C was observed, but did not lead to closure and it is hence not the infiltration limiting step in channels as small as 10 mu m. However, in the case of the Si-Zr alloy infiltration, another mechanism of pore closure was observed, namely the precipitation of zirconium silicides at the infiltration front, due to Zr enrichment in the alloy by the continuous consumption of Si for the formation of SiC.