• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 1999

Gas pressure sintered silicon nitride based composites with 0~5wt% $\beta$-Si3N4 whiskers were prepared. The whiskers were unidirectionally oriented by a modified tape casting technqiue and green bodies with various microstructure were formed by changing stacking sequences of sheets cut from the tape. Orientations of the large elongated grains of the sample after gas pressure sintering were the same as the those of the whiskers of green body, and the sintering shrinkage and mechanical properties of sintered sample were consistent with the microstructural characteristics. In case of unidirectional samples, the sintering shrinkage normal to whisker alignment direction was larger than that parallel to the direction. The shrinkage difference inceaed as the whiskercontent increaed. As whisker content increaed, the crack length normal to and parallel to tape casting direction became shorter and larger, respectively. Although the grain size increased by th whisker addition, the flexural strength of unidirectional samples was not lower than that of smaple without the whisker. In case of crossplied and 45$^{\circ}$rotated samples, the anisotropy of mechanical preoperties disappeared.