Investigation of Effective Parameters on Densification of ZrB2-SiC Based Composites Using Taguchi Method

The main goal of this study is optimization of densification of ZrB2-SiC composites reinforced with chopped Cf prepared by SPS. Taguchi method is employed as statistical design of experiment (DOE) to optimize densification parameters including SiC, Cf, MoSi2, HfB2 and ZrC content, milling time of Cf and SPS parameters such as temperature, time and pressure. Each of these factors was examined on four levels in order to obtain the optimum conditions. A total of 32 samples were prepared in accordance to the L32 array proposed by the Taguchi method. By using statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA), it has been concluded that the most significant effect on the densification is related to temperature, MoSi2 and time by 50.2%, 20.7% and 9.8% portion, respectively. Also, the results showed that pressure with 0.8%, ZrC with 1.9% and HfB2 with 1.9% have the least portion on open porosity. The other parameters including SiC, M.t and Cf have 2.9%, 3.6% and 3.8% on open porosity respectively.