Abstract:
                                      In order to obtain high performance ceramic cores for investment casting of superalloy single crystal blade. In this paper, the short carbon fibers (C
sf) were uniformly dispersed in silica-based ceramic slurry though synergistic effect of ultrasonic vibration and mechanical stirring, and the green cores were prepared by injection molding method and sintered in air and N
2 atmosphere, respectively. The microstructure evolution and phase transformation during heating process were thoroughly observed and analyzed, and further revealed the densification behavior of C
sf reinforced silica-based ceramic cores under two sintering atmospheres. The results indicate that the C
sf can increase the mass transfer distance between ceramic particles, and provide carbon source to grow in-situ SiC crystals and affect the crystallization of cristobalite in matrix. Therefore, the diffusion and migration of solid phases and viscous flow of liquid phase in ceramic cores are inhibited by the stereo interlocked network of C
sf and the high melt point crystalline phases at high temperature. Moreover, the open porosity of silica-based ceramic cores sintered in both air and N
2 atmosphere is increased with the increase of C
sf content, while the shrinkage is gradually decreased. When the fiber content is 1.5vol%, as for samples sintered in air atmosphere, the highest open porosities in air and N
2 sintering atmospheres are about 42.95% and 39.50%, while the least shrinkages are about 0.64% and 0.48%, respectively. It can prove that the C
sf and high melting point crystals have significantly influence on the sintering densification behavior of silica-based ceramic cores.