TY - JOUR A1 - Silvestroni, L. A1 - Kupsch, Andreas A1 - Müller, B. R. A1 - Ulbricht, Alexander A1 - Wieder, Frank A1 - Fritsch, Tobias A1 - Sciti, D. A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Determination of short carbon fiber orientation in zirconium diboride ceramic matrix composites N2 - In fiber-reinforced components, the fiber alignment and orientation have paramount influence on the thermomechanical properties of the resulting composite, for both short and continuous fiber. Here we present the case of an ultra-refractory matrix intended for extreme environment applications, ZrB2, reinforced with 20 vol% and 50 vol% short carbon fibers. In both cases, fibers tend to align perpendicular to the uniaxial pressure applied during shaping and sintering of a pellet, although the fiber tilt across the pellet thickness is difficult to determine. Moreover, for high volume fractions of reinforcement, the spatial distribution of the fibers is heterogeneous and tends to have domains of preferential orientations. We compare the information on the fiber distribution as collected by scanning electron microscopy images, X-ray computed tomography and synchrotron X-ray refraction radiography (SXRR). The three techniques prove to be complementary. Importantly, we demonstrate that SXRR yields the most statistically significant information due to the largest field of view, yet with a sensitivity down to the nanometer, and that can be successfully applied also to heavy matrix materials, such as zirconium boride. KW - Ceramic matrix composites KW - Synchrotron X-ray refraction radiography KW - X-ray computed tomography KW - Scanning electron microscopy KW - High-temperature ceramics PY - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-597712 SN - 0955-2219 VL - 44 IS - 8 SP - 4853 EP - 4862 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-59771 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -