Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering (MCM'21)
Prague, Czech Republic Virtual Conference – August, 2021
Paper No. MMME 118
DOI: 10.11159/mmme21.118

Evaluation of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomorphic Silicon Carbide
Derived From Low-Density Peruvian Woods
V.C. Bringas-Rodríguez1, J.F. Gamarra-Delgado1, M.L. Benavides-Salinas, C.K. Palomino-Naupa, D.L.
Mayta-Ponce1, G.P. Rodríguez-Guillén1 and F.A. Huamán-Mamani1
Grupo de Investigación en Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad
Católica San Pablo, Arequipa, PerúUrb. Campiña Paisajista, Quinta Vivanco s/n, Arequipa 04001, Perúveronicawnh@gmail.com; frank.gamarra23@gmail.com; mirandabenavides7@gmail.com; cpalominon@unsa.edu.pe;
dlmayta@ucsp.edu.pe; gprodriguez@ucsp.edu.pe; fhuaman@ucsp.edu.pe
1

Abstract – Low-density Peruvian woods (tornillo and bolaina) were used as raw material for the manufacture of biomorphic siliconcarbide. The plant precursors were physically-mechanically characterized and then pyrolyzed at 900 ° C in an argon atmosphere to obtaincarbon templates, which were then infiltrated with metallic silicon to obtain silicon carbide with mimicked microstructures. The values
found for moisture absorption, basic density and average mechanical strength in uniaxial compression were 6.51%, 0.49 g/cm3 and 42.5
MPa, respectively, for the tornillo and 6.99%, 0.42 g/cm3 and 41.5 MPa, respectively, for the bolaina.
Samples of biomorphic SiC derived from tornillo and bolaina presented a homogeneous and porous microstructure, the phases ofSiC, Si and remaining carbon could be clearly identified. The mechanical results of the SiC samples studied showed high dispersion,
with respect to the maximum resistance values, which ranged between 194 and 440 MPa for the tornillo -derived SiC and between 30
and 77 MPa for the bolaina -derived SiC.
Keywords: silicon carbide, mechanical resistance, low-density wood, bolaina, tornillo, biomorphic

1. Introduction

Silicon Carbide is an advanced ceramic material widely used in industries such as high temperature processing,electronics, aerospace, abrasive treatment, engineering and armor (1-4); mainly due to its excellent properties of creep
resistance, chemical stability, oxidation resistance, flexural strength and toughness at ambient and high temperatures.
Various investigations have focused on the manufacture and mechanical characterization of biomorphic SiC made fromwood cellulose precursors. Currently one of the most promising methods for obtaining biomorphic carbide is the reactive
infiltration of metallic silicon in a porous carbon preform due to its methodology being environmentally friendly, scalable
and energy saving (5-6).
On the other hand, Peru is a country with a mega diverse flora that registers 4618 timber species, most of the low-density
timber species have high strength, rigidity, tenacity, resistance to damage at micro and macro scales with a unique cellular
structure, additionally It is a sustainable and renewable resource, which is why it becomes a promising resource for theproduction of biomorphic carbides, various investigations have focused on the use of low-density timber preforms because
they can contain a large amount of Si during the infiltration processes of Si (7-13).
Therefore, the present study aims to take advantage of low-density Peruvian timber species for the manufacture ofbiomorphic carbides.

2. Materials and Methods

After conducting a brief diagnosis of the reality of the timber industry in Peru, it was determined that the tornillo andthe bolaina are commercial, abundant and representative woods within the group of low-density Peruvian timber species. In
this work, the selected woods were characterized by moisture absorption techniques, basic density that is used to calculate
the dry mass of the wood that it has in volume in green (the Peruvian standard NTP 251.011 2014: Determination of densityof wood, was used), optical microscopy (they were performed in an AMSCOPE brand optical microscope (50X - 500X),
model ME320B-PZ, USA), and uniaxial compression (it was carried out in a universal testing machine brand MICROTEST,MMME 118-1

1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
1000Pyrolysis(a)

TEMPERATURE (ºC)

TEMPERATURE (ºC)

model EM1/50/FR, Spain). Both types of wood were subjected to thermal processes of (i) pyrolysis in an inert
atmosphere (900°C and 0.5 hours of isotherm), following the thermal cycle of Fig. 1(a) and (ii) reactive infiltration withmetallic silicon at temperatures of 1550 °C and in a vacuum atmosphere (Fig.1(b)). It should be noted that for all theSiC samples manufactured, 50% silicon was used in excess, with respect to the stoichiometric amount of the SiC
molecule.

900 ºC
30 minutes

02

4

68

10
1214TIME (hours)

1618

20

2224

1600
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
01550 ºC

Infiltration(b)60 minutes

01234TIME (hours)

5678Fig. 1: Thermal profiles for the processes of (a) pyrolysis and (b) reactive infiltration.

The mechanical characterization of the SiC samples was carried out at a constant compression rate of 0.05
mm/min., in air atmosphere and at room temperature. The samples for the compression tests consisted of parallelepipeds
of 3x3x6 mm3 and were obtained by cuts with a diamond edge disc, made on the largest samples of infiltrated SiC.
Force and displacement data were obtained from the mechanical tests, which were then converted and analyzed intostress vs. deformation.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Physical, Microstructural and Mechanical Characterization for Tornillo and Bolaina
The average basic density for the precursor woods was 0.49 and 0.42 g/cm3 for the tornillo and bolaina, respectively.
Fig. 2 shows carbon optical microscopy micrographs of the two types of selected woods. Both surfaces observed are of
the cross-section (with respect to the growth direction of the tree) and are clearly defined. The microstructure of thetornillo and bolaina samples consist of a single continuous phase, with the presence of evenly distributed pores in darker
contrast. With the support of the digital image processor ImageJ, the diameters of the largest porosities of both samples
were determined. Resulting in an average porosity diameter for the bolaina of 155.8 μm and for tornillo of 221.6 μm.

Fig. 2: Micrographs of the carbon cross section obtained by optical microscopy from samples(a) bolaina and (b) tornillo

Fig. 3 shows stress vs. deformation for tornillo (Fig. 3(a)) and bolaina (Fig. 3(b)) samples in the direction parallelto the fibers. The mechanical results obtained from the precursor woods show similar mechanical strengths for bothtypes of wood with maximum strength values of between 38 and 47 MPa for the screw and between 35 and 48 MPa forthe bolaina. It is worth noting a slight greater rigidity in the bolaina, with respect to the tornillo, and greater deformationsin the tornillo compared to the bolaina.

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7070(a)σ

STRESS (MPa)50maximum= 47 MPa

σ30minimum= 38 MPa

40

20

10

100.5

11.5

22.5
3
STRAIN (%)

3.5

44.5

05maximum

σ30200σ50400(b)60

STRESS (MPa)

60

00.5

1

1.5= 48 MPa

minimum

2= 35 MPa

2.5
3STRAIN (%)

3.5

4

4.55Fig. 3: Stress vs. strain for (a) tornillo wood and (b) bolaina wood tested at constant compression rate and at room temperature

3.2. Mechanical Characterization Sic Derived From Tornillo and Bolaina
Fig. 4 presents stress vs. strain curves for silicon carbide derived from tornillo wood (Fig. 4(a)) and bolaina wood (Fig.
4(b)). In both groupings of curves, the low repeatability of maximum resistance results could be evidenced, varying from
194 to 440 MPa for the case of tornillo SiC and from 30 to 77 MPa for bolaina SiC. This result suggests considering nonstructural applications for the manufactured materials, considering the use of tornillo SiC in applications that demandmechanical strengths less than 190 MPa and applications with mechanical requirements less than 30 MPa for SiC derived
from bolaina. It was also possible to observe greater deformations in screw SiC, with respect to bolaina SiC.
500
450120(a)σmaximum

100
90350

STRESS (MPa)

STRESS (MPa)

400

300
250200σ150minimum= 194 MPa

σ80maximum= 77 MPa

706050403010020500(b)110= 440 MPa

σ100 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10
STRAIN (%)

00minimum

0.5= 30 MPa

STRAIN (%)

11.5Fig. 4. Stress vs. strain for biomorphic SiC derived from (a) tornillo wood and (b) bolaina wood obtained in uniaxial compression andat room temperature

4. Conclusions

SiC materials have been successfully manufactured from low density wood precursors (tornillo and bolaina), following
the procedures established in the literature on pyrolysis of wood in an inert atmosphere followed by reactive infiltration of
metallic silicon in carbon preforms.
The basic density values found for the tornillo and bolaina were 0.49 and 0.42 g/cm3, respectively, these being very
close to each other. Both species of wood are considered low-density commercial woods.
The microstructures found in the wood samples revealed the presence of a single phase made up of short fibers and welldistributed rounded porosities.
The average large porosity diameter of bolaina and tornillo were 155.8 μm and 221.6 μm, respectively. This
characteristic is key to the infiltration process in the preform, since the smaller the pore size, its obstruction by the formationof SiC is more feasible.

MMME 118-3

The maximum mechanical strengths in uniaxial compression, obtained in the direction parallel to the fibers, showedvery similar values for the tornillo and the bolaina, however, a larger plastic region could be observed in the tornillo,compared to what was observed in the bolaina.
It was not possible to show repeatability in the uniaxial compression tests performed on SiC samples derived fromtornillo and bolaina, which suggests that the SiC materials studied in this work are intended for non-structuralapplications.

Acknowledgements

This work was financed by CONCYTEC - FONDECYT within the framework of call E041-01 with contract N°
36-2018-FONDECYT-BM-IADT-AV and was executed in the laboratories of the Universidad Católica San Pablo.

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