## 2 Material and Research Methods
The flow stress was set in tabular form based on cylindrical specimen compression testing (see Figure 3a). The calculations were performed under the assumption of the axisymmetric stress-strain state in the deformation center and deformation symmetry about the horizontal geometric symmetry axis of the specimen (see Figure 3b). Thus, only a quarter of the specimen cross-section was simulated. The simulation was performed in accordance with experimental conditions of specimen loading, when the punch movement speed \(V_{y}(t)\) was constant and equal to 1.19 mm/s. It was assumed that the friction between the specimen and the punch followed [PERSON]'s friction law and depended on temperature. In the simulation of specimen deformation at a temperature of 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the Coulomb friction coefficient was set to 0.09, and at temperatures of 400 and 500 \({}^{\circ}\)C it was equal to 0.1 and 0.13, respectively. Indentation experiments were made in a Hysitron TI 950 nanomechanical testing device using a Berkovich indenter. A restriction was set on the movement of the indenter into the specimen. The indenter penetration and lifting rate was 0.5 \(\upmu\)m/s, the holding time under load was 0 s. At this loading form, the device was tested on standard calibration samples made of fused quartz and monocrystalline aluminum. Figure 3: The dependences of flow stresses on strain (**a**) for 300 \({}^{\circ}\)C (green curve), 400 \({}^{\circ}\)C (blue curve), 500 \({}^{\circ}\)C (red curve) and strain rates ranging between 0.1 and 10 s\({}^{-1}\), as well as the finite element grid used for the simulations (**b**). Figure 2: The longitudinal section of the cylindrical specimen after compression: orange—the indentation zone. After compressions, the specimens were indented in the zone close to the side surface on the thin sections after mechanical and ion polishing. The plane of the thin section was parallel to the direction of the compression axis, and it passed through the specimen symmetry axis (see Figure 2). Material density was determined by the hydrostatic method according to ASTM B311-13 by weighing the specimens in air and in distilled water. The weighing was made on an Ohaus Pioneer PA 214 analytical balance. Table 1 shows the densities of the materials, as well as their porosity for the V95\(\backslash\)10% SiC metal matrix composite and the V95\(\backslash\)0% SiC material. The theoretical density \(\rho_{MMC}^{th}\) of the V95\(\backslash\)10% SiC MMC was calculated according to the mixture rule. The porosity \(P_{MMC}\) of the V95\(\backslash\)10% SiC MMC was calculated by the formula  
\[P_{MMC}=\left(1-\frac{\rho_{MMC}^{exp}}{\rho_{MMC}^{th}}\right)\cdot 100\%,\]  
where \(\rho_{MMC}^{exp}\) is the experimentally determined density of the V95\(\backslash\)10% SiC metal matrix composite; \(\rho_{MMC}^{th}\) is the theoretically calculated density of V95\(\backslash\)10% SiC. The porosity \(P_{CM}\) of the V95\(\backslash\)0% SiC material was calculated by the formula  
\[P_{CM}=\left(1-\frac{\rho_{CM}^{exp}}{\rho_{M}^{exp}}\right)\cdot 100\%,\]  
where \(\rho_{CM}^{exp}\) is the experimentally determined density of the V95\(\backslash\)0% SiC material; \(\rho_{M}^{exp}\) is the experimentally determined density of the V95 alloy.