Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol.

, 11 [4] 745–754 (2014)

DOI:10.1111/ijac.12103

Residual Stress Distribution and Characterization on

Multi-Curved Armor Tiles
Liang Wang,* Keyu Li, and Brian Munn
Mechanical Engineering Department, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309

Virginia Halls and James Zheng

Program Executive Office-Soldier, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060

Residual stresses were measured on numerous multi-curved, ballistic tiles made from either silicon carbide or boron car-
bide. Residual stresses were measured at 155 locations to determine what affect parameters such as material, material process-
ing, tile geometry, and manufacturer had on residual stress type and magnitude. 23% of data points had tensile residual
stress. The highest residual stresses were measured in tiles with either the largest surface area or smallest plate thickness.
Higher stresses were measured in silicon carbide tiles compared with boron carbide tiles. Residual stresses in tiles consolidated
by hot pressing measured on average 10 MPa higher than those by pressureless sintering.

Introduction single best armor material for all applications. There-

Ballistic protection traditionally came in the form
of high-strength steel plates. The current need to
reduce weight in both vehicle and personal armor has
resulted in high-strength steel being replaced by lighter
advanced ceramic materials. Because of the range of
design criteria that exist for armor systems, there is no
*lwang@oakland.edu
© 2013 The American Ceramic Society
fore, numbers of different materials such as aluminum
oxide (Al2O3), silicon nitride (Si3N4), boron carbide
(B4C), silicon carbide (SiC) are used for varied design
purposes.1–3 For each material, factors potentially
affecting armor’s ballistic performances were studied
such as microstructure (grain size, porosity, and
phases), manufacturing parameters and methods, mate-
rial properties (density, hardness, elastic modulus,
strength, fracture toughness, fracture mode).1–3
However, limited researches were conducted studying
746 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Wang, et al.
residual stresses in these ceramics. The intrinsic brittle-
ness makes ceramic sensitive to any tensile residual
stress, which enhances crack initiations and is an
important factor causing material failures. Therefore,
residual stresses in armor tiles were studied in this
paper by examples of SiC and B4C.
Both SiC and B4C are produced from fine pow-
ders that can be consolidated into multi-shaped compo-
nents through either a hot pressing or pressureless
sintering operation.4,5 However, to develop the desired
microstructure and properties, the green body must be
consolidated in a furnace at temperatures in excess of
2000°C. The consolidated bodies are then cooled
through a predefined cooling rate.6,7 In this paper, tiles
made from both consolidation processes were provided
for residual stress characterization. Unfortunately,
detailed manufacturing parameters such as holding
temperature, pressure, cooling rate along with the
actual manufacturing company were not provided due
to governmental confidential.
Recent studies have documented the existence of
residual stresses in ceramic bodies such as Si3N4 and
Al2O3.8–13 These studies have concluded that residual
stresses are induced through either thermal mismatch
or by a mechanical means such as grinding or shot
peening. In each case, an X-ray diffraction technique
was employed to measure and quantify any residual
stresses. Instead of being a single phase material, SiC
ceramic studied in this paper was made of hexagonal
a–SiC and cubic b–SiC, which makes it not suitable
for X-ray diffraction application because the atoms are
randomly stacked. Although the B4C crystalline infor-
mation is available for diffraction measurement, no
application was accomplished because it is still debat-
able for distinguishing the boron and carbon atoms due
to their similarity (11B and 12C isotopes).14
No published work was found regarding residual
stress in B4C ceramic, and there is only one study mea-
suring residual stress in SiC tiles.15 However, only four
locations were measured on four small flat tiles made
from pressureless sintering. In this paper, residual stres-
ses were examined at 155 locations on the real armor
products. Besides a much larger dimension compared
with the flat tiles, the curvatures of the tested tiles were
designed to be varied from location to location thus
named multi-curved tiles. Therefore, residual stress will
be more complex than that on flat samples. In addi-
tion, more difficulties occurred during the experiments
on multi-curved tiles such as measurement on curved
Vol. 11, No. 4, 2014
surface and hole-drilling on hot-pressed tiles with extre-
mely high hardness (hot-pressed B4C has the third
highest hardness in nature). Detail information for
overcoming these obstacles was reported in this paper,
which would be valuable for residual stress
measurement on other curved materials with high
hardness.
The objective of this study was first to characterize
the type and magnitude of residual stresses in the
multi-curved tiles and, then, determine whether the
stress distribution was affected in any manner by what
group (manufacturer), material, consolidation process,
geometry was used to fabricate the tiles.
Experimental Procedures
Multi-curved ceramic tiles made from two ceramic
materials (SiC and B4C) and two manufacturing pro-
cesses (pressureless sintering and hot pressing) were
received. Twenty multi-curved tiles, made of SiC mate-
rial that was consolidated by a pressureless sintering
(PS) operation, were received first. The twenty tiles
were divided equally into two separate groups. Each
group had two identical tiles that fit into five different
size categories (X-small, small, medium, large and
X-large). The SiC tiles were then identified; by a group
#, size and a tile #.
Twelve hot-pressed (HP) ceramic tiles, very similar
in size and shape to the previous batch, were received
at a later date. In this particular batch, six tiles were
made from SiC material. The remaining six tiles were
made from a B4C material. The same type of tile iden-
tification system was used on these 12 tiles. Additional
medium sized tiles one made of SiC material and one
made from B4C material were also provided.
A sketch of the general shape or contour of each
tile is provided in Fig. 1. Some geometrical observa-
tions are as follows:
1. The length, width, and rear edge height of all tiles
increased linearly as overall tile size increased. The
lengths of the tiles range from 285 mm to
356 mm. The widths of the tiles vary from
177 mm to 280 mm. The rear edge heights change
from 18 mm to 48 mm.
2. The PS-SiC tile thickness was measured at
8.60  0.1 mm
3. The HP-B4C tile thickness was measured at
9.27  0.4 mm.
www.ceramics.org/ACT Residual Stress Distribution Characterization
4. The HP-SiC tile thickness was size dependent and
varied from 8.19  0.24 mm to 10.61  0.5 mm.
A hole-drilling resistance strain gage technique was
employed to measure residual stresses on all the multi-
curved tiles provided for this study. The smallest and
most sensitive strain gage (delta rosette) was applied to
the surface of each tile in a predetermined number of
locations. Given the extreme-high hardness of the mate-
rial(s) being drilled, a super coarse diamond drill bit
was selected. For the B4C tiles, a continuous coolant
(Smart Cut Coolant, UKAM Industrial Superhard
Tools, Valencia, CA) was used during the drilling oper-
ation to reduce heat and drill bit wear. To protect the
strain gage from the coolant, a thin coating (Coat A,
Vishay Intertechnology Inc, Shelton, CT) was applied
to each strain gage prior to drilling.
Strain measurements could have been taken at as
many as twelve different locations on each tile. Relative
hole-drilling locations and how each location was iden-
tified are shown in Fig. 1. These particular locations
are independent of tile size making comparisons
between each location on different sized tiles possible.
The initial hole-drilling sequence was carried out
on six pressureless sintered SiC tiles, from both groups
in sizes X-small, medium and X-large. In this case, all
twelve tile locations were drilled and strains measured.
Those locations with a tensile (+) residual stress were
then measured again on the six remaining (untested)
tiles, in sizes X-small, medium and X-large, to verify
the initial findings. The next step was to drill and
Fig. 1. Tile geometry and schematic of the twelve hole-drilling
locations.
747
measure strains at location-1 and location-4 in all small
and large tiles. This completed the data collection
phase on the pressureless sintered SiC tiles. A total of
107 holes were drilled in the 20 pressureless sintered
SiC tiles provided for this study.
For the hot-pressed tiles, a smaller sample size was
collected for data analysis. All 12 locations were drilled
in only the two medium sized tiles. After that only
location-1 was drilled in the five HP-SiC tiles, and only
location-4 was drilled in the five HP-B4C tiles.
Test Results
The residual stresses analyzed in the following sec-
tions are the maximum principal stresses calculated
from the measured strains. The maximum principal
stress is a unique value independent of which direction
the strain gage was mounted on each tile. The maxi-
mum principal stress represents a worst-case scenario as
it pertains to an impact on ceramic tile performance.
The test result will also be presented in the chronologi-
cal order that the data were collected in.
Residual Stress in the Pressureless Sintered SiC Tiles
Figure 2 is a scatter plot of all 107 principal stresses.
A total of 18 locations had a tensile residual stress. The
highest value measured was at 229 MPa. The distribu-
tion of these tensile stresses can be seen in Fig. 3 for both
groups and tile sizes; X-small, medium and X-large.
Fig. 2. Residual stress results for all 107 test locations on the
pressureless sintering-silicon carbide (PS-SiC) tiles.
748 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Wang, et al.
Fig. 3. Stress results for twelve locations on X-small, medium
and X-large pressureless sintering-silicon carbide (PS-SiC)
tiles. At each location, six depths of residual stresses were
measured.
As can be seen in Fig. 3, the tensile (+) stress value
is in red at the top of each location with corresponding
location number and incremental depth information
noted below in black. In general, tensile residual stres-
ses were measured in at least one location on all groups
and sizes of tiles. The one exception was for the group
1, X-small tile. This particular tile had no measured
positive residual stresses. The distribution of tensile
residual stress also appears to be random in nature,
with no one location consistently having a positive
value.
Further data analysis was succeeded to find the rel-
atively higher risk locations among the 12. Six depths
of residual stresses at locations shown in Fig. 3 were
analyzed. The approach was to compare residual stresses
in each row (column) and record the counts when
stress was highest at each location. Figure 4a shows the
results for comparisons in the width (row) direction. It
is shown that highest residual stresses were measured
gradually more frequently from the left to right in row
1, while opposite trends were found in row 3 and row
4. Due to the opposite counting trend between row 1
and rows 3 and 4, higher risk locations over tile surface
would be at right front and left back area. It is also
shown that more counts of highest residual stresses
were found from location 1L to location 4L, and oppo-
site trend was observed from location 1R to location
4R. Therefore, it is confirmed that higher residual stres-
Vol. 11, No. 4, 2014
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4. (a) Stress comparisons in width direction. The counts at
each location are the times that highest residual stress is observed
at that location when comparing among the three stresses at left,
middle and right. (b) Stress comparisons in length direction. The
counts at each location are the times that highest residual stesses
is observed at that locaiton when comparing among four locations
in each column.
ses trend to concentrate at the right front and left back
portion on these tiles.
In the length (column) direction, the maximum
principal stresses were compared among locations 1–4,
locations 1L–4L, and locations 1R–4R, respectively.
And the count of the highest stress founded at each
location was recorded. Figure 4b shows the total counts
at each location. It is shown that more counts of the
highest stress were most found at location-1R in the
right column. In the middle column, higher stresses
were observed at locations 1 and 4. Stresses at the left
column seem to be evenly distributed, although loca-
tion-1L was less frequently found with the highest
www.ceramics.org/ACT Residual Stress Distribution Characterization
stress. It is also observed that there are gradually more
counts from the left to right in row 1, and an opposite
trend is found in row 2. More counts were observed in
the left and right in row 3, while more counts were
found in the middle for row 4. For middle and right
locations at row 2 and row 3, exact same frequency was
found at the diagonal locations (location-2 corresponds
to location-3R, location-2R corresponds to location-3).
Therefore, stresses also twisted in the length direction.
At the same time, high residual stress also trend to con-
centrate at the right front and left back locations.
An overall stress distribution across the entire tile
surface can be determined by first calculating an aver-
age stress value at each hole location. A cubic interpola-
tion of these values will yield a three-dimensional (3D)
stress contour as shown in Fig. 5. As can be seen in
Fig. 5, stresses are not uniformly distributed across the
tile surface. The higher stresses tended to be localized
toward the right front and left back sections of each
tile. While the center of the tile held the lowest residual
stresses. This type of stress distribution indicates a
twisted or distorted profile appearance.
Residual Stresses in the Hot-Pressed SiC and
B4C Tiles
Based on the results from the PS-SiC tiles, a more
focused hole-drilling sequence was adopted for the HP-
SiC and HP-B4C tiles. Because the highest residual
stresses were toward the front and rear edges in the PS-
SiC tiles, holes were only drilled at location-1 in all
HP-SiC tiles sizes and only at location-4 in all HP-B4C
tiles. The maximum principal stresses, for all HP-SiC
Fig. 5. Residual stress distribution contour over the tile surface.
Average residual stresses at the twelve locations were used.
749
tile sizes, are shown in Fig. 6a. Only one tile (X-small)
had a tensile residual stress that measured at 20 MPa.
All other tile sizes had only compressive residual stres-
ses. The residual stresses calculated for the HP-B4C
tiles are shown in Fig. 6b. No tensile residual stresses
were found on any of the B4C tile sizes at location-4.
To determine a stress distribution on the HP-SiC
and HP-B4C tiles, the complete data set collected on
the medium size tiles was used. The average stress value
at each location was again calculated. Interpolation of
these average values generated a 3D stress contour as
shown in Fig. 7a HP-SiC and Fig. 7b HP-B4C tiles.
As shown in Fig. 7a, the highest residual stress was cal-
culated at ~40 MPa. The HP-SiC stress contour
though nonuniform has a broader range of tensile
residual stresses. This is in contrast to the PS-SiC tiles
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Maximum principal residual stresses measured at (a)
Location-1 for HP-SiC tiles and (b) Location-4 for HP-B4C
tiles.
750 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Wang, et al.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. 3D residual stress distribution contour (a) for HP- SiC
tile (b) for HP-B4C tile.
which had very small localized tensile stress areas. As
can be seen in Fig. 7b, the highest tensile residual stress
was measured at close to 200 MPa. As before, there is
a nonuniform distribution of stresses over the tile
surface.
Discussions
Residual stresses typically arise in advanced ceramic
materials due to thermal expansion mismatches between
adjacent grains. In this particular case, as the consoli-
dated SiC and B4C tiles were cooled, the anisotropy
and random orientation of grains created incompatible
thermal strains. These thermal strains are what give rise
to the self-equilibrated residual stresses measured in this
study.
Due to the inherent brittleness of most ceramic
materials, any induced tensile residual stresses could
negatively impact mechanical performance. In this case,
Vol. 11, No. 4, 2014
any induced tensile stresses could act as crack initiation
sites. Once a crack has formed, these stresses could also
influence the crack path as well as the rate at which a
crack propagates through the tile. Because tensile resid-
ual stresses can have such a negative influence on
mechanical performance, how key parameters such as
group (manufacturer), material, consolidation process,
geometry may influence the introduction of tensile
stresses was investigated. Any correlations found could
benefit future manufacturing optimization efforts for
the ballistic tiles.
Each of the following sections will address how
one key parameter may affect the formation of residual
stresses. In this particular analysis, both compressive
and tensile residual stresses are documented for com-
parison. The first parameter that will be addressed is
any group (manufacturer) affect on tensile residual
stresses. It is important to note that this particular
parameter only applies to the pressureless sintered SiC
tiles received for this study. The group analysis will be
followed by an analysis on material, the size and thick-
ness, and finally the consolidation process.
Group Effect for PS-SiC Tiles
Two different manufactures provided PS-SiC tiles
for this study. It was told that material compositions
for producing the tiles were different by weight ratio of
hexagonal a–SiC and cubic b–SiC. Unfortunately, the
company names and detail composition differences
were not provided along with the tiles and, as a result,
were simply given group 1 and group 2 designations.
The most straightforward comparison method is to
simply calculate an average stress value at each hole
location in both groups across all tile sizes. The average
stress value for each hole is plotted in Fig. 8. As can be
seen in Fig. 8, there was a difference in average stress
magnitude between the G1 and G2 groups. On aver-
age, the difference fell between a low of 5 MPa to a
high of 30 MPa, with group 2 (G2) consistently having
a higher average. A difference is to be expected because
each group represents a different tile manufacturer hav-
ing their own unique combination of materials and
processes to produce the desired product.
Another approach to analyzing group differences is
to look at the number and magnitude of tensile resid-
ual stresses. There were a total of 18 locations that
measured a tensile residual stress in the PS-SiC tiles as
a whole. Of the 18 total tensile residual stresses, seven
www.ceramics.org/ACT Residual Stress Distribution Characterization
Fig. 8. Average residual stress per hole location.
were measured in G1 tiles, with the other 11 measured
in the G2 tiles. This provides further evidence that the
G2 tiles had a higher inherent residual stress distribu-
tion when compared with the results from the G1 tiles.
Material Effect
To analyze for any material effect, only residual
stress data from the same size HP-SiC and HP-B4C
plates were used. Unfortunately, there was an unavoid-
able difference in tile thicknesses. The HP-SiC tile was
7.87 mm thick, while the HP-B4C tile was 9.23 mm
thick. Any effect tile thickness has on residual stress
formation will be addressed in a later section.
For a general material comparison, stress measure-
ments from the medium sized tiles at each of the 12
locations were plotted on a simple line plot. Figure 9 is
the line plot comparing residual stress magnitudes
between the SiC and B4C ceramic materials. The mea-
sured residual stresses on the HP-SiC medium size tile
are for the most part higher than that on the B4C tile
(except for locations 2 and 4). Even with higher mea-
sured stresses, magnitudes in the HP-SiC tile were near
or at zero. The magnitudes were also very uniform
across the entire SiC tile surface. This stress uniformity
is a good indicator that the microstructure consisted
primarily of very fine uniformed grains that minimized
any thermal incompatibilities upon cooling.
The residual stresses measured in the B4C medium
size tile were mostly compressive in nature. The two
exceptions were at location-2 and location-4, where a
tensile residual stress was measured. The tensile residual
751
Fig. 9. Residual stress comparison between SiC and B4C tiles.
stress at location-4 is very small and would have a min-
imal effect on mechanical performance. Unfortunately,
the magnitude of the tensile stress measured at loca-
tion-2 approached 200 MPa. A tensile residual stress of
this magnitude could have a negative impact on
mechanical performance. The large variability in stress
magnitudes distributed across the B4C tile surface is
also undesirable. This variability is more than likely
caused by the second phase particle distribution
throughout the B4C tile. Drilling directly into a second
phase particle could result in a measurement spike or
fluctuation at any location on the B4C tile surface.
Size and Thickness Effect
The first size effect analysis was performed on the
PS-SiC tiles using a maximum principal stress average
at location 1 in both G1 and G2 groups. A linear
regression analysis was also performed on the data to
aid in characterizing any observable trend(s). The
results of the regression analysis are plotted in Fig. 10a
for G1 and b for G2. As can be seen in Fig. 10, there
is a general trend for the residual stresses to increase as
tile size increases. This trend holds true for both tile
groups.
Because both groups of tiles demonstrated a similar
trend of increasing stress with size, another comparison
was carried out by combining the stresses from the two
groups into one single data set. This approach allows
for a closer look at how the average stress magni-
tude from each hole location relates to a specific tile
size (X-small, small, medium, large and X-large). The
752 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Wang, et al.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 10. Size effect using the average stress at location-1 for (a)
G1 group and (b) G2 group.
average stress magnitude was again calculated at each
hole location from this single data set. The result of
this exercise is the line plot shown in Fig. 11. The
average stress magnitude (y-axis) at each of the 12 hole
locations (x-axis) in the X-small, medium and X-large
tiles are plotted in Fig. 11. This particular data set
again shows a general trend of increasing stress with tile
size.
For the hot-pressed SiC and B4C tiles, a similar
comparison was conducted with the results summarized
in Fig. 12a for HP-SiC and Fig. 12b for HP-B4C tiles,
respectively. For the HP-SiC tiles, because there was a
thickness difference between the X-small and medium
tiles (18% and 11% thinner, respectively) compared
with the other three (3) tile sizes, residual stress results
are identified with open markers. As can be seen in
Vol. 11, No. 4, 2014
Fig. 11. Residual stresses at twelve locations on X-small, med-
ium and X-large pressureless sintering- silicon carbide (PS-SiC)
tiles.
Fig. 12a, residual stresses trend higher on both the X-
small and medium sized tiles when compared with all
other tile sizes. This observation is a strong indicator
that thinner tiles tend to have a higher residual stress
when compared with similar sized thicker tiles. This
trend is in agreement with the previous study per-
formed on simple flat square tiles made from pressure-
less sintered SiC material.15 There is also a size effect
when curve fitting was carried out to the stress data
points shown in Fig. 12a. The general trend of increas-
ing residual stresses with tile size is again revealed.
For the HP-B4C tiles, a similar interpolation was
carried out on the measured stresses at location-4. As
can be seen in Fig. 12b, the curve fitted stresses trend
higher with increase tile size similar to what was seen
on the HP-SiC tile in Fig. 12a.
Manufacturing Method Effect
There are a number of different methods to effec-
tively consolidate ceramic green bodies. In this study,
there were two methods employed to consolidate the
SiC and B4C green tiles, pressureless sintering, and hot
pressing. There are well-documented advantages to each
of these consolidation methods. However, there are no
published findings on how the consolidation method
might influence residual stress formation. To ascertain
how a consolidation method might affect residual stress
formation, a tile location where measurements had been
taken from both PS-SiC and HP-SiC tiles had to be
www.ceramics.org/ACT Residual Stress Distribution Characterization
(a)
(b)
Fig. 12. Size effect study (a) for HP-SiC tiles and (b) for H-
B4C tiles.
identified. Location-1 was one of two locations where
residual stresses had been measured on each tile config-
uration in this study.
The next step was to take the individual stress val-
ues at each incremental depth and average them
together across all five different tile sizes. The result of
this exercise was an average residual stress value at each
drilled depth increment for both the PS-SiC and HP-
SiC tile groups. The best visual comparison was to plot
the average values as shown in Fig. 13. As can be seen
in Fig. 13, the hot-pressed tiles had a higher residual
stress value at all depth increments measured. On aver-
age, the hot-pressed tiles measured about 10 MPa
higher than the stress value measured on the pressure-
less sintered tiles.
753
Fig. 13. Manufacturing method effect on residual stress,
location-1 only.
The pressure differences between PS and HP
would lead to material’s varied freedom of movement
during the fabrication process, which finally contributes
to the distinguished stress distribution as shown in
Fig. 5 and Fig. 7. Because there was no pressure
applied during fabricating the PS tiles, materials are
much easier to flow. Due to tile geometry, nonuniform
heating may occur and the material will flow toward
the cooler sides which eventually leads to unbalance
(wobbling) of the tile. The physically measured wob-
bling characteristic proves the twisted residual stress
distribution shown in Fig. 5. However, for the hot-
pressed tiles, because there is continuous pressure dur-
ing the cooling process, the tiles stay on the fixture all
the time which gives much less chance to wobble.
Thus, a more symmetric residual stress distribution was
obtained in Fig. 7.
In addition, from another perspective, the consoli-
dation method could also influence how residual stres-
ses are distributed throughout each tile surface. Hot
pressing much like rolling or extruding metals could
have resulted in a forced-mechanical direction to the
grain orientation. Because residual stresses are created
through thermal incompatibility at the grain bound-
aries, a forced orientation to those grains could in-turn
affect the distribution of any residual stresses induced
upon cooling from the consolidation temperature. An
example of this potential influence can be seen in the
residual stress distribution of the B4C tile in Fig. 9.
The B4C tiles had three distinctive peak stresses that
were measured at locations 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.
754 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Wang, et al.
While valleys in stress values occurred in pairs of loca-
tions such as 1L-1R, 2L-2R, 3L-3R, and 4L-4R. The
intermittent, or somewhat ordered stress distribution
more than likely, was influenced by the pressure exerted
during consolidation of the green tiles.
Conclusions
Residual stresses were measured on all multi-curved
SiC and B4C tiles regardless of group, material, tile size
and thickness, or consolidation method (pressureless sin-
tering or hot pressing). The incremental hole-drilling
strain gage method was successful in measuring both
type () and magnitude of any residual stresses across
all tile surfaces. In general, most measured residual stres-
ses were compressive ( ) in nature. Only 35 tile loca-
tions measured a tensile (+) residual stress. The balance
of 120 measured a compressive ( ) residual stress.
Because SiC and B4C are brittle by nature characterizing
of the stress distribution, especially the positive-tensile
residual stresses merited further analysis. The following
observations are worth noting;
1. Stresses for the most part were found to be ran-
domly distributed over tile surfaces. The stress dis-
tribution had little dependence on tile base
material, tile size and thickness, or consolidation
method. The one exception to this non uniformity
trend may be in the distribution found in the HP-
B4C tiles. For these tiles, a loose distribution of
stress peaks at center locations and stress valleys
toward the tile edges could be seen.
2. Residual stresses measured in group 2 were for the
most part higher than those measured in group 1.
This trend would be expected because each group
represented a different tile manufacturer and mate-
rial composition.
3. There was a small size effect with larger sized tiles
tending to have a higher residual stress magnitude
than the smaller tile sizes of like materials.
4. There was a thickness effect with the thinner tiles
tending to have a higher residual stress magnitude
than the thicker tiles.
Vol. 11, No. 4, 2014
5. In general, the SiC tiles had a higher residual stress
magnitude when compared with similar sized B4C
tiles.
6. In general, the SiC tiles had a smaller fluctuation in
residual stress magnitudes when compared with
B4C tiles having similar size and thickness.
7. On average, residual stresses measured in the hot-
pressed SiC tiles were about 10 MPa higher than
those measured in the SiC pressureless sintered
tiles.
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