An improved mold-free NITE method to fabricate long size tubular SiC/SiC composites

The nano-infiltration transient eutectic (NITE) SiC/SiC composites are considered as most promising candidates for accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding in light water reactors. However, this method requires very specific mold so that it can hardly fabricate long size cladding tubes. To solve the problem, this work presents an improved mold-free NITE method to produce long size tubular SiC/SiC composites. To add some PCS to the classic NITE-SiC slurry, so that the cross-linked SiC precursor can hold together the β-SiC powders onto the fabric. This allows the hot isostatic pressing at 1780 ℃ and 20 MPa to produce dense cladding tubes of SiC/SiC composites. By this means, the complicated NITE-mold is no longer needed, enabling the capability to fabricate long size cladding tubes of SiC/SiC composites, and the corresponding density is higher than that of the CVI-SiC/SiC composites. (authors)