United Engineering Foundation Conference, "Structural Ceramics and Ceramic Composites for High Temperature Applications," Seville, Spain; October 7-12, 2001

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Funding is granted to assist in holding a conference on "Structural Ceramics and Ceramic Composites for High Temperature Applications" in Seville, Spain, October 7-12, 2001, sponsored by the United Engineering Foundation. The conference will encompass five sequential sessions on Modeling of High Temperature Mechanical Properties, New Thinking about Silicon Nitride Deformation, New Developments in SiC-based Materials, New Developments in Oxide Materials, and Environmental Effects on Non-Oxide Structural Ceramics. Each of these sessions attempts to address areas that are both timely and that have not been the subject of recent conferences. The modeling session will focus on new microstructure-based models for deformation The session on silicon nitride will attempt to link recent work on internal friction to that of the recently developed non-traditional deformation models. The session on Environmental Effects will bring together experts interested in solving the recently recognized susceptibility of non-oxide ceramics to degradation in high-temperature, high-velocity, water-containing environments. This problem effectively blocks widespread adoption of nitrides and carbides in high-temperature engines, an area of research for more than 30 years. The session on new developments in SiC-based materials will have a large component on the new so-called "Eco-ceramics" and biomorphic ceramics--silicon carbides with microstructures either fabricated from or inspired by natural materials. The session on oxide ceramics is roughly equally divided between superplastic behavior and the deformation of directionally solidified eutectics. Although superplasticity has been around for quite some time as a topic in and of itself, it has resisted complete explanation. %%%Over the past thirty years outstanding efforts and resources have been devoted to research in ceramics, particularly for high-temperature structural applications such as turbine blades, heat exchangers, and diesel engine components. Improved fabrication procedures and novel materials have resulted, understanding of the properties-microstructure relationships has been achieved, and tentative models have been proposed, all leading to a better knowledge of the fundamentals and potential applications of ceramics in modern technology. Fracture, creep, slow-crack growth, and anelasticity are important mechanical properties at high-temperatures. These properties are strongly sensitive to environment (atmosphere, temperature, etc.) so understanding their interaction with the environment is particularly appropriate. Furthermore, it has also been six years since the previous United Engineering Foundation Conference on Plastic Deformation of Ceramics, held in Snowbird, Utah, in August of 1994. This conference united a number of researchers, and there has not been a similar conference since then.