Liquid-phase-sintered silicon carbide with minimised residual porosity and very fine grain size, is attractive as a high performance armour material due to its high hardness, high toughness and its potential for lower cost, especially when fabricated by gas pressure sintering. This study provides hardness (Vickers, HV-10) and fracture toughness (SEPB) data of YAG/AIN-doped LPS-SiC as a function of: Volume of fraction of the YAG-based binder phase; Content of free carbon; Toughening by in-situ formed SiC platelets and; Toughening by dispersion of SiC, TiB2 and Si3N4 particles. Results indicate that higher amounts of the YAG based binder phase as well as additions of ceramic particles reduce the hardness of LPS-SiC, whereas toughness may vary.
