9302216 Barsoum One of the major factors restricting the widespread use of ultra- refractory composites for high temperature structural applications has been the difficulty, and associated cost, of producing complex- shaped components from these materials. Furthermore, both the difficulty and the expense increase dramatically as the refractoriness of the constituents increases. An innovative processing technique termed as Transient Plastic Phase Processing (TPPP) will be used for in-situ net-shape manufacturing complex- shaped, fully dense, ultra-refractory composites at temperatures that are about 0.65 of their melting temperatures. The technique also has the potential of yielding new and as yet unexplored compositions and microstructures that may very well have superior mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties. The work is a combined experimental-modeling-computational research program to study the processing-microstructure/composition- properties relationships for this new class of the mixture of soft and hard phases, the relationships between microstructure and mechanical properties such as elastic moduli, flexural and compressive strength, fracture toughness, creep resistance and high temperature ductility will be established. ***
