Statistics on the strength of ceramic fibre bundle

Large space structures are under the studies at National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) for the future space activities. Ceramic fibre is one of the hopeful materials for the components and tethers due to the excellence in the thermal-chemical performances. The potential maximum strength or "the upper limit of the tensile strength" must be known on the bundle for setting the goals of the structural studies. However, there have been few works on the "upper limit of the strength" for the commercial ceramic bundles, although the statistics is a pending problem for estimating the potential maximum strength. In this work, Tyranno ZMI Si-Zr-C-O fiber (UBE Industry Co.) was selected as an example for the bundle strength characterisation. Variation in the diameter was considered on both along each fibre and between fibres for the Weibull model. A practical "upper limit" was reported on the tensile strength of the bundle.