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Application Of Ai Control To The Vls Sic Whisker Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Peter D. Shalek  and
W. J. Parkinson
Peter D. Shalek
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
W. J. Parkinson
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
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Abstract

Silicon carbide whiskers have excellent mechanical and chemical properties, making them very desirable as a reinforcement for structural ceramic and other composite materials. Los Alamos has developed a laboratoryscale batch process for producing very high quality SiC whiskers by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method which is an active candidate for technology transfer involving significant scale-up. The process, however, involves quite complex chemical/physical and parametric relationships and has not as yet lent itself successfully to modeling. An expert computer system was therefore developed to facilitate the transfer of this technology to industry. Optimum conditions were determined by relating the many process parameters to product results to establish a set of rules for running the process. These are incorporated in a two-phase expert system designed to guide inexperienced users. In Phase I, an expert consultant program provides the user with information that enables him to set up the run. This information is incorporated into the rule base that makes up Phase II- the control system. At present, the operator functions as the controller by responding to the decisions of the expert system; automation can be added later.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 168 , 1989 , 255
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

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