This study highlights a novel method and mechanism for the rapid and effective milling of carbon fibers (CFs) in silicon carbide (SiC) powder, and also the dispersion of CFs in SiC powder. The composite powders were prepared by chopping and exfoliation of CFs, and ball milling of CFs and SiC powder in isopropyl alcohol. A wide range of CFs loading, from 10 to 50 vol%, was studied. The milling of CFs and SiC powder was checked by measuring the average particle size of the composite powders. The dispersivity of CFs in SiC powder was checked through scanning electron microscope. The results show that the usage of exfoliated CF tows resulted in a rapid and effective milling of CFs and SiC powder. The results further show an excellent dispersion of CFs in SiC powder for all CFs loading without any dispersing agent.

A microstructure analysis is carried out to optimize the process parameters of a randomly oriented discrete length hybrid carbon fiberreinforced carbon matrix composite. The com-posite is fabricated by moulding of a slurry into a preform, followed by hot-pressing and carbonization. Heating rates of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1, and 3.3°C/min and pressures of 5, 10, 15, and 20 MPa are applied during hot-pressing. Matrix precursor to reinforcement weight ra-tios of 70:30, 50:50, and 30:70 are also considered. A microstructure analysis of the carbon/carbon compacts is performed for each variant. Higher heating rates give bloated compacts whereas low heating rates give bloating-free, finemicrostructure compacts. The compacts fabricated at higher pressure have displayed side oozing of molten pitch and discrete length carbon fibers.The microstructure of the compacts fabricated at low pressure shows a lack of densification.The compacts with low matrix precursor to reinforcement weight ratios have insufficientbonding agent to bind the reinforcement whereas the higher matrix precursor to reinforcement weight ratio results in a plaster-like structure. Based on the microstructure analysis, a heating rate of 0.2°C/min, pressure of 15 MPa, and a matrix precursor to rein-forcement ratio of 50:50 are found to be optimum w.r.t attaining bloating-free densificationand processing time.