In many fields of thermomechanical applications, such as advanced gas turbine, thermal protection of space planes, oil and coal electric generation, advanced brake devices, etc. high performance materials are needed. Lacking of toughness and reliability, monolithic ceramics had reached their limits and multi-phase - terials are expected as the most promising candidates. Apart from the impro- ment on the thermomechanical performance, more than one function, such as magnetic, electrical and optical functions, can be incorporated simultaneously into the multi-phase material. However, several key...