Porous ceramics and porous ceramic composites are emerging functional materials that have found numerous industrial applications, especially in energy conversion processes. They are characterized by random microstructure and high porosity. Examples are ceramic candle filters used in coal-fired power plants, gas-fired infrared burners, anode and cathode materials of solid oxide fuel cells, etc. In this research, both experimental and theoretical work have been conducted to characterize and to model the mechanical behavior and durability of this novel class of functional material. Extensive experiments were performed on a hot gas candle filter material provided by the McDermott Technologies Inc (MTI). Models at micro-/meso-/macro- geometric scales were established to model the porous ceramic material and fiber reinforced porous ceramic material. The effective mechanical properties are of great technical interest in many applications. Based on the average field formalism, a computational micromechanics approach was developed to estimate the effective elastic properties of a highly porous material with random microstructure. A meso-level analytical model based on the energy principles was developed to estimate the global elastic properties of the MTI filament-wound ceramic composite tube. To deal with complex geometry, a finite element scheme was developed for porous material with strong fiber reinforcements. Some of the model-predicted elastic properties were compared with experimental values. The long-term performance of ceramic composite hot gas candle filter materials was discussed. Built upon the stress analysis models, a coupled damage mechanics and finite element approach was presented to assess the durability and to predict the service life of the porous ceramic composite candle filter material. / Ph. D.