Fabrication, characterization and mechanical properties of SiC-whisker-reinforced Y-TZP composites

The microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-pressed yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) reinforced with up to 30 vol percent SiC whiskers were investigated. The homogeneously dispersed and fully dense SiC whisker/Y-TZP composites were fabricated by wet-mixing the const...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials science 1996-06, Vol.31 (12), p.3237-3244
Main Authors: ZHAN, G.-D, SHI, J.-L, ZHOU, Y, ZHANG, Y.-Z, LAI, T.-R, YEN, T.-S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Building materials. Ceramics. Glasses
Ceramic industries
Chemical industry and chemicals
Exact sciences and technology
Structural ceramics
Technical ceramics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-pressed yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) reinforced with up to 30 vol percent SiC whiskers were investigated. The homogeneously dispersed and fully dense SiC whisker/Y-TZP composites were fabricated by wet-mixing the constitutents and uniaxially hot-pressing the resulting powder. The grain size of the matrix depended on the whisker volume fraction and the hot-pressing temperature. The significant increase of fracture toughness of about MPa sq rt m at 10 vol percent SiC and a small increase in strength were achieved by uniformly dispersing the whiskers in the Y-TZP matrix. Fracture surfaces revealed evidence of toughening by the mechanisms of crack deflection, pullout, and crack bridging by the whiskers and also a phase transformation of ZrO2. The observed increase in the fracture toughness of Y-TZP due to the addition of SiC whiskers was correlated with existing models of toughening mechanisms. Good agreement was achieved between the theoretical predictions and the experimental toughness values, obtained from the Y-TZP/SiCw composites. (Author)
ISSN:0022-2461
1573-4803
DOI:10.1007/BF00354674