MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ZIRCONIA TOUGHENED ALUMINA COMPOSITES WITH TZP PARTIALLY NANOSTRUCTURED SINTERED BY LIQUID FASE

摘要

A comparative study between alumina added niobia ceramics and two alumina zirconia composites from nanostructured TZP (7% and 14% weight) was made. On this composites the zirconia were yttria stabilized and the alumina were submicron structured. As sintering aid a mixture of magnesia, niobia and talc were used on all samples. The sintering was performed at 1450 ℃ during 60 minutes. The characteristic grain size and shape of an alumina and zirconia powders, aggregates and agglomerates were characterized. The sintering ceramics were evaluated through hardness, fracture toughness and 4 point bending test. Weibull statistic was applied on the flexural results. Although the fracture toughness result from ZTA were lower, and seems to be affected by the liquid fase, the hardness and Weibull modulus were higher than alumina niobia. The grains size and the homogeneity of its distributions on the microstructure of this ceramics was correlated to these higher values. The results from these alumina zirconia composites showed a potential to apply as a ballistic armor material.