Fabrication and characterization of Zirconia-Alumina composites reinforced by graphite

Subject Areas : Journal of New Applied and Computational Findings in Mechanical Systems

mehdi pourmaleki ¹ , Zohre Balak ²

1 - Department of materials science
2 -

Received: 2024-09-21 Accepted : 2024-11-27 Published : 2024-11-27

Keywords: ZrO2-Al2O3, graphite, hardness, fracture toughness, wear,

Abstract :

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of adding graphite on the mechanical properties of ZrO2-Al2O3 composite. For this purpose, 2, 4, and 6 Vol % values ​​of graphite were added to ZrO2-Al2O3 composite and the resulting powders were sintered by SPS method. The microstructure of the samples was evaluated by scanning electron microscope, relative density and hardness by Archimedes and Rockwell methods, respectively. The relative density of the pure ZrO2-Al2O3 sample was 98.5%, and with the addition of 4% by volume of graphite, this value increased by 1% and reached 99.5%; But with increasing the amount of graphite and reaching 6% by volume, due to the lightness of graphite, the relative density decreased and reached 97.5%. The hardness measurement results showed that the hardness of these composites increased by adding 2 and 4 volume percent of graphite and reached from HRC 6.45 to HRC 7.57. But by adding 6 volume percent of graphite, the hardness of ZrO2-Al2O3-G composite decreased slightly and reached from HRC 7.57 to HRC 6.54. Fracture toughness was calculated by measuring the length of the cracks created in the hardness test. The fracture toughness increased in ZrO2-Al2O3-4.6%vol G composites. The presence of soft 

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