SRM501E Final Exam

Margarida Antunes Nº912210053

1. Which parameters effect the mechanical strength of ceramics during each of the
manufacturing process stage. Briefly describe their relationship with strength.

Mechanical strength of a ceramic material is the combination of fracture toughness

and the size of the limiting defect. The variation in resistance should be attributed to
the variation in the size of the limiting defect (the defect that starts the catastrophic
fracture). The mechanical strength can be affected by the properties of the powder
when it is being processed, like the particle size and its size distribution. Can be
affected by the type of shaping that it is submitted. And also, can be affected by the
by the sintering process where we can find some potential defects like intragranular
pores can remain, warpage (deformation) due to density variations, or overfiring,
excessive grain growth due to overfiring, cracking due to high heating rate,
incomplete decomposition.

2. A) What are the desired properties of Ceramic powders produced by the powder
synthesis methods? B) Briefly interpret the effect of each property on the quality of
Ceramic products?

A) When producing powders, the goal is to produce highly pure and fine grain
powders, maintaining high reproducibility, good controllability and low
processing cost. So, the ideal powders should include: fine powder less than 1
µm, no agglomeration, narrow particle size distribution, spherical morphology,
homogeneous chemical composition, minimal microstructural defects and good
sinterability.
B) Size distribution is important because it affects the processing characteristics of
the powder. Flow properties, compressibility and density are other properties
that have an effect on powders behaviour when processing them. Flow is
important when ceramic powders are being filled into moulds. Compressibility,
when ceramic powders are being compressed. Density, theoretical density,
apparent density, and the density when the powder is shaken or tapped in the
mould cavity.
3. A) What changes occur in Ceramic bodies during the sintering process? B) What are
the important parameters effecting the sintering of ceramics?

A) Sintering is known as the process of turning a green compact into a solid structure by
providing heated to it. Sintering eliminates pores making the product stronger and
denser and also shrinkage occurs.
B) Some important parameters need to be considered when doing sintering like:
- powder preparation where particle size, particle morphology and particle size
distribution are important for example if the particles are too large it may lead to
porosity or if the particles are to fine the sintering temperature will be lower or if we
have bi modal particle size this will improve packing efficiency;
- powder consolidation where density, pore size and distribution need to be
considered;
- distribution of additives or second phase;
- firing temperature, heating rate, applied pressure and atmosphere.

Some parameters, such as the sintering temperature, applied pressure, average

particle size and atmosphere can be controlled with sufficient accuracy. Others such
as powder characteristics and particle packing are more difficult to control but have a
significant effect on sintering.

4. Briefly describe the mechanisms for A) Solid state sintering, B) Liquid phase sintering.
A) Solid state sintering is a diffusion process that controls the material transport and
it depends inversely on particle diameter and directly on temperature. The first
stage consists in the rearrangement of particles to increase points of contact
maximizing the coordination number, neck formation and increasing density up
to 70 % of the theoretical density. The second stage will lead to neck growth,
volume shrinkage, grain boundary formed at the contacts, grain growth which
leads lengthening grain boundaries and density will reach 70-90 % of theoretical
density, this intermediate stage ends when the process becomes discontinuous.
The final stage grain growth occurs, pores are isolated, grain boundary pores are
eliminated, inner porosity closes and density reaches more than 90% theoretical
density.
B) Liquid phase sintering, in this process there is a presence of a liquid phase, this
liquid introduces capillary pressure assisting particle rearrangement leading to
efficient packing. In this way sintering becomes faster and with a more uniform
densification on the final product. So, during liquid phase sintering a liquid phase
coexists with the particulate solid at the sintering temperature. The wetting liquid
provides capillary force that pulls the solid particles together and induces particle
rearrangement. A high amount of sintering aid is made. The second phase chosen
has lower melting temperature than the main constituent. The sintering
 temperature is set just above the melting point at the added phase so that during
sintering it forms a liquid phase that wets the solid particles. The pores in the
powder compact are largely surrounded by the liquid phase and the driving force
for sintering is liquid surface energy. With high liquid fraction full density can be
achieved almost completely by microstructure rearrangement. The smaller the
contact angle between liquid and solid the more wetting will happen.

5. What are the main aspects of mechanical behaviour of ceramics? Briefly discuss.

There are two types of mechanical behaviours: elastic and plastic. The resistance of a
material to failure in the presence of a flaw it's called fracture toughness. The study
of a materials ability to resist stress in the presence of a flaw is called fracture
mechanics. This fracture can be divided in ductile fracture, that is accompanied by
plastic deformation, and brittle fracture, that has little or no plastic deformation. The
brittle fracture can be trans granular (through the grains) or inter granular (between
grains). In every fracture there are two stages: crack formation and propagation.
Ceramic materials don’t show any plastic deformation, there fracture mechanism is
by brittle behaviour. Therefore, for ceramics we can’t use tensile test so we use a
bending or flexural strength. The bending test consists in applying a force to the
center of a bar that is supported on each end to determine the resistance of the
material to the applied load. Ceramics show a linear stress strain and the modulus of
elasticity for ceramics is higher than for metals, no plastic deformation prior to
fracture, fracture happens in elastic deformation.