JOINT USE OF DOUBLE-CRYSTAL DIFFRACTOMETRY, BEAM BROADENING AND CONVENTIONAL SANS FOR ANALYSIS OF CREEP PORE FORMATION IN LIQUID-PHASE SINTERED ALUMINA

The formation of pores during creep initiates the failure of ceramic m aterials used for high-temperature applications. Thus, the determinati on of pore sizes and their number densities is of key importance in ob taining an understanding of the failure mechanisms. In former investig ations it was shown that small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and bea m broadening (BB) are powerful experimental techniques for the investi gation of pore size distribution. In this paper it is noted that in ad dition to these methods complementary high resolution SANS experiments have to be performed in order to determine pore size distributions re liably in the size range from a few nanometers to several micrometers. The evolution of such pore size distributions have been observed duri ng the creep of liquid-phase sintered alumina.