MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF AL2O3-ZRO2 COMPO SITE CERAMICS

Density (rho) dependences of the bending strength (sigma) and the Vick ers hardness (H-v) of the Al2O3-ZrO2 [Y2O3 partially stabilized ZrO2 ( Y-PSZ)] composite ceramics were expressed by power laws of sigma propo rtional to rho and H-v proportional to rho(m), respectively. The value n decreased largely when the composite contained 20-50 wt% Al2O3. The change of value ?n was small in this range. The values of n and m dep end upon the fractal dimension (d) over bar, which is related to the s tructure of composite ceramics. The change of both values in the Al2O3 content of 20-50 wt% shows that the structure changes from ZrO2 type to Al2O3 one. The tetragonal phase of ZrO2 component was highly stabil ized in the composite ceramics. The relationship between the value of bending strength and quantity of tetragonal phase was not clear.