I. Charit et Ah. Chokshi, Experimental evidence for diffusion creep in the superplastic 3 mol% yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia, ACT MATER, 49(12), 2001, pp. 2239-2249
Although there have been numerous studies on the high temperature deformati
on characteristics of the superplastic 3 mol% yttria stabilized tetragonal
zirconia (3YTZ). the rate controlling deformation mechanism has not been id
entified unambiguously. In the present study, experiments were conducted on
3YTZ at high stresses and at coarser grain sizes than used conventionally
for superplasticity. The experimental results reveal, for the first time. a
n intragranular dislocation motion controlled high stress regime that is in
dependent of the grain size. With a decrease in stress, there is a transiti
on to a Newtonian viscous deformation regime consistent with Coble grain bo
undary diffusion creep. Ar sufficiently low stresses. or in materials with
finer grain sizes, there is a further transition to a grain size dependent
interface controlled deformation regime. Analysis of the experimental data
suggests strongly that superplastic flow in 3YTZ occurs by an interface con
trolled deformation mechanism. (C) 2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by E
lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.