Residual stress and diffraction line-broadening analysis of Al2O3/Y-TZP ceramic composites by neutron diffraction measurement

Abstract Time-of-flight neutron diffraction and Rietveld analysis have been used to investigate the residual stresses, crystallite structure and microstructural features in Al2O3/Y-TZP ceramic composites fabricated by two different green processing techniques (a novel tape casting and conventional slip casting) and with different zirconia content (5 and 40 vol.% Y-TZP). The change in lattice parameters, individual peak shifts and peak-broadening were analyzed, in order to calculate the uniform residual stress field (mean phase stresses and peak-specific stresses) and the non-uniform microstrains. Peak-specific residual stresses were calculated for different hkl reflections both for the Al2O3 matrix and the Y-TZP particulates. The sign and the magnitude of the peak-specific residual stress are highly dependent on the individual hkl reflection studied and on the volume fraction of zirconia. Peak broadening was observed in the Y-TZP reflections, due to non-uniform microstrains. Both the mean phase stress field and the non-uniform microstrains were mainly influenced by the Y-TZP content in the studied Al2O3/Y-TZP composites, irrespective of the measured direction and the fabrication process.