Effect of surface roughness on grain growth and sintering of alumina

The production of ceramic bodies with less surface roughness is industrially important when one considers the aspect of final machining processes. Hence an attempt have been made to study the variation in surface roughness parameters (R a, R y, R z) of alumina having three different kinds of roughness features at different sintering temperatures. Variation in surface roughness properties are also correlated with grain size. R z shows significant difference between fine and intermediate surfaces, hence predicts small difference in their microstructural features. As a general trend, average grain size increases with increase in sintering temperature, but wide distribution of grains with enhanced non-uniform grain growth is observed when the surface is coarse. Hence, creation of fine surface in the green body is necessary for homogeneously distributed grains with controlled uniform grain growth. The final roughness and grain size of the sintered alumina depend on the initial surface roughness of the green body.