DEVELOPMENT OF CERAMIC COMPOSITES FOR IMPROVED TOUGHNESS

Abstract

Ceramic based composites were reviewed, using the recently developed methods to improve the fracture toughness. Silicon carbide material was chosen because of its application in aerospace, automobiles and bulletproof vests. By conventional sintering abnormal grain growth occurs which reduces hardness, fracture toughness, Corrosion and wear resistance. To get fine grained structure, Silicon carbide composite with different content of cerium dioxide was prepared by spark plasma sintering at 1850 ˚C and 60 MPA. For high densification sintering additive was used. Effects of addition of nano sized cerium dioxide particles on microstructure and mechanical properties were studied. Around 12.9 % of improvement in hardness was measured, maximum at 0.1 wt. % of cerium dioxide and at 0.5 wt. % of cerium dioxide around 25 % of improvement in fracture toughness was measured.