The microstructure of ceramic composite materials is governed by the type and amount of the secondary phase, sintering aid, and sintering processing. Moreover. tribological property is strongly dependent on microstructure of ceramic composite. In case...
The microstructure of ceramic composite materials is governed by the type and amount of the secondary phase, sintering aid, and sintering processing. Moreover. tribological property is strongly dependent on microstructure of ceramic composite. In case of HP-Si_(3)N_(4), when increasing, the amount of nono-size SiC into silicon nitride, density and hardness as well as flexural strength increased, but fracture toughness decreased. Wear rates in air condition both of HP and GPS samples were similarly governed by fracture toughness. Hardness, fracture toughness, and flexural strength in HIPSi_(3)N_(4)-ZrO_(2) composite decreased, but density increased. When increasing the amount of zirconia, wear rates in air condition decreased. In addition, wear rate of Si_(3)N_(4)-SiC nanocomposite is much lower than that of Si_(3)N_(4)-ZrO_(2) composite because fracture toughness and flexural strength of Si_(3)N_(4)-ZrO_(2) composite are higher than those of Si_(3)N_(4)-SiC nanocomposite. In water, wear rate of Si_(3)N_(4)-SiC nanocomposite is relatively lower than that of Si_(3)N_(4)-ZrO_(2) composite because the hardness of Si_(3)N_(4)-SiC nanocomposite is much lower than that of Si_(3)N_(4)-ZrO_(2) composite.