The effect of the Al2O3 additive on the densification behavior, microstructure and mechanical properties of the B4C–xwt%Al2O3 composites sintered by means of spark plasma sintering (SPS) process were investigated. It was found that addition of Al2O3 improve the sinterability of B4C at temperatures between 1700 and 1800°C remarkably. The composite samples which with an addition of 4 wt% Al2O3 and sintering at 1750°C exhibits excellent mechanical properties (relative density: 98.82%, hardness: 90.6 HRA).
Ceramics are widely used in every field of contemporary industrial because of its many excellent properties. However, its mechanical property is great brittleness and small toughness for the characteristics of internal chemical bond, which restricts its application range to a large extent. Therefore, how to improve mechanical properties of ceramic materials has been attracted a great attention in the relevant area. For ceramics using at room temperature, a method which can avoid brittle failure by metal confinement outside of ceramics is given. And the feasibility of this method is discussed. Three point bending tests were conduct on ZrO2 ceramics with and without lateral confinement separately. Base on the much of experimental conclusion, the bending strength of ceramic with lateral confinement was improved largely.
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