Dry‐sliding wear behavior of 3Y‐TZP/Al₂O₃‐NbC nanocomposites produced by conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering

Abstract

This work presents the initial results of the dry‐sliding wear behavior of 3 mol% yttria‐stabilized zirconia reinforced with 5 vol% alumina‐niobium carbide (3Y‐TZP/5 vol% Al2O3‐NbC) nanocomposites sintered by conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering methods in the temperature range of 1350‐1450°C. The reinforcement of 3Y‐TZP matrix with hard nanoparticles aimed to improve wear strength of the composites. Wear tests were performed by the ball‐on‐disc method using alumina (Al2O3) and tungsten carbide with 6 wt% cobalt cermet (WC‐6%Co) balls as counter‐materials, a load of 15 N, a sliding distance of 2000 m, and a sliding speed of 0.1 m/s. Wear behavior was evaluated in terms of wear rate and FE‐SEM micrograph analysis of the wear tracks. The nanocomposite sintered at 1450°C by conventional sintering exhibited the least wear when tested with the WC‐6%Co ball. Generally, the wear mechanism showed evidence of severe wear regime with both counter‐materials.

Spark plasma sintering of ultrafine WC‐10Ni‐ZrC hardmetals: Effects of adding ZrC nano‐powder

“…Moreover, the addition of nano‐powders has also attracted much attention for great potentiality in enhancing the mechanical performance of structural materials because of their high specific surface area and small grain size . It was reported that the dry‐sliding wear behavior against tungsten carbide cermet balls with 6 wt% cobalt (WC‐6%Co) of 3 mol% yttria‐stabilized zirconia reinforced by 5 vol% alumina‐niobium carbide hard nanoparticles would be significantly improved together with much enhanced mechanical strength . With 8.6 wt% (6.6 wt% TiC and 2 wt% TiN) nano‐powder, the transverse rupture strength of the prepared TiCN cermets through a liquid sintering method can be improved from 1831.6 to 2884.7 MPa without reducing its rigidity .…”