Fracture phenomenology of a lithium-aluminium-silicate glass-ceramic

Crack propagation mechanisms in a lithium-aluminium-silicate glass-ceramic have been studied as a function of both initial flaw size and temperature. Using controlled surface cracks, the fracture stress at room temperature was found to conform to the Griffith flaw size dependence. Extrapolation suggests that processing flaws of the order of 6 to 8 m are strength-controlling in the material investigated. Two mechanistic regimes were manifest in the temperature dependence of the fracture stress. Up to 900° C, catastrophic transgranular crack propagation occurred from emplaced cracks. At 1000° C and above, subcritical crack growth occurred intergranularly and the extent of slow crack growth prior to catastrophic failure increased with increasing temperature. The influence of loading rate on slow crack growth and fracture stress was explored at 950 and 1100° C. Generally, the extent of slow crack growth decreased with increased loading rate until at a sufficiently high rate, catastrophic fracture occurred directly with no slow crack extension. These results are discussed in terms of the role of plastic accommodation in the crack extension process, a phenomenon which seems mechanistically dependent upon remnant amorphous (uncrystallized) phase at grain boundaries.     

Creep-sintering of polycrystalline ceramic particulate composites

The sintering of particulate composites consisting of a polycrystalline zinc oxide matrix with 10 vol % zirconia inclusions of two different sizes (3 and 14 m) was investigated at a constant heating rate of 4 °C min^–1 under an applied stress of 300 kPa. The presence of the inclusions produced a decrease in both the creep rate and the densification rate but the ratio of the densification to creep rate remained constant during the experiment. The ratio of the densification rate to creep rate for the composites was 1.5 times greater than that of the unreinforced matrix regardless of inclusion size. The creep viscosity of the composites was higher than that of the unreinforced matrix and increased slightly with decreasing inclusion size.     

Effect of spherical pores on the strength of a polycrystalline ceramic

Bending tests on a ceramic material, lead zirconate-titanate, with varying amounts of porosity, show that the decrease in strength due to spherical pores is much less than would be expected from the stress concentration factor. Using the Weibull probabilistic approach to brittle strength, it is shown that reasonable predictions may be made for the median strength for porosity up to about ten percent.

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Résumé Les essais de flexion sur un matériau céramique: zirconate-titanate de plomb, avec des quantités variables de porosités, montrent que la diminution de la résistance due à la porosité est plus faible que celle donnée par le facteur de concentration de contraintes. En utilisant la méthode statistique de Weibull pour la résistance fragile, il est montré que des prévisions raisonables peuvent être faites pour déterminer la résistance médiane pour une porosité jusqu'aux environs de dix pourcents.

     

Creep mapping in a polycrystalline ceramic: application to magnesium oxide and magnesiowustite

The construction of deformation mechanism maps for a polycrystalline ionic solid in which anion and cation transport are coupled has been demonstrated. Because of anioncation ambipolar coupling, two regimes of Coble creep are possible in systems where anion grain boundary transport is rapid: (1) rate-controlled at low temperatures and small grain sizes by cation grain-boundary diffusion, and (2) rate-limited at high temperatures and large grain sizes by anion grain-boundary diffusion. A new type of deformation mechanism map was introduced in which the temperature and grain size were primary variables. This map was shown to be particularly useful for materials which deform primarily by diffusional creep mechanisms. Ambipolar diffusional creep theory was used to construct several deformation mechanism maps for polycrystalline MgO and magnesiowustite over wide ranges of stress, grain size, temperature and composition.     

Transparent polycrystalline ruby ceramic by spark plasma sintering

Fine-grained and transparent polycrystalline ruby ceramics (Cr₂O₃-doped Al₂O₃) were successfully prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effect of Cr₂O₃ concentration on the grain size, hardness, fracture toughness and thermal conductivity of ruby ceramics was investigated systematically. For 0.05 wt.% Cr₂O₃, high in-line transmittance of 85% at 2000 nm can be reached, further increase of Cr₂O₃ concentration leads to the decrease in transmittance. High hardness of 23.95-25.05 GPa can be achieved due to the fine grain size in all ruby ceramics. The fracture toughness of 1.9-2.29 MPa m^1/2 indicates that no improvement in fracture toughness over pure Al₂O₃ can be obtained by Cr₂O₃ doping in these submicron grained ruby ceramics. High thermal conductivity of 28-29.8 W/(m K) at room temperature, close to that of single crystal sapphire, can be achieved. The change in grain size for different Cr₂O₃ concentrations is the major reason for the change in mechanical and thermal properties, but not for the change in optical properties.     

High-temperature deformation of a polycrystalline alumina containing an intergranular glass phase

The high-temperature creep and flexural deformation of a model alumina-glass ceramic is reported over the temperature range in which the glass phase softens (from a viscosity of ~10⁷ to ~10³ P). Under both loading conditions the deformation is accompanied by extensive cavitational damage throughout the material. The cavitation is inhomogeneously distributed and at high stresses can be localized into bands. In addition, crack propagation at high temperature results in the formation of a cavitational zone on either side of the fracture and measurements of its size are presented as a function of deformation temperature. On the basis of the microstructural observations of the deformed material, the sequence by which isolated cavities grow and link up prior to failure, is described.     

Selecting glass and ceramic sealing alloys

Glass and ceramic sealing alloys have thermal expansion characteristics that are compatible with those of certain glass and ceramic materials. These specialty alloys are designed specifically to match the rate at which glasses and ceramics cool from various elevated temperature ranges.     

Crystallization and optical properties of a transparent mullite glass ceramic

Transparent mullite - based glass ceramics in the system SiO₂-Al₂O₃-B₂O₃-ZnO-K₂O were prepared. The activation energy of crystallization, the Avrami constants and the mechanism of crystallization of mullite were determined by the Matusita method through differential thermal analysis. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods were also used to determine the type and morphology of the precipitated crystalline phase. In addition, the degree of crystallinity was determined by the internal standard method. The results showed that bulk crystallization was the main mechanism for crystallization of the glasses. Optical absorption and photoluminescence properties of the obtained transparent glass-ceramics and their initial glasses were also studied. The glass-ceramics exhibited two emissions at 680 and 700 nm.     

Crystal growth induced by Nd:YAG laser irradiation in patterning glass ceramic substrates with dots

In this work a glass ceramic substrate was processed by focusing a laser beam inside the said material. The crystal phase within the amorphous matrix provides mechanical properties to the glass ceramic substrate in such a way that dots can be patterned inside the fore-mentioned material without producing any cracks. These marks are made up of crystals, the growth of which has been induced by the laser beam. These inner structures can modify the optical, thermal and mechanical properties of the glass ceramic substrate.A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser at its fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm with pulsewidths in the nanosecond range has been used.Morphology, composition, microstructure, mechanical and thermal properties of the processed material are described.     

Cobalt-doped transparent glass ceramic as a saturable absorber q switch for erbium:glass lasers

A new saturable absorber Q switch for 1.54-mum Er:glass lasers is presented. The saturable absorber is a transparent glass ceramic that contains magnesium-aluminum spinel nanocrystallites doped with tetrahedrally coordinated Co(2+) ions. We obtained Q-switched pulses of up to 5.5 mJ in energy and 80 ns in duration at 1.54 mum. The relaxation time of (4)A(2) ?(4)T(1)((4)F) transition bleaching was measured to be (450 ? 150) ns. Ground-state and excited-state absorption cross sections at 1.54-mum wavelength were estimated to be (3.2 ? 0.4) x 10(-19) cm(2) and (5.0 ? 0.6) x 10(-20) cm(2), respectively.     

Novel approach to thin film polycrystalline silicon on glass

Thin (1 μm) a-Si:H films have been deposited on glass at high-deposition rate (8 nm/s) and high substrate temperature (400 °C) by the expanding thermal plasma technique (ETP). After a Solid Phase Crystallization treatment at 650 °C for 10 h, many crystal grains are found to extend over the entire thickness (1 μm) of the polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films. This result indicates that the scalable, high-deposition rate ETP method can contribute to increase the potential for a widespread diffusion of poly-Si based thin film solar cells on glass.     

Laboratory scale erosion testing of a wear resistant glass–ceramic

Abstract

The testing of erosion resistant materials is usually performed on laboratory scale test rigs under accelerated wear conditions. The validity of this is questionable because of the dependence of wear mechanisms on a variety of impact parameters. Data are presented that have been obtained from such tests on a glass–ceramic (Silceram) which has been developed as a low-cost erosion resistant lining material. Various impact conditions have been investigated, including impact angle, particle velocity, and impact frequency. The data concerning the effects of particle velocity show very good agreement with one particular erosion model, although there is an apparent dependence on other test variables.

MST/611     

Lithium conducting glass ceramic with Nasicon structure

Lithium ion conducting glass and glass ceramic of the composition Li_1.4[Al_0.4Ge_1.6(PO₄)₃], have been synthesized. The monolithic glass pieces on thermal treatment resulted in single-phase glass ceramic with the Nasicon structure. Experiments with different electrodes proved that the lithium electrodes provide accurate values for the ionic conductivity using impedance spectroscopy. σ_ionic of the glass ceramic was found to be 3.8×10⁻⁵ S cm⁻¹ at 40°C with an activation energy (E_a) of 0.52 eV. The corresponding values for the glass are 2.7×10⁻⁹ S cm⁻¹ and 0.95 eV, respectively. The Arrhenius dependence of σ_ionic with temperature in glass and glass ceramic is interpreted with a hopping mechanism from which the microscopic characteristics of the lithium cation motion are deduced.     

Carrier transport,structure and orientation in polycrystalline silicon on glass

Polycrystalline silicon films exhibiting (220) and (400) preferential orientation in X-ray diffraction (XRD) were grown on glass substrate from gaseous mixture of SiF₄ and H₂, respectively, using a remote type plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In particular, the grains of (400) oriented texture showed smooth surface resulting from its highly selective sticking of deposition precursor on a certain site of (100) surface. Hall mobility at room temperature of (220) and (400) oriented films rose by 12 and 7 cm²/Vs, respectively, with increasing the grain size and decreasing the structure fluctuation. In addition, the Hall mobility observed in these films is characterized by a thermally activated process given by the equation, μ=μ₀exp(−Eμ/kT) where μ₀, Eμ, k and T are the extended mobility, activation energy, Boltzmann constant and temperature, respectively. The μ₀ increased with increasing the grain size up to 40 cm²/Vs at the grain size of 250 nm diameter, whereas Eμ was kept constant at around 35 meV being independent of grain size, where a part of the free electrons is considered to be localized in the shallow traps being in ‘thermal contact’ with the conduction band.