Alumina and zirconia materials have been used more and more in the fabrication of the so-called zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) technical ceramics and serve purposes, such as supports for catalysts and thermal or electrical insulators, among others. These applications require tight limits in terms of the ceramics’ dimensions and properties, with a consequent high quality control by manufacturing companies.
Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to facilitate the accurate manufacturing of such components; however, the consequences of AM implementation in industrial systems, if not supported by fundamental research, can lead to consumption and resource increases, contrary to expectations. Therefore, the fine tuning of the manufacturing of components based on alumina (A), zirconia (Z), or a mixture of both (AZ) by additive manufacturing requires an analysis of the parameters that influence their final properties.
In this context, this work aims at the construction/definition of prediction models for effective thermoelastic properties of ZTA ceramics, considering the influence of the A/Z ratio at the microstructural (macroscopically homogeneous and isotropic material) level, using samples with different compositions of alumina-zirconia, obtained using slip casting and sintering at 1550 °C.
The thermoelastic properties of these slip-casted specimens, namely the Young’s modulus, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion coefficient, and Poisson’s ratio, were experimentally obtained for several alumina/zirconia ratios. These experimental values were analyzed together with microstructure patterns and were then compared with the numerical values obtained using finite element analyses. Both experimental and numerical results were compared with those predicted by micromechanics and composite theory models.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: J.P.-d.-C. and S.O.; methodology: J.P.-d.-C. and S.O.; data curation: G.C., S.O., J.M.-G., J.B. and J.P.-d.-C.; resources: S.O., J.M.-G. and J.P.-d.-C.; supervision: S.O., J.M.-G. and J.P.-d.-C.; writing—original draft preparation: G.C., J.M.-G. and J.P.-d.-C.; writing—review and editing: S.O., J.M.-G. and J.P.-d.-C.; project administration: J.P.-d.-C. and S.O.; funding acquisition: S.O. and J.P.-d.-C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the project “TAMAZ3D—Development of a Decision Support Tool for Additive Manufacturing of Alumina-Zirconia 3-D structures” (POCI 01-0145-FEDER-030493), and by projects of CICECO (UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020) and TEMA (UID/EMS/00481/2020), all financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. S.M. Olhero acknowledge FCT for CEECIND/03393/2017 contract.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding authors.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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