Hardness and Fracture Toughness of Ceramic Composite Using Experimental and Analytical Methods

Abstract

The present work investigated and discussed the impact of addition of graphene to Al2O3 ceramic matrix (alumina) and its effect on different mechanical properties of resulting alumina-graphene (Al-G) composite tool material. Alumina – Graphene (Al-G) ceramic composite tools were prepared through powder metallurgy technique by maintaining different weight proportions of graphene. The wt% is varied from 0.15 to 0.65 with an interval of 0.1%. Hardness and Fracture toughness properties were tested and these properties were observed to be increased at lower content of graphene up to 0.45wt% and later on a decrement trend was observed with increased content of graphene. The composite with 0.45wt% of graphene yielded the highest hardness (HV) and fracture toughness (KIC) parameter values at an indentation load of 294N. The composite specimens were prepared through Microwave sintering of powder metallurgy technique to ensure uniform grain structure to the resulting composite.