Toughening Mechanism and Application Analysis of ZrO2 Ceramics under High Speed Strain Condition

Abstract

In order to study the impact properties of ZrO2 ceramics and analyze the failure characteristics to improve the brittleness of ZrO2 ceramics, we used a high-power glass pulsed laser to test the impact of ZrO2 ceramics. Observing the fracture morphology by scanning electron microscopy, we found that the failure of ceramics is mainly caused by spallation. The cracked surface is dominated by typical brittle fractures, and there are more crystals appearing and cracking. The surface does not expand along a single plane, but forms a large number of steps. The direction of the crack and the density distribution indicate that the failure is caused by the reflected tensile wave. At the same time, the surface layer of the material generates a dense compression layer of about several tens of micrometers due to compressive stress, and no cracking occurs in the compression layer. This mechanism indicates that ZrO2 ceramic materials with surface strengthening and matrix toughening can be formed under suitable laser energy.