• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.132-138
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• 1999

In order to investigate the toughening characteristic by microcrack formation in ceramic composites, $Al_2$O$_3$/(0~20)vol% YAG composites containing equiaxed second grains were fabricated using$ Al_2$$O_3$ during hot-pressing. AE(acoustic emission) measurements have been coupled with fracture toughness experiments of SENB method, to evaluate the microcrack formation and the improvement in fracture toughness of ceramic composites. Formation of microcrack was detected by Ae. The generation of AE events increased with increasing of load when load was applied at specimen. The AE events are generated mainly around at maximum load. Specially, the detected AE evetns of composites are many as compared with monolithic $Al_2$$O_3$. Fracture toughness of composites was improved than that of monolithic alumina. $Al_2$O$_3$/YAG composites exhibit main toughening effects by microcracking, results from mutual coalesence of microcracks being generated under applied load. However, there are few toughening mechanism like microcracking in monolithic alumina.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.551-558
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• 1998

Detection of microcrack in {{{{ {Al }_{2 } {O }_{3 } }} ceramics were studided by AE(acoustic emission) technique with 4-point bending test in order to evaluate the fracture process and formation of microcrack. Fully-dense alu-mina ceramics having a different grain size were fabricated by varing the hot-pressing temperature. The grain size of alumina increased with increasing the hot-pressing temperature whereas the bending strength decreasd. The microcracks were observed by SEM and TEM. The generation of AE event increased with increasing the applied load and many AE event was generated at maximum applied load. Alumina with smaller grain size shows the generation of many AE event resulting in an increase of microcrack formation. An intergranular fracture is predominantly observed in fine-grained alumina whereas intragranular fracture occurs predominantly in coarse-grained alumina,. Analysis of micorstructure and AE prove that primary mi-crocracks occur within grain-boundaries of alumina. The larger microcracking were formed by the growth and/or coalesence of primary microcracks. Then the materials become to fracuture by main crack gen-eration at the maximum applied load.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.57-65
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• 1997

A study was undertaken to determine the influence of welding variables such as shielding and plasma gases, torch standoff, travel speed and heat input, etc. on the quality of plasma arc welds in Zircaloy-4 sheet, 2mm thick. Effect of shielding gases and their flow rates on the mechanical properties of Zircaloy-4 welds by plasma arc welding were determined in terms of tensile, bardness and bend tests. The microstructure and fracture surface of Zircaloy-4 welds were investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopies. In addition, the causes of porosity and undercut in plasma arc welds of Zircaloy-4 were also investigated. Zircaloy-4 weld bead width and depth by helium shielding gas showed a wider and deeper than those by argon. It was found that Zircaloy-4 welds with shielding gas of helium did dxhibit a little smoother and uniform weld beads than those with shielding gas of argon. It was also found that the optimum gas flow rates for Zircaloy-4 welding were 0.45l/min for plasma gas with Ar and 4.5 - 6 l/min for shielding gas with He. In addition, there was no big difference in the microstructure and fracture surface of the weld metals made by either Ar shielding gas or He shielding gas.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1388-1398
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• 1994

The fracture toughness and micro-fracture mechanisms of the porous glass and stainless fiber reinforced glass composite were evaluated by using the acoustice mission(AE) technique, fracture toughness $test(K_{IC})$ and the macroscopic observation of the specimen surface which was being under the loading. At initial portion of the loading, the AE signals with low energy, of which origins were considered as the micro-cracks formated at the crack tip, were emitted. With increasing the applied load, AE signals having higher energies were generated due to the coalesence of micro-cracks and fast fracture. Based on the such relationship between AE emission and loading condition, fracture toughness $K_{IAE}$ could be defined successfully be using the $K_I$ value corresponding to an abrupt change of the accumulated AE signal energies emitted during the fracture toughness test. In spite of its brittleness of glass material, nonlinear deformation behavior before maximum load was observed due to the formation of micro-cracks. Further, the stainless fiber may have attributed to the improvement of fracture toughness and the resistance to crack propagation comparing to noncomposited materials Finally, models of the micro-fracture process combined with the AE sources for the porous glass material and its composite were proposed paying attention to the micro-crack nucleation and its coalescence at the crack tip. Fiber fracture and its Pullout, deformation of fiber itself were also delinated from the model.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.734-741
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• 1999

Al2O3/t-ZrO2 particulate composites were prepared by sintering at 150$0^{\circ}C$ and 1$600^{\circ}C$ for 2h in air and microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. Although most ZrO2 particles existed at Al2O3 grain boundaries a few ZrO2 particles within Al2O3 grains. Al2O3 grain growth was depressed due to the pinning effect by ZrO2 particles. During sintering coarsening of intergranular ZrO2 particles occurred as a results of the elimination of ZrO2 intraagglomerate grain boundaries and the coalescence of dragged ZrO2 particles by migrating Al2O3 grain boundries. Changes in mechanical properties of Al2O3 composites were dependant on microstructure of Al2O3 matrix and on size and structure of dispersed ZrO2.