Study on the wear properties of Y-TZP ceramics dispersed by second phase Al2O3 particles

The wear properties of alumina with different content dispersed yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) ceramic (ADZ) under different loads were investigated using a ring-on-block tribometer. The results show that the wear resistance of Y-TZP ceramics was effectively improved due to the dispersed Al2O3 particles because of the improvement of the mechanical properties of the ceramics. With the increase of the normal load, the wear rates of ADZ ceramics were increased. Under low and medium normal load (100 N and 300 N), the wear resistance was controlled by the hardness of ceramics, and under high normal load (500 N) the martensitic transformation toughening was obviously contributed to the wear resistance of the ceramics. Under the low load of 100 N the main mechanism governing the wear properties of ADZ ceramic plastic deformation, micro-cutting, and the wear mechanism changes into brittle fracture under the high load of 500 N.