Fluorescence microscopy investigation on residual stresses in alumina-based ceramics

Grinding/polishing and indentation induced residual stresses were measured by confocal Cr3+ fluorescence microscopy with high spatial resolution (~2 μm),obtaining local stress variation information rather than the mean stress averaged over a large sampling volume as is measured by other techniques. Due to the translucency of alumina materials, a substantial portion of the fluorescence signal comes from beneath the surface of the specimen. A probe response function (PRF) was developed taking account of microscope resolution, refraction, absorption and scattering, to quantitatively describe where the collected signal came from. It described the fluorescence intensity variations against defocus distance very well for a range of materials including sapphire, ruby, polycrystalline alumina and AI2O3/SiC nanocomposites. Large variations in the residual stresses on ground and polished surfaces were observed, owing to the surface fracture and pullouts. The broad peaks and narrow peaks separated from the spectra collected near the ground/polished surfaces physically represented the two distinct regions in the ground region: a plastically deformed surface layer and the elastically deformed material underneath. A model for the residual stress field taking into account the pullout was proposed using an array of virtual dislocations. The model agreed with the experimental results well when the PRF was included. Tensile stresses were detected on the ground surfaces of polycrystalline aluminas and 2 vol.% SiC nanocomposite, but not on the polished surfaces of polycrystalline aluminas or ground surfaces of 5 and 10 vol.% SiC nanocomposites. This was explained in terms of difference in the amount of pullouts on the surfaces. The depth of deformation was deeper in the ground polycrystalline alumina compared to the polished condition; the depth of deformation in alumina and the AI2O>sub>3/SiC nanocomposites were similar (~1 μm) while the compressive stresses in the nanocomposites were greater owing to the reduction in pullout. The main difference between ground alumina and AI2O3/SiC nanocomposites was the brittle fracture behavior rather than the plastic deformation. Line scans and area mapping were carried out on 1 kg loaded Vickers indentations of alumina-based ceramics. Tensile stresses were found at the tips of radial cracks and lateral cracks and compressive stresses were found around the indent impression. The line scan results in the elastic regions agreed qualitatively with Yoffe's model and the quantitative discrepancy was attributed mainly to the cracking that relaxed the stresses. The differences in residual stresses between alumina and AI2O3/SiC nanocomposites were small if measured with high spatial resolution but it would be exaggerated with lower resolution.