Effect of indentation load on mechanical properties and evaluation of tribological properties for zirconia toughened alumina

In this study, co-precipitation processing route has been opted to prepare the ZTA composites. The well homogenized powders are compacted in a circular shape die-punch arrangement using hydraulic press. The mechanical properties of developed composites are evaluated on Vickers testing machine. In this study, a wide range of test load (0.5–50 N) has been applied on the samples to see it’s the effect on hardness. A significant decrease in the value of hardness and fracture toughness has been observed with increasing load. An interesting result has been observed beyond 25 N loads, where stagnation in the said properties is observed. After evaluation of mechanical properties the ZTA composites are used to investigate the tribological properties. A comparative study has been made between alumina and ZTA ceramics at a load of 20 N with sliding velocity of 0.5 m/s. The observed results show an improvement of 57.8% in case of specific wear rate, whereas 19.78% improvement has been achieved in case of coefficient of friction for ZTA ceramics as compared to alumina ceramics. The improvements in tribological properties are attributed to the soft phase of zirconia reinforced inside hard matrix of alumina which provides a toughening effect