Crack resistance and fatigue of transforming ceramics. II : CeO2-stabilized tetragonal ZrO2

This paper reports on crack resistance characteristics and fatigue properties that have been investigated in Ce-TZP ceramics with different grain sizes. The relatively low critical transformation stress allows the development of larger transformation zones ({le}200 {mu}m), leading to flaw-tolerant behavior. However, autocatalytic transformation processes are found to be bound to grain sizes beyond a critical value; transformation is then very limited in finer microstructures. Fatigue as a specific cyclic effect is more pronounced in microstructures with larger grains. Thus, damaging processes in the course of extensive t-m transformation are suspected to be intensified during cyclic loading.