Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.88, No.3, 773-776, 2005
High-temperature Young's modulus of alumina during sintering
High-temperature Young's modulus of a partially sintered alumina ceramic has been studied dynamically during the sintering process. Comparative, room-temperature Young's modulus data were obtained for a suite of partially sintered alumina compacts with different porosities. The dynamic Young's modulus of a 1200 degrees C partially sintered material was observed to decrease linearly with temperature, but then above 1200 degrees C it increased sharply as sintering and densification of the alumina became dominant. The evolution of the Young's modulus due purely to sintering exhibited an exponential relationship with porosity in excellent agreement with room-temperature measurements of equivalent porous alumina ceramics.