| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T23: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
2023 Undergraduate Student Poster Contest
|
| Presentation Title |
Quantitative Analysis of Crack Propagation in Doped MgAl2O4 Spinel |
| Author(s) |
Metri A. Zughbi, Alexander Campos-Quiros, Animesh Kundu, Masashi Watanabe |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Metri A. Zughbi |
| Abstract Scope |
Magnesium Aluminate Spinel (MgAl2O4) is a ceramic with high strength and transparency, suitable for various extreme environments applications such as transparent armors. Some sintering aids such as LiF for spinel are known to cause grain-boundary embrittlement. In this study, the effect of calcium as an alternative sintering aid on grain-boundary strength was quantitatively evaluated by detailed analysis of crack propagation behaviors in pure and Ca-doped spinels. The hardness and fracture toughness of the pure and Ca-doped spinels were measured utilizing a micro-indentation technique. The fraction of intergranular crack length was determined from the EBSD maps of regions around the fracture paths. The misorientation angle distribution for intergranular fracture was also determined. An in-house developed python script was utilized for this purpose. The segregation of calcium to the grain boundaries resulted in distinct intergranular fracture characteristics as compared to pure spinel but did not affect the measured fracture toughness significantly. |