High-temperature plastic behavior of TZP-Ni cermets

Abstract

The creep behavior of tetragonal zirconia TZP-Ni cermets with metal contents below, close to, and above the percolation limit has been studied. Compressive creep tests were performed on as-received materials and samples in which the metal phase was chemically removed (ceramic skeletons). The stress exponent and the activation energy for plastic flow are independent of the nickel content and decrease continuously on increasing the stress and/or the temperature; skeleton structures display the same trend, suggesting that creep is controlled by the zirconia matrix. The steady-state constitutive equation for high-purity monolithic zirconia applies to the cermets when the stress is corrected with the porosity and volume fraction of percolated nickel.