CERAMIC

Introduction:

General properties of ceramic materials:

1. High strength & hardness.

2. Very Brittle.

3. Low ductility.

4. Low toughness.

5. Good thermal & electrical resistance.

6. High melting points.

7. High chemical stability.

Ceramics in engineering application can be divided into two major groups:

(i) Traditional ceramics: Stone and brick.

(ii) Advanced ceramics: Alumina and silicon.

Fabrication Techniques:

1) Batching and Preparations of Powders

2) Forming

3) Drying and firing

4) Shaping and Surface Finishing

3) Drying and firing

 Green ceramics is heated to

(i) Burn the added binders and plasticizers

(ii) Effect changes in the structure of the minerals

(iii) Vitrify or bond the particles  Defects such as cracks, warpage etc. may occurs.

 the last step in the firing of ceramic bodies is sintering

 Sintering → process of bonding or vitrifying the particles and densifying the ceramic body.
Porosity:

• Ceramics contain a certain amount of porosity/voids.

• Amount, size, distribution and continuity of voids affect mechanical & chemical performance of
ceramic parts.

• How to increase porosity?

– Mixing bulky combustible substance with wet mix

– Forcing air into wet plastic mass

– Mixing reagents (into batch) that will react chemically and form gas and product not injurious to the
ceramic.

Sintering:

• Sintering is a method for making objects from powder, increasing the adhesion between particles as
they are heated.

• It is used with ceramic powders and in powder metallurgy.

• Sintering is related to diffusion

• This method is used for processing ceramic fiber composites in which a ceramic material or mixture
is fired to less than complete fusion.

• SOLID STATE • LIQUID STATE

– Adhesion via necking – Adhesion via liquid film
– Higher temperature – Slightly lower temp.
– More porosity – Less porosity
– Less dense – More dense
– Properties limited by porosity – Properties limited by glassy matrix phase

Selection of ceramic:

• 3 design techniques:

– Empirical

• Trial-and-error approach → repeat till suitable material found

– Deterministic

• Average properties of materials → better on metallic

– Probabilistic

• Weibull modulus, m → widely used

POLYMER
Introduction:

Type of polymer:

(i) ELASTOMER

(ii) THERMOPLASTIC

(iii) THERMOSET

Processing/fabrication:

Pure polymers are mixed with other materials – to improve & enhance their properties.

Alloys & blends – combination of polymers that are mechanically mixed.

 Alloy → has a single glass transition temperature

→ exhibits a synergistic effect in properties.

 Blend → multiple glass transition temperature

→ with properties that are the average of the contributions of the individual constituent
polymers.

→ Need a stabilizer

Selection of polymer:

Selecting a composite material to use for a component of an assembly starts by matching (i) the
component requirements (ii) the manufacturing capabilities (iii) the characteristics of available
materials

COMPOSITE
Introduction:

• Macroscopic combinations of metallic, ceramic, and/or polymeric materials having an identifiable

interface between them.

• It has characteristics that are not depicted by any of the components in isolation.

Fabrication of Composite:

• PMC (Polymer Matrix Composites)

1) Hand Lay-Up Method

2) Spray-Up Method

3) Filament winding

4) Pultrusion

5) Compression molding

6) Vacuum Bagging/Autoclaving

7) Wet flow methods – Injection molding, Resin transfer molding

Selection of composites:
Hybridization – gives a way of creating controlled anisotropy.

Properties;

• Strength

• Thermal expansion coefficient

• Thermal conductivity

• Thermal diffusivity

• Dielectric constant

• Electrical conductivity and percolation