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Tribology of Ceramics and Ceramic Matrix Composites

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Tribology for Scientists and Engineers

Abstract

Ceramic materials are well suited for tribological applications due to their superior hardness, high wear resistance, good chemical resistance, stability at high temperatures, etc. Ceramic pairs are commonly used in extreme environmental applications, such as high loads, high speeds, high temperatures and corrosive environments. This present chapter briefly discusses the friction and wear behaviour of ceramics and ceramic matrix composites. Friction of ceramics depends largely on fracture toughness besides normal load, sliding speed, temperature, etc. Wear mechanisms in ceramics involve fracture, tribo-chemical effects and plastic flow. In case of ceramic matrix composites, the incorporation of the secondary phase into ceramic matrix results in the improvement of both mechanical properties and friction performance. In nano-ceramics, reduction in microstructural scale yields significant improvements in wear resistance. Tribological behaviour of ceramics in biological environment is also highlighted.

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Acknowledgements

Authors gratefully acknowledge the publishers (ASME, Elsevier, Springer, etc.) of a number of technical/research papers used for preparation of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 032, India

    Prasanta Sahoo

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    J. Paulo Davim

Authors
  1. Prasanta Sahoo
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  2. J. Paulo Davim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Prasanta Sahoo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Pradeep L. Menezes

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Michael Nosonovsky

  3. Department of Marine Engineering, Texas A&M University, Galveston, Texas, USA

    Sudeep P. Ingole

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Satish V. Kailas

  5. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Michael R. Lovell

Appendices

Revision Questions

  1. 1.

    What makes ceramic materials well suited for tribological applications?

  2. 2.

    What is the main problem of design and manufacture of components with pure zirconia? How is it overcome?

  3. 3.

    How is fragility of ceramic materials reduced?

  4. 4.

    How does friction of ceramics vary with fracture properties? Explain the reason.

  5. 5.

    How does friction of ceramics depend on sliding speed?

  6. 6.

    Why does friction of ceramics usually increase with temperature?

  7. 7.

    How does wear of Si3N4 depend on humidity?

  8. 8.

    What is the effect of lubricant on wear of ceramics?

  9. 9.

    Why do cermets show high wear resistance?

  10. 10.

    What yields improvement in wear resistance of nano-ceramics?

Answers to Revision Question

  1. 1.

    Superior hardness leading to high resistance to wear, low coefficient of expansion leading to high dimensional stability, low reactivity leading to good chemical resistance, ability to maintain their physical properties at high temperatures, etc.

  2. 2.

    Zirconia undergoes phase changes with temperature. Under normal atmospheric pressure and at ambient temperature, zirconia contains monoclinical crystalline structure that remains stable up to 1,100 °C. Then it converts to tetragonal between 1,100 and 2,300 °C, thereafter becomes cubic. These phase changes are reversible but accompanied with significant variations in density. This puts a barrier to design and manufacture component parts with pure zirconia.

    As a remedy, tetragonal or cubic zirconia is stabilized at low temperatures by doping the same with CaO, MgO or Y2O3. This partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) is a metastable state that recovers the monoclinical structure easily under the effect of mechanical or thermal stress.

  3. 3.

    Ceramic materials are often reinforced with a second phase in the form of whiskers that improve the mechanical properties of the ceramic matrix by preventing crack propagation. Another technique is to introduce microcracks and voids in the ceramic during its manufacture.

  4. 4.

    Friction coefficient of ceramics decreases with an increase in fracture toughness. The occurrence of fracture leads to higher friction as it provides an additional mechanism for the dissipation of energy at the sliding contact.

  5. 5.

    In general, friction of ceramics decreases with sliding speed. With increase in sliding speed, the interface temperature increases and this enhances the tribological film formation on the sliding surfaces leading to a decrease in friction.

  6. 6.

    The removal of absorbed water from the interface results in the rise in friction with temperature.

  7. 7.

    Wear rate of Si3N4 decreases with increase in humidity of the surrounding air. In humid environment, Si3N4 forms silica and hydrated silica film is formed at the interface. The film being soft with low shear strength reduces the coefficient of friction and wear rate.

  8. 8.

    Ceramic materials respond to conventional lubricants in the same way as metals. Effective lubrication decreases wear rate. However, chemical effects play a significant role even under lubricated conditions. In a wear regime map, the interaction of lubricant with ceramics extends the pressure–velocity boundary towards the higher values for a transition from mild to severe wear.

  9. 9.

    Material properties of cermets are such that these require a typically high load to produce fracture from point load. This indicates that the material removal in cermets is highly unlikely to occur by severe brittle fracture under the tribological contact regime. Thus the cermets show high wear resistance.

  10. 10.

    First, as hardness and yield strength improve considerably, the rate of accumulation of plasticity-controlled damage during the initial deformation-controlled wear reduces. Second, the smaller flaw sizes yield a considerable increase in the plasticity-induced critical stress that controls the subsequent brittle-fracture-controlled wear.

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Sahoo, P., Davim, J.P. (2013). Tribology of Ceramics and Ceramic Matrix Composites. In: Menezes, P., Nosonovsky, M., Ingole, S., Kailas, S., Lovell, M. (eds) Tribology for Scientists and Engineers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1945-7_7

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