Superplasticity of fine-grained alumina obtained by spark plasma sintering

Investigations of plastic deformation of fine-grained ceramics based on alumina obtained by the method of spark plasma sintering in the temperature range of 1150-1320 ° C at an applied stress of 40-100 MPa are presented. Based on the experimental data, the parameters of rheological equations were established. It is shown that the mechanism of high-temperature deformation of alumina is superplasticity. In the process of plastic deformation, the grains of alumina do not stretch, which confirms the mechanism of superplasticity - grain boundary sliding. The activation energy for superplastic deformation was Q = 17.8 kTm at d = 6 μm and Q = 24.6 kTm at d = 1 μ m, which is very close to the activation energy of grain boundary diffusion in aluminum oxide Qb = 20 kTm. For a coarse-grained material, an assumption was made about a possible mechanism for lowering the activation energy due to the generation of dislocations by the grain boundary.