Fracture and wear responses of an alumina-zirconia composite

The dry sliding wear behaviour of a cold pressed and sintered, yttria stabilised zirconia containing 20 wt% alumina (TZ-3Y20AB, Tosoh, Japan) coupled with a commercial alumina (Degussit AL23. Germany) has been determined using a pin-on-disk apparatus. The investigation of the wear mechanism showed the presence of sub surface cracking. Therefore, the mixed-mode fracture toughness (K-IC-K-IIC) of the alumina/zirconia composite and of the pure alumina were determined according to the Single Edge Precracked Beam method, (SEPB), and the asymmetric bending scheme.