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AE 684 Aircraft Materials & Processes

Ceramics

Engineering Materials
A larger percentage of engineering materials utilize the elements in combined forms: Alloys, compounds and Mixtures In alloys, a metal is combined with one or more other elements Compounds are made up of chemically combined elements with definite proportions of the component elements Mixtures are a physical blend of two or more substances). These combinations of the elements can be solids, liquids, or gases.

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Engineering Materials
The word Ceramics taken from Greek word meaning Fired material Includes porcelain, earthenware, brick, glass, cement, refractories, abrasives, cements Ceramics are typically solids composed of compounds wherein the atoms are held together with strong ionic or covalent bonds

Engineering Materials-Bonding MaterialsMany laws of chemistry and physics control chemical bonding and the tendencies for bonding. A simple rule that fits most reactions is that atoms tend to combine in such a manner that their outer electron shell (containing valence electrons) will be complete when it contains eight electrons.

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Metallic Bond
The metallic elements give up their valence electrons to form a "sea" of electrons surrounding the atom The valence electrons, which are no longer associated with any particular atom, move freely within the electron sea and become associated with several atom cores.

Covalent Bond
Covalently bonded materials share electrons among two or more atoms. A silicon atom, which has a valence of four, obtains eight electrons in its outer energy shell by sharing its electrons with four surrounding silicon atoms In order for the covalent bonds to be formed, the silicon atoms must be arranged so the bonds have a fixed directional relationship with one another.

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Covalent Bond

Covalent Bond
covalent bonds are very strong materials bonded by covalent bonds have poor ductility and poor electrical conductivity.

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Ionic Bond
When more than one type of atom is present in a material, one atom may donate its valence electrons to a different atom, filling the outer energy shell of the second atom. The atom that contributes the electrons is left with a net positive charge and is a cation, while the atom that accepts the electrons acquires a net negative charge and is an anion.

Ionic Bond
The oppositely charged ions are then attracted to one another and produce the ionic bond. Electrical conductivity is poor since the electrical charge is transferred by the movement of entire ions which do not move as easily as electrons.

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Ionic Bond

How are ceramics made

Most ceramics use some kind of powder that muse be somehow glued together to make a solid. Typical processes are sintering, vitrification, mixing.

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Sintering
Some powders can be joined into a useful solid blend by high temperature self diffusion. This operation removes spaces between particles

Sintering
Bricks are formed by forming clay to a shape and firing the clay to fuse the inorganic material into a solid. Refractory bricks are used in furnace linings and are used in metal manufacturing. They are made from mixtures of clays and oxides.

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Formation of aggregates

Single crystals
Single crystals of elements such as silicon, germanium and boron are grown by nucleation and controlled solidification

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Vitrification
Some ceramics can be made by gluing the particles together with glasses

Material availability
Some materials (such as titanium dioxide or white beach sand) come from the ground in pure form Other materials such as silicon carbide are hard to form. They are formed blending sand (the source of silica) with coke. The entire mass is heated to red heat for a number of days to form silicon carbide.

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How are ceramics made

Fabrication of ceramic shapes

Two most important ceramic fabrication processes are vitrification and pressing.

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Fabrication of ceramic shapes

Typical Engineering ceramics

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Ceramic Fabrication
Most ceramics are hard and brittle; thus parts cannot be easily machined from standard shapes. Rough machining must be done in the green or unfired state. Forming ceramics into special shapes by molding usually involves the fabrication of tooling for that particular part, possibly making one-of-a-kind parts expensive. one-of-

Ceramic Fabrication
The presence of binders (like a glassy phase in a fired ceramic lowers strength. If strength is a selection factor, the percentage of theoretical density should be specified and controlled. Sintering of ceramic parts usually involves size change. They can shrink as much as 30%. For this reason, fired ceramic parts are difficult to make to close dimensional requirements. (Tolerances are typically within 1%plus allowances for distortion.)

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Properties of Ceramics versus others

Microstructure of ceramics
Brittleness of ceramics is due to strong ionic or covalent bonding. Crystal microstructure can significantly affect properties e.g. Boron nitride is soft in hexagonal structure while it is extremely hard in its cubic form.

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Microstructure of ceramics
Grain size, porosity and phases present in a ceramic significantly affect the properties. Greater the porosity, lower the strength. Ceramics may have three, four or more phases. A vitrified structure would show particles held together with some sort of glassy phase.

Mechanical Properties
The mechanical properties of ceramics are good in compression They very high hardness and greater stiffness than other engineering materials. Their greatest weakness is brittleness

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Thermal & Electrical Properties

The thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of ceramics cover a large spectrum. The super-ceramic diamond has the superhighest thermal conductivity, while most ceramics have low thermal conductivity; they are heat insulators.

Thermal & Electrical Properties

Most ceramics have lower thermal expansion coefficient than metals and plastics. There are glasses that have zero as their coefficient of thermal expansion. The maximum use temperatures of ceramics are above those of most other engineering materials Absorbed moisture (in porous ceramics) can lower electrical insulating properties

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Chemical Properties
The engineering ceramics are crystalline; some ceramic-type ceramicmaterials such as glasses are amorphous Most ceramics do not respond to the types of heat treatments used on metals

Chemical Properties
The engineering ceramics, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, zirconia, silicon nitride, and others, are very resistant to chemical attack in a wide variety of solutes. Many ceramics have corrosion characteristics similar to glasses. Glasses are resistant to most acids, bases, and solvents, but a few things like hydrofluoric acid will rapidly attack them.

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Glasses
Glasses are harder than many metals (400 to 600 kglmm2). Glasses have tensile strength predominantly in the range of 4 to 10 I (27 to 69 MPa) Glasses have low ductility; they are brittle. Glasses have a low coefficient of thermal expansion compared with many metals and plastics (0 to 5 x 10-6 in./in. F; 0.:>4 10to 9 x IIf' cnl/cm 0q. Steel = 6 x 10-6 10in./in. oF.

Glasses
Glasses have low thermal conductivity (3 to 10 x 10-3 cal cm/s 0c) compared to metals (steel is 100.1 cal cm/s 0c). The amorphous glasses have a modulus of elasticity in the range from 9 to 11 X 106 psi (6210 76 x 103 MPa). Glasses can be good electrical insulators (electrical resistivity can be higher than 1015 Qcm). Glasses are resistant to many acids, solvents, and chemicals. Glasses can be used at elevated temperature

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Applications of Glasses
Besides the window-type applications, glass windowfibers are used in insulation, sound deadening, as fillers in plastics, and as reinforcement in plastic laminates. Glasses can be used to shield or to transmit radiation. Photosensitive glasses are chemically machined into intricate shapes for fluidic devices used in machine controls. GlassGlass-lined tanks are used to handle aggressive chemicals. Glasses are widely used in the food industry because of their chemical resistance and their cleanability.

Glasses
In summary, glasses are predominantly noncrystalline fusion products of inorganic materials, mostly oxides. They have good mechanical properties and a wide range of thermal, electrical and optical properties

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