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Silica ceramic cores have played an important part in the manufacture of hollow blades due to their excellent chemical stability and moderate high-temperature mechanical properties. In this study, silica-based ceramics were prepared with Al2O3 addition by stereolithography, and the influence of Al2O3 content on mechanical properties of the silica-based ceramics was investigated. The Al2O3 in silica-based ceramics can improve the mechanical properties by playing a role as a seed for the crystallization of fused silica into cristobalite. As a result, with the increase of Al2O3 content, the linear shrinkage of the silica-based ceramics first decreased and then increased, while the room-temperature flexural strength and the high-temperature flexural strength first increased and then decreased. As the Al2O3 content increased to 1.0 vol%, the linear shrinkage was reduced to 1.64% because of the blocked viscous flow caused by Al2O3. Meanwhile, the room-temperature flexural strength and the high-temperature flexural strength were improved to 20.38 and 21.43 MPa with 1.0 vol% Al2O3, respectively, due to the increased α-cristobalite and β-cristobalite content. Therefore, using the optimal content of Al2O3 in silica-based ceramics can provide excellent mechanical properties, which are suitable for the application of ceramic cores in the manufacturing of hollow blades.


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Influence of Al2O3 content on mechanical properties of silica-based ceramic cores prepared by stereolithography

Show Author's information Wen ZHENGa,bJia-Min WUa,b( )Shuang CHENa,bChang-Shun WANGa,bChun-Lei LIUa,bShuai-Bin HUAa,bKang-Bo YUa,bJie ZHANGa,bJing-Xian ZHANGcYu-Sheng SHIa,b( )
State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Engineering Research Center of Ceramic Materials for Additive Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430074, China
State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China

Abstract

Silica ceramic cores have played an important part in the manufacture of hollow blades due to their excellent chemical stability and moderate high-temperature mechanical properties. In this study, silica-based ceramics were prepared with Al2O3 addition by stereolithography, and the influence of Al2O3 content on mechanical properties of the silica-based ceramics was investigated. The Al2O3 in silica-based ceramics can improve the mechanical properties by playing a role as a seed for the crystallization of fused silica into cristobalite. As a result, with the increase of Al2O3 content, the linear shrinkage of the silica-based ceramics first decreased and then increased, while the room-temperature flexural strength and the high-temperature flexural strength first increased and then decreased. As the Al2O3 content increased to 1.0 vol%, the linear shrinkage was reduced to 1.64% because of the blocked viscous flow caused by Al2O3. Meanwhile, the room-temperature flexural strength and the high-temperature flexural strength were improved to 20.38 and 21.43 MPa with 1.0 vol% Al2O3, respectively, due to the increased α-cristobalite and β-cristobalite content. Therefore, using the optimal content of Al2O3 in silica-based ceramics can provide excellent mechanical properties, which are suitable for the application of ceramic cores in the manufacturing of hollow blades.

Keywords: mechanical properties, Al2O3, silica, stereolithography, ceramic core, hollow blades

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Publication history

Received: 21 April 2021
Revised: 10 June 2021
Accepted: 26 June 2021
Published: 28 September 2021
Issue date: December 2021

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© The Author(s) 2021

Acknowledgements

The research work presented in this paper is supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project (2017-VII-0008-0102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51975230), and the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure (SKL201903SIC). Meanwhile, the authors are grateful for the State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology for mechanical property tests, as well as the Analysis and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology for XRD and SEM tests.

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