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

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.