Dry-sliding wear behavior of 3Y-TZP/Al2O3-NbC nanocomposites produced by conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering

This work presents the initial results of the dry-sliding wear behavior of 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia reinforced with 5 vol% alumina-niobium carbide (3Y-TZP/5 vol% Al2O3-NbC) nanocomposites sintered by conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering methods in the temperature range of 1350-1450 degrees C. The reinforcement of 3Y-TZP matrix with hard nanoparticles aimed to improve wear strength of the composites. Wear tests were performed by the ball-on-disc method using alumina (Al2O3) and tungsten carbide with 6 wt% cobalt cermet (WC-6%Co) balls as counter-materials, a load of 15 N, a sliding distance of 2000 m, and a sliding speed of 0.1 m/s. Wear behavior was evaluated in terms of wear rate and FE-SEM micrograph analysis of the wear tracks. The nanocomposite sintered at 1450 degrees C by conventional sintering exhibited the least wear when tested with the WC-6%Co ball. Generally, the wear mechanism showed evidence of severe wear regime with both counter-materials.