The contributions of transformation toughening and microcrack toughening in an 85Al 2 O 3 15ZrO 2 (vol%) composite were quantitatively evaluated. Three types of hot‐pressed samples with similar size (∼0.5 µm) and size distribution of ZrO 2 grains, but with different contents (vol%) of monoclinic‐ ( m ‐) ZrO 2 (0 (AZS), 45 (AZT), and 67 (AZM)) were prepared using Y 2 O 3 and MoO 2 dopants. Therefore, the possible effect of ZrO 2 grain size on each toughening mechanism was eliminated. When the measured fracture toughnesses of m ‐ZrO 2 volume fractions before and after fracture were compared, the transformation‐toughening constant was estimated as 3.0 MPam 1/2 and the microcrack‐toughening constant 0.2 MPam 1/2 for a 100% monoclinic transformation of ZrO 2 grains. This result indicates that transformation toughening was the dominant toughening mechanism in the studied composite.
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Shin et al. (1999) studied this question.
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