Fracture toughness of acid corroded Y-α-SiAlON ceramics

To unequivocally identify the fundamental mechanism of toughening in an acid corroded Y-α-SiAlON microstructure, an attempt was made in the present work to understand the mode of crack propagation due to indentation fracture in such ceramics deliberately made devoid of amorphous phase after acid treatment. The results established that toughening in such case was governed by grain bridging mechanisms.