High-temperature plastic behavior of reaction-bonded CuO and TiO2 co-doped alumina–zirconia

The high-temperature plastic behavior of reaction-bonded alumina doped with equimolar amounts of copper and titanium oxides has been studied by means of creep and stress relaxation tests in air. Deformation results have been correlated with microstructural observations and X-ray diffraction studies in order to deduce the mechanism responsible for the deformation. The material exhibits plasticity at temperatures as low as 900 °C in contrast with other aluminas. At temperatures near 1000 °C a linear relation between the strain rate and the stress has been detected (corresponding to mechanism with a stress exponent n equal to one) but both above and below this temperature higher values of n have been observed.