Strength and Young's Modulus Behavior of a Partially Sintered Porous Alumina

The strength of alumina materials that had been subjected to varying degrees of densification was determined. Significant increases in strength were obtained for these materials even when there was minimal densification. For the most porous materials, the Weibull modulus values were similar but showed a significant increase for materials that were close to the theoretical density. Young's modulus data were found to be similar to previous work, in that significant increases occur during the initial stage of sintering, showing a strong correlation with the strength data. A simple modi fication to a previous theory allowed the Young's modulus data to be fitted with excellent accuracy.