Design and Development of Hybrid AlO Based Composites with Toughening and Self-Lubricating Second-Phase Inclusions.

Polycrystalline ceramics, such as alumina (AlO), are brittle and they generally wear by fracture mechanism, which limits their potential in tribological applications. In the present work, computational design tools are used to develop hybrid AlO composites reinforced with best combinations of toughening and self-lubricating second-phase particles for cutting tool inserts in dry machining applications. A mean-field homogenization approach and J-integral based fracture toughness models are employed to predict the effective structural properties (such as elastic modulus and fracture toughness) and related to the intrinsic attributes of second- phase inclusions in AlO matrix.