Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Superplastic Deformation on the Specific Heat of a Zirconia-based Ceramic.

The effect of superplastic deformation on the specific heat of a zirconia-based ceramic, 3Y-TZP was investigated by using the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method in a wide temperature range from 473K to 1273K. The samples were prepared by superplastic deformations, as a function of initial strain rate, with the nominal strain of 70% at 1723K. Experimental results showed a general temperature dependence of the specific heat at elevated temperatures for the deformed samples. There was, however, no obvious effect caused by the deformations. lt was also found thal there was no correlation between the specific heat and the microstructural evolution due to the superplastic deformations. From these results, it is shown that the superplastic deformation has no influence on the specific heat of 3Y-TZP in this experiment.