Bourns Hall

Colloquium

Professor Martha L. Mecartney Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science University of California, Irvine Observations of Metal-like Behavior in Superplastic Ceramics Abstract Superplasticity refers to the ability of certain materials to deform over 100% without failure during net shape forming. While superplastic metal alloys of titanium and aluminum have been developed for automotive and aerospace applications, few examples of superplastic ceramics exist. This talk will describe several new approaches used to design ceramic composite microstructures so that these materials can be superplatically formed. High Temperature deformation studies indicate that these new superplastic ceramic composites have many fudnamental similarities to superplastic metal alloys, including dislocation accommodated grain boundary sliding and the existence of a threshold stress. The question is raised, what lessons learned from the development of high-strain-rate superplasticity in metals can be applied to ceramics? Friday, October 21, 2005 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Bourns Hall, A265