Advanced Processing System for Development of Engineered Grain Texture in Piezoceramic Materials

Funds are requested for The Pennsylvania State University to equip a unique facility for advancing the science of microstructure engineering of technical ceramics. This proposal, is submitted for the creation of a unique facility for advancing the science of microstructure engineering of technical ceramics. For decades metals and polymers benefitted from enhanced electrical and mechanical performance by creating highly directional microstructures via rolling, drawing, and related processes. Ceramics remain largely unimproved. The proposed research tools will advance the science and technology for tailoring directionally oriented ceramic microstructures. The key principle is the ability of anisotropic seed particles to be added and aligned within a ceramic body such that they force asymmetric grain growth during sintering. Textured piezoceramics provide a compelling demonstration platform due to their ability to significantly improve the performance of large acoustic transducers used in ASW applications. The proposed research tool cluster consists of an advanced tape caster, automated lamination stacker, isostatic lamination press, and sintering furnaces that allow faculty and students to investigate methods to engineer asymmetric microstructures. The tools combine multiple seed alignment methods for microstructure control, allow for complex stacking configurations, and provide the ability to control both temperature and atmosphere during various sintering stages. The goal is to advance the state-of-the-art from simple fiber texturing to sheet texture, which enhances performance in multiple part directions. Sheet textured piezoceramics bridge the gap between the electromechanical properties achieved with fiber texture and those single crystal materials. This effort, managed by ONR, Code 32 (Vaccaro and Lindberg), benefits on-going research and adoption of textured material into fleet applications such as cLTS for SURTASS (PMS485). Additionally, textured materials have application in almost every sonar transducer design by Increasing bandwidth and output power while reducing size and weight. The science and technology of this process has diverse applications beyond sonar ranging from magnetic ceramics for compact high frequency power substations to enhanced energy storage capacitors and lightweight armor composites.