Compressive Creep Behavior of Spark Plasma Sintered 8 mol% Yttria Stabilized Cubic Zirconia

The present paper describes compressive creep behavior of cubic 8 mol% Yttria-stabilized Zirconia, fabricated by spark plasma sintering, in the temperature range of 1300-1330 °C at a stress level of 78-193 MPa in vacuum. The pre- and post-creep microstructures, along with the values of the stress exponent ( n = 1.7-2.7) and the activation energy ( Q = 711-757 kJ/mol) suggest that a mixed mode of plastic deformation, dominated by grain boundary sliding, occurred in this material. The relatively high activation energy observed was related to the pinning of the grain boundaries by voids during creep, leading to microcrack formation, shear strain-induced grain exfoliation, and finally creation of new voids at grain boundaries.