Deformation relief and grain boundary energy in the zone of local tetragonal-monoclinic transformation in yttria-stabilized zirconia

Atomic force microscopy was used to study the local tetragonal-monoclinic transformation under load in yttria-stabilized zirconia with different grain sizes near the Vickers indentation crack propagation zone. It was shown that an increase of the sintering temperature and holding time leads to a decrease in the grain boundary energy. The local tetragonal-monoclinic transformation and the formation of self-accommodating variant pairs of the martensite type lead to a decrease in the grain boundary energy and stress relaxation.