Thermomechanical and thermodilatometric analysis of green alumina porcelain

A modulated force thermomechanical analysis (mf-TMA) and thermodilatometric analysis (TDA) of the green ceramic mixture of kaolin (27 wt.%), Al2O3 (50 wt.%) and feldspar (23 wt.%) up to 1000 °C is presented. The mf-TMA reflects changes during heating the green ceramics with higher sensitivity than TDA. Discrepancies between mf-TMA and TDA revealed that the elastic behavior of the green porcelain samples is determined most importantly by processes on the crystal boundaries (escaping of the water molecules at the low temperatures up to 150 °C and solid state sintering at the temperatures above 450 °C). Processes in the crystal interiors (e.g. dehydroxylation) have a lesser function. Thermodilatometric results depend more on the processes which take place inside the crystals than on the processes on the crystal surfaces.