Uniaxial Compression Experiments on PZT 95/5-2Nb Ceramic: Evidence for an Orientation-Dependent, ''Maximum Compressive Stress'' Criterion for Onset of the F(R1)()A(O) Polymorphic Phase Transformation

Some time ago we presented evidence that, under nonhydrostatic loading, the F{sub R1} {r_arrow} A{sub O} polymorphic phase transformation in unpoled PZT 95/5-2Nb ceramic began when the maximum compressive stress equaled the hydrostatic pressure at which the transformation otherwise took place. More recently, we showed that this simple stress criterion did not apply to nonhydrostatically compressed, poled ceramic. However, unpoled ceramic is isotropic, whereas poled ceramic has a preferred crystallographic orientation and is mechanically anisotropic. If we further assume that the transformation depends not only on the magnitude of the compressive stress, but also its orientation relative to some feature(s) of PZT 95/5-2Nb's crystallography, then these disparate results can be qualitatively resolved. In this report, we first summarize the existing results for unpoled and poled ceramic. Using our orientation-dependent hypothesis and these results, we derive simple arithmetic expressions that accurately describe our previously-observed effects of nonhydrostatic stress on the transformation of unpoled ceramic. We then go on to test new predictions based on the orientation-dependent model. It has long been known that the transformation can be triggered in uniaxial compression: the model specifically requires a steadily increasing axial stress to drive the transformation of a randomly-oriented polycrystal to completion. We show that when the stress is held constant during uniaxial compression experiments, the transformation stops, supporting our hypothesis. We close with a discussion of implications of our model, and ways to test it using poled ceramic