How Thermal Parameters Control Ceramic Properties

The Challenge

Characterizing ceramic integrity without damage is a major industrial issue. Firing conditions—both heating temperature and cooling rate—significantly affect mechanical strength in porcelain stoneware and terracotta, but the relationships are complex. Fast cooling can induce micro-cracks from quartz allotropic transformation, while heating temperature affects porosity and densification. Manufacturers need non-destructive methods to evaluate residual mechanical stresses and detect when thermal processing has compromised product quality.

The Solution

This research systematically evaluated how thermal processing parameters affect ceramic properties using impulse excitation techniques. The study compared fast cooling (≈200°C/min by air ventilation) versus controlled cooling (50°C/h) and varied heating temperatures for both porcelain stoneware and terracotta specimens. Additionally, the effect of annealing at 700°C was evaluated.

IET measured both elastic moduli (Young’s and shear) and internal friction. The internal friction measurement proved particularly valuable, showing 2.5 times variation between fast and controlled cooling—a much more sensitive indicator than modulus changes alone. This sensitivity enables detection of micro-crack formation that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Results

Fast cooling caused a 2.0% decrease in elastic moduli for porcelain stoneware and 2.7% for terracotta, attributable to micro-crack formation during quartz phase transformation. For terracotta, a 50°C increase in heating temperature significantly improved mechanical strength through reduced open porosity. The research demonstrates that internal friction calculated from IET efficiently evaluates heat treatment quality, enabling detection of mechanical performance degradation from micro-cracks that modulus measurements alone might miss.