Abstract
This study has been carried out to sinter silicon nitride with additives and to show the effect of surface finishments on its strength and Weibull modulus which are two most important factors for its applications into structural ceramics. Silicon nitride was sintered with the additions of $Al_2O_3$ and $Y_2O_3$ under pressureless cond-ition. The optimum properties were obtained by sintering at 1, 75$0^{\circ}C$ for 3hrs under $N_2$ atmosphere and the strength showed 6, 500kg/$cm^2$ at room temperature and 3, 300kg/$cm^2$ at 120$0^{\circ}C$. The effects of surface treatment on the strength of sintered $Si_3N_4$ were studied and the results showed that fine surface treatment increased the strength by up to 50% The Weibull analysis showed that its modulus was increased with increasing fineness of surface finishments. It was concluded that the mechanical properties of sintered silicon nitride could be improved by fine surface grinding which implied the brittle-fracture nature of sintered silicon nitride.