Abstract
This paper discusses strength of micro-scale (sub micron〜micron) particles. As shown in Hall-Petch relation, the relation between the strength and the grain size has been investigated in detail. However, the strength of a single micro particle itself has not been measured due to the limitation of the instrumentation. In this research, we have developed the compression test system for the strength measurement of micro-scale particles. The compression test system successfully measured the load-displacement curve during the compression test. This curve clearly demonstrated the critical load of the particle destruction. Using this system, alumina particles ranging from 0.4μm to 5μm were tested for their strength. Results shows that the strength of alumina particles depended on the diameter: the strength, S [GPa], is obtained by S=2.4 d-0.5, where d [μm] is the diameter of the particle.
