Recently ion exchange, also known as chemical tempering, has been applied to strengthening of porcelain tiles based on the substitution of ions present in the material by larger ones. This paper investigates the chemical tempering in industrial porcelain tiles by the variation of process parameters such as temperature, immersion time, and chemical composition of the porcelain tile. Furthermore, a numerical simulation of the ionic diffusion process was applied. Using a design of experiments approach, the results show that the temperature and the chemical composition primarily affected the flexural strength of the tile. The largest increment obtained was 37% resulting in a porcelain tile with flexural strength of 73 MPa after chemical tempering. Through numerical simulation, it was possible to estimate a diffusion coefficient of potassium ions equal to 1.25 × 10⁻¹⁴ m²·s⁻¹ into the porcelain tile microstructure. This value is about 10 times higher than the diffusion coefficient in glasses.

中文翻译：

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瓷砖中离子交换的数值与实验研究

近来，基于材料中存在的离子被较大的离子取代，离子交换（也称为化学回火）已应用于增强瓷砖的强度。本文通过改变温度，浸泡时间和瓷砖化学成分等工艺参数来研究工业瓷砖的化学回火。此外，应用了离子扩散过程的数值模拟。使用实验方法的设计，结果表明温度和化学成分主要影响瓷砖的抗弯强度。获得的最大增量为37％，从而在化学回火后产生的抗弯强度为73 MPa的瓷砖。通过数值模拟^-14  m ² ·s ^-1进入瓷砖微结构。该值比玻璃中的扩散系数高约10倍。