SEDL / STP / STP612-EB / STP27884S

Thermal Fatigue and Its Failure Prediction for Brittle Ceramics

Hasselman, DPH
Director, post-doctoral research associate, and assistant professor, Ceramics Research Laboratory, Materials Research Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.

Badaliance, R
Director, post-doctoral research associate, and assistant professor, Ceramics Research Laboratory, Materials Research Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.

Chen, EP
Director, post-doctoral research associate, and assistant professor, Ceramics Research Laboratory, Materials Research Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.

Pages: 14    Published: Jan 1976

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Abstract

The thermal fatigue behavior of a soda-lime-silica glass subjected to water quench and silicon-nitride subjected to thermal environment of a turbine engine was predicted from data of slow (subcritical) crack growth. A numerical integration technique was developed to calculate the extent of slow crack growth for each thermal cycle over the total duration of the transient thermal stress and temperature, as well as the total number of cycles required for catastrophic failure to occur. Good agreement between the predicted and experimental data was found. The results indicate that, for reliable prediction of thermal fatigue resistance, an estimate of critical flaw-depth based on a statistical (such as the Weibull) theory of brittle fracture is necessary.