Original paper(Vol.46 No.6 pp.671)

Effect of water environment on subcritical crack growth of machinable ceramics

Ikeda Kiyohiko; Inotani Takaaki; Kaizu Koichi; Yoshikawa Akira; Adachi Katsushige; Igaki Hisashi

Abstract:The fatigue behavior of ceramics has been discussed on the basis of the relation between stress intensity factor (Ki) and crack velocity (V). In this paper, the effect of environment on the relation between K1 and V was studied on machinable ceramics (mica glass ceramics) and two kinds of glass ceramics with different grain sizes. The double torsion (DT) technique was used for the determination of the Ki-V characteristics under different environments of air and ion exchanged water. The characteristics of acoustic emission (AE) during stress corrosion cracking of mica glass ceramics was also examined. In water environment, the region II in the Ki-V curve, in which crack velocity varies slowly with Ki, disappeared. From this experimental fact, it was considered that at high Ki, the crack velocity is encouraged by diffusion of the corrosive species to the crack and thus depended on the amount of water. SEM fractography revealed that mica single crystals in the material caused crack arrest and deflection to occur. It is also found that AE event rate is quantitatively related to the crack velocity. AE measurement can be used in studying the crack propagation behavior of mica glass ceramics.

Key Words:fatigue, crack propagation, stress corrosion cracking, glass ceramics, double torsion