Main Features of Designing With Brittle Materials

摘要

Brittle material behavior and mode of failure are contrasted with those characteristics of ductile materials. The stochastic nature of brittle fracture, which results from the random occurrence of fracture-initiating microstructural imperfections, necessitates a probabilistic fracture mechanics approach to design with brittle materials. It is also clearly shown which main properties of brittle materials have to be optimized to improve the reliability of mechanically loaded components made of brittle materials. Important features of designing with brittle materials are elucidated and illustrated by an exemplary design calculation of a ceramic disc spring. It is shown how even environmentally induced subcritical crack growth, characteristic of ceramic materials, can be adequately accounted for in the assessment of reliability.