Slow Crack Growth and Failure Prediction of Brittle Materials Subjected to a Transient Thermal Stress.

摘要

The effect of slow crack growth on the failure conditions of a brittle material subjected to a transient thermal stress in a stress-corrosive environment was investigated. A numerical analysis procedure was developed for calculating the instantaneous values for crack length and transient stress intensity factors of a glass rod subjected to a sudden decrease in ambient temperature under convective heat transfer conditions. The analysis demonstrated that slow crack growth significantly decreases the thermal conditions required for catastrophic failure. A form of crack growth instability is predicted at values of the stress intensity factor well below K sub IC, where the rate of increase of stress intensity factor is such that catastrophic failure becomes inevitable. (Author)