Microstructural aspects of crack propagation

Microstructural manipulation can be used to enhance the

toughness and develop new materials.

Metals 50 100 MPam

Ceramics 0.2 15 MPam
Polymers 1 MPam

Microstructural manipulation to impede/stop crack propagation

 Toughening mechanisms in ceramics

Crack-tip interactions

Crack bowing (Deflection in the plane of the crack)

Crack deflection (Deflection out of plane of the crack)

Crack-tip shielding

Transformation toughening
Micro-crack toughening

Crack bridging
 Crack tip interactions

The primary aim here is to place obstacles in the crack path to

impede crack propagation/motion.

The obstacles can be second-phase particles, fibers, whiskers, or

possibly regions that are simply difficult to cleave.

Crack bowing: Cracks virtually remain on the same plane

- obstacles can be impenetrable

- Strength & toughness of the obstacles (key issue)
 Crack bowing

Interaction of the crack front with an

inclusion in the glass showing crack
bowing
Schematic of the crack front
bowing

obstacle
 Crack deflection

If a crack is deflected out of plane that is normal to the uniaxial tensile stress,
the crack is no longer loaded in simple mode-I and therefore is not subjected
to maximum stresses at the tip of the crack.

Crack deflection

The change in the orientation of the crack plane during deflection leads to
the reduction in the crack extension force.
 Crack deflection (SiC platelets in Al2O3 matrix)

SiC
platelets
 Crack deflection

Toughening increment depends on

Effect of aspect ratio of
Volume fraction of the obstacles the obstacles
Shape of the obstacles

Large aspect ratios increase in

toughness

Where, GC crack resistance

force of the composite
GM crack resistance force of
the matrix

Faber & Evans, 1983

 Crack tip shielding

The stresses near a crack tip in a linear elastic material are related
to the applied stress intensity factor KIA,

In some materials, non-linear deformation zones (process zone)

may occur in the high-stress zone at the crack-tip. So, the stresses
at the tip now can be defined by a local stress intensity factor KIL.

If KIL < KIA , the stresses are reduced and the process zone is
supposed shield the crack tip from the applied loads.

Shielding will occur when K = KIL KIA < 0, and failure will occur
when KIL = Fracture toughness in process zone
 Crack tip shielding

Various mechanisms exist for shielding crack tips from some of the
applied (and concentrated) stress.

The best known mechanism is transformation toughening.

This applies to both metals (stainless steels) and ceramics (zirconia

additions).

The principle on which the toughening is based is that of including a

phase that is metastable at the service temperature and which will
transform when loaded (but not otherwise).
Transformation toughening ZrO2 (toughening
agent)
The classic example of transformation toughening is the addition of
a few (volume) % of ZrO2 to oxides and other brittle ceramics.

The high temperature form of zirconia is a tetragonal form (t-ZrO2)

which has a significantly larger atomic volume than the low
temperature, monoclinic form (m-ZrO2).

In order to reduce the driving force for the tetragonal->monoclinic

transformation (i.e. lower the transformation temperature), some
stabilizer is added. Typical are ceria (Ce2O3) and yttria (Y2O3).
Transformation toughening - ZrO2 (toughening
agent)

The large volume change on transformation is equivalent to a

significant transformation strain which is the key to the success of
the method.

The volume (dilatational) change is ~ 4%, accompanied by a shear

strain of ~ 7%.

An important consequence of the volume change on transformation

is that it leads to an elastic driving force that opposes the
transformation for particles embedded in a matrix of a different
material.
 Transformation toughening

High temp 0.5m

phase

Consider the effect of the tensile stress in the vicinity of the crack tip: the
stress relieves the constraint on each particle, allowing it to transform.

The transformed particle was metastable, thermodynamically, and so

remains in the low T, monoclinic form.

The stress acting to cause the transformation strain performs work and so
energy is consumed in the phase transformation, thus increasing
toughness.
 Transformation toughening

An equation that describes the toughening effect is as

follows, where T is the increment in toughness (units of
stress intensity):

T = C E Vtrans etrans h / (1-n)

C is a constant (of order 1), E = modulus, Vtrans = volume

fraction transformed, etrans = transformation strain
(dilatation) h is the width of the process zone, and n is
Poissons ratio.
 Spontaneous microcracking

Suppose a body is heated uniformly to increase its

temperature by T, the response (strain) is a second
order tensor (ij).
ij = ij T

Linear coefficients of
thermal expansion
material property

Cubic crystals possess isotropic thermal expansion, where as non-cubic

crystals will have anisotropic thermal expansion.
 Spontaneous microcracking
A polycrystalline ceramic often contains a random array of single crystals. If
these crystals are non-cubic and temperature is changed, each crystal will
attempt to strain differently than its neighbors.

Thus adjacent crystals will push or pull on each other, creating residual
strains in the material. These strains are termed residual because they
exists even in the absence of external applied stresses.

Sometimes the residual strains can be as high as 1 2% (compared with

the macroscopic fracture strain) this leads to spontaneous
microcracking in ceramic materials.

Onset of microcracking depends on the grain (crystal) size. Thus,

microcrack-free ceramics can be fabricated with large thermal expansion
anisotropy, provided the grain size is kept below the critical grain size for
microcracking. (interesting effect to note)
 Micro-crack toughening

Stress-induced microcracking give rise to crack tip shielding and is termed

microcrack toughening.

Microcracking in the process zone is less effective than transformation

toughening.

You know that ceramics contain localized residual stresses (for eg., due to
thermal expansion anisotropy), that result in microcracking. Regions of low
toughness, such as grain boundaries can also be attractive sites for
microcracking.

You also now know that microcracks can form spontaneously if the grain
size (particle size) is above a critical value.
 Microcrack toughening

An attractive approach towards toughening would be to fabricate materials

with particle size below that produce spontaneous microcracking (Critical
value), but in which microcracks can be stress induced .

In terms of fracture, the microcracks would be expected to form a zone

around larger cracks, similar to a transformation zone.

And, now- the creation of microcrack zone around a propagating crack is

expected to reduce the stresses near the crack tip giving rise to shielding
(toughening).
 Microcrack toughening

An equation that describes the toughening C is a constant (of order 1), E =

effect is as follows, where T is the increment in modulus, crack = cracking strain
toughness (units of stress intensity): (dilatation) h is the width of the
process zone, and is Poissons
T = C E crack h / (1-) ratio.
 Crack wedging/bridging

Anything that results in a load bearing link across the crack (behind the tip)
decreases the stress (intensity) at the crack tip.
Either rigid (elastic) fibers (ceramic matrix composites) or plastic particles
(ductile metal particles in an elastic matrix) are effective.

Unbroken
ligaments
Fibre
pull-out
 Crack bridging
Scanning electron micrographs of a SiC whisker bridging at various stages
of crack opening. From left to right, the stress intensity is increasing.
 Toughening

Toughening = f (bridge length, volume fraction of the

bridges, obstacle debond length/pull-out length)