Anomalous mechanical behavior and crack growth of oxide glasses

Abstract

This thesis combines a number of studies that offer a new unified understanding of historical anomalous mechanical behaviors of glass. These anomalies are interpreted as simply the consequence of slow crack growth and water-assisted surface stress relaxation.

This thesis is concerned with analytically describing anomalous mechanical behaviors of glass. A new slow crack growth model is presented that considers a semi-elliptical crack in a cylindrical glass rod subjected to 4-point bending that is both loaded statically and under a time-dependent load. This model is used to explain a suppression of the loading-rate dependency of ion-exchanged strengthened glass. The stress relaxation behavior of an ion-exchanged strengthened glass is then analyzed in view of a newly observed water-assisted surface stress relaxation mechanism. By making refinements to a time-dependent Maxwell material model for stress buildup and relaxation, the anomalous subsurface compressive stress peak in ion-exchanged strengthened glass is explained. The notion of water-assisted stress relaxation is extended to the crack tip, where high tensile stresses exist. A toughening effect has historically been observed for cracks aged at subcritical stress intensity factors, where crack tip stress relaxation is hypothesized. A simple fracture mechanics model is developed that estimates a shielding stress intensity factor that is then superimposed with the far-field stress intensity factor. The model is used to estimate anomalous “restart” times for aged cracks. The same model predicts a non-linear crack growth rate for cracks loaded near the static fatigue limit. Double cantilever beam slow crack growth experiments were performed and new slow crack growth data for soda-lime silicate glass was collected. Interpretation of this new experimental slow crack growth data suggests that the origin of the static fatigue limit in glass is due to water-assisted stress relaxation.