Failure Mechanisms of Ceramics Under Quasi-Static and Dynamic Loads: Overview

Abstract

In the last few decades, a variety of brittle materials (ceramics and glasses) have found new applications in the armor, nuclear and semiconductor, and energy storage industries. However, the constitutive behavior of these materials is drastically different from that of commonly used materials like metals and polymers. As these materials possess limited dislocation-based inelastic deformation mechanisms, intrinsic defects and inhomogeneities are the primary microstructural features that control their failure behavior. This chapter provides an overview of the deformation mechanisms that dominate the failure of ceramics and discusses the effect of strain rate and lateral confinement on their failure strength. As their high impact resistance is the primary driver of the research effort into the mechanical properties of these ceramics, additional deformation mechanics pertaining to their dynamic response to ballistic impact and penetration – such as fragmentation, spallation, cavity expansion, phase change, and amorphization – are also summarized. The latter part of the chapter deals with a survey of commonly used constitutive models under a wide range of applied pressures and strain rates. A number of these models are described and compared, with an aim to provide the reader an overview of their applicability.