Failure Analysis of Ceramic Components

Ceramics are being considered for a wide range of structural applications due to their low density and their ability to retain strength at high temperatures. The inherent brittleness of monolithic ceramics requires a departure from the deterministic design philosophy utilized to analyze metallic structural components. The design program ''Ceramic Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Structures Life'' (CARES/LIFE) developed by NASA Lewis Research Center uses a probabilistic approach to predict the reliability of monolithic components under operational loading. The objective of this study was to develop an understanding of the theories used by CARES/LIFE to predict the reliability of ceramic components and to assess the ability of CARES/LIFE to accurately predict the fast fracture behavior of monolithic ceramic components. A finite element analysis was performed to determine the temperature and stress distribution of a silicon carbide O-ring under diametral compression. The results of the finite element analysis were supplied as input into CARES/LIFE to determine the fast fracture reliability of the O-ring. Statistical material strength parameters were calculated from four-point flexure bar test data. The predicted reliability showed excellent correlation with O-ring compression test data indicating that the CARES/LIFE program can be used to predict the reliability of ceramic components subjected to complicated stress states using material properties determined from simple uniaxial tensile tests