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A Molecular Mechanism for Stress Corrosion in Vitreous Silica
Author(s) -
MICHALSKE TERRY A.,
FREIMAN STEPHEN W.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1983.tb15715.x
Subject(s) - corrosion , materials science , brittleness , stress (linguistics) , composite material , ceramic , stress concentration , metallurgy , fracture mechanics , philosophy , linguistics
The mechanical strength of most glasses and ceramics decreases with time under static loading in an ambient environment. This strength loss is associated with slow growth of preexisting surface flaws due to stress corrosion by water from the surrounding environment. We studied stress corrosion in vitreous silica exposed to water and several nonaqueous environments; environments which enhance stress‐corrosion crack growth in silica contain active groups with electron donor sites on one end and proton donor sites at the other. These results suggest a detailed chemical model for the interaction of the environment with mechanically strained bonds in the solid at the tip of a crack. The proposed model for stress‐corrosion crack growth also has implications for the long‐term strength behavior of a wide variety of brittle materials.