Ö Keleṣ, RE García, KJ Bowman “Failure Variability in Porous Glasses: Stress Interactions, Crack Orientation, and Crack Size Distributions.” Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 97(12):3967-3972, 2014.

Abstract

Fracture behavior of porous glass is investigated through a combined finite element–fracture mechanics approach. In contrast to earlier studies, here, simulations embody flaw size distributions in addition to pore–pore stress interactions and crack orientation along pore surfaces. Fracture strength of porous glass shows a steep decrease up to 20% porosity and then levels off due to interacting pores. Weibull modulus varies because of the decreased probability of interactions in microstructures containing less than 2% porosity or the smallest pore diameter =48  micrometers. Weibull modulus strongly depends on crack size distributions for porosity less than 2% and pore–pore stress interactions for porosity greater than 5%.