In this section
@article{Sernicola:2017:10.1038/s41467-017-00139-w,
author = {Sernicola, G and Giovannini, T and Patel, P and Kermode, J and Balint, D and Britton, TB and Giuliani, F},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-00139-w},
journal = {Nature Communications},
title = {In situ stable crack growth at the micron scale},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00139-w},
volume = {8},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Grain boundaries typically dominate fracture toughness, strength, slow crack growth of ceramics. To improve these properties through mechanistically informed grain boundary engineering, precise measurement of the mechanical properties of individual boundaries is essential, although this is rarely achieved due to its complexity. Here we present a new approach to characterise the fracture energy at the lengthscale of individual grain boundaries and demonstrate this capability with measurement of the surface energy of silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals. We perform experiments using an in situscanning electron microscopy based double cantilever beam test, thus enabling viewing and measurement of stable crack growth directly. These experiments correlate well with our density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the surface energy of the same SiC plane. Subsequently, we measure the fracture energy for a bi-crystal of SiC, diffusion bonded with a thin glassy layer. These measurements ultimately promote microstructural engineering of novel and advanced ceramics.
AU - Sernicola,G
AU - Giovannini,T
AU - Patel,P
AU - Kermode,J
AU - Balint,D
AU - Britton,TB
AU - Giuliani,F
DO - 10.1038/s41467-017-00139-w
PY - 2017///
SN - 2041-1723
TI - In situ stable crack growth at the micron scale
T2 - Nature Communications
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00139-w
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/48244
VL - 8
ER -