Oxide glasses exhibit slow crack growth under stress intensities below the fracture toughness in the presence of water vapor or liquid water. The log of crack velocity decreases linearly with decreasing stress intensity factor in Region I. For some glasses, at a lower stress intensity, Ko, log v asymptotically diminishes where there is no measurable crack growth. The same glasses exhibit static fatigue, or a decreasing strength for increasing static loading times, as cracks grow and stress intensity eventually reaches the fracture toughness. In this case, some glasses exhibit a low stress below which no fatigue/failure is observed. The absence of slow crack growth under a low stress intensity factor is called the fatigue limit. Currently, no satisfactory explanation exists for the origin of the fatigue limit. We show that the surface stress relaxation mechanism, which is promoted by molecular water diffusion near the glass surface, may be the origin of the fatigue limit. First, we hypothesize that the slowing down of slow crack growth takes place due to surface stress relaxation during slow crack growth near the static fatigue limit. The applied stress intensity becomes diminished by a shielding stress intensity due to relaxation of crack tip stresses, thus resulting in a reduced crack velocity. This diminishing stress intensity factor should result in a crack growth rate near the static fatigue limit that decreases in time. By performing Double Cantilever Beam crack growth measurements of a soda‐lime silicate glass, a decreasing crack growth rate was measured. These experimental observations indicate that surface stress relaxation is causing crack velocities to asymptotically become immeasurably small at the static fatigue limit. Since the surface stress relaxation was shown to take place for various oxide glasses, the mechanism for fatigue limit explained here should be applicable to various oxide glasses.
Glasses exhibit slow crack growth under stress intensities below the fracture toughness in the presence of water vapor or liquid water. It has been observed by several authors that when an oxide glass with a large crack is held under a subcritical stress intensity (where no slow crack growth occurs) in room‐temperature water vapor or liquid water, upon reloading to a higher stress intensity, a finite restart time is observed prior to measurable crack extension. This phenomenon of apparent strengthening, or crack arrest, has been attributed to concepts such as corrosive dissolution of the crack tip, crack tip blunting, or water diffusion, and subsequent swelling of the material around the crack tip. Recently, a newly observed surface stress relaxation process that is aided by molecular water diffusion was used to improve the mechanical strength of glass fibers and to explain the subsurface compressive stress peak observed in ion‐exchange strengthened glasses. The same process is employed here to explain these delayed slow crack growth data. A simple mathematical model has been developed utilizing water‐assisted surface stress relaxation and fracture mechanics. Predictions of restart times using the model agreed well with published experimental data, indicating that surface stress relaxation is responsible for the anomalous delayed slow crack growth behavior.
Anomalous water diffusion into SiO 2 glass was observed in a low temperature range, below~850°C, under a constant water vapor pressure of 355 Torr (47.3 kPa). Both the effective water diffusion coefficient and water solubility exhibited an anomalous time dependence. For example, water solubility in the low temperature range increased initially, achieving much higher values than expected based on extrapolation from higher temperature data, and then decreased with time toward an equilibrium value. This phenomenon was reported earlier, but a complete explanation was not possible; a new model is presented based upon glass surface compressive stress generation and subsequent surface stress relaxation. Water diffusion can promote stress generation and stress relaxation, both of which affect the reaction between diffused molecular water and the glass structure. By considering these stress effects, the anomalous water diffusion behavior in silica glass is explained. Furthermore, the same model can account for the reversal of external tensile and compressive stress effects on water solubility and diffusivity in silica glass observed after a few hours of heat treatment at 650°C in 355 Torr water vapor pressure. K E Y W O R D Sdiffusion/diffusivity, silica, solubility, stress relaxation
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