Influence of a damage zone on high temperature crack growth in brittle materials

High temperature crack growth in ceramics often occurs by the nucleation, growth and coalescence of cavities in a region ahead of the crack tip known as the damage zone. Models describing this type of behaviour generally assume that the presence of cavities does not affect the stress distribution ahead of the crack tip. In this study, a crack growth simulation has been developed which incorporates the effects of cavity nucleation, growth and …