Nanoscale damage during fracture in silica glass

Daniel Bonamy (1) , Silke Prades (1) , Cindy Rountree (1) , Laurent Ponson (1) , Davy Dalmas (2) , Elisabeth Bouchaud (1) , K. Ravi-Chandar (3) , Claude Guillot (1)

1 SPCSI - Service de Physique et de Chimie des Surfaces et Interfaces
2 SVI - Surface du Verre et Interfaces
3 UNIV_TEXAS - University of Texas

We report here atomic force microscopy experiments designed to uncover the nature of failure mechanisms occuring within the process zone at the tip of a crack propagating into a silica glass specimen under stress corrosion. The crack propagates through the growth and coalescence of nanoscale damage spots. This cavitation process is shown to be the key mechanism responsible for damage spreading within the process zone. The possible origin of the nucleation of cavities, as well as the implications on the selection of both the cavity size at coalescence and the process zone extension are finally discussed.

Mots clés: Brittle fracture; corrosion fatigue; damage; AFM

Domaines: Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Daniel Bonamy, Silke Prades, Cindy Rountree, Laurent Ponson, Davy Dalmas, et al.. Nanoscale damage during fracture in silica glass. International Journal of Fracture, 2006, 140, pp.3-13. ⟨hal-00090561⟩