In situ and ex situ investigation of the spallation of thermally grown oxides
Résumé
A review of various experimental techniques, simply implemented or specifically developed to investigate the spallation of thermally grown oxides subject to thermal shocks and cycles, is proposed. This includes thermogravimetric analysis, acoustic emission, interfacial indentation and a newly developed technique based on the real time in situ monitoring of spallation events using CCD cameras. Benefits and drawbacks of each method are discussed. It is shown that the CCD monitoring technique shows enhanced mass resolution and, in addition to the global information derived from the spallation kinetics, reveals straightforwardly the local correlation between spall and substrate micro structures.