R-curve and subcritical crack growth behavior at elevated temperatures in coarse grain alumina

The effect of temperature and subcritical crack growth on the R-curve of a 99.5% purity coarse grained alumina was studied using chevron-notched, short-bar specimens. Constant loading rate tests were used to measure toughness as a function of crack length and static load tests were used to measure subcritical crack growth as a function of time. It was found that the intrinsic toughness decreased monotonically from 20 to 1200°C while the bridging contribution to the R-curve remained relatively constant over this temperature range. The constant load tests at 700, 1000 and 1200°C showed that substantial subcritical crack growth occurs under static loading. Using the subcritical crack growth parameters derived from these static load tests, the effect of loading rate on R-curve measurement was predicted and compared to experiment. The predicted decrease in the magnitude of the R-curve with a decrease in over five orders of magnitude in loading rate was relatively small compared to experimental scatter.