Stress-corrosion mechanisms in silicate glasses

Abstract

The present review is intended to revisit the advances and debates in the comprehension of the mechanisms of subcritical crack propagation in silicate glasses almost a century after its initial developments. Glass has inspired the initial insights of Griffith into the origin of brittleness and the ensuing development of modern fracture mechanics. Yet, through the decades the real nature of the fundamental mechanisms of crack propagation in glass has escaped a clear comprehension which could gather general agreement on subtle problems such as the role of plasticity, the role of the glass composition, the environmental condition at the crack tip and its relation to the complex mechanisms of corrosion and leaching. The different processes are analysed here with a special focus on their relevant space and time scales in order to question their domain of action and their contribution in both the kinetic laws and the energetic aspects.

Invited review article - 34 pages Accepted for publication in J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys

References in corpus (2)

• Scaling exponents for fracture surfaces in homogenous glass and glassy ceramics
• Dynamic condensation of water at crack tips in fused silica glass

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Stretched and compressed exponentials in the relaxation dynamics of a metallic glass-forming melt
• Measuring Nanoscale Stress Intensity Factors with an Atomic Force Microscope
• Evidence of deep water penetration in silica during stress corrosion fracture
• Fractoluminescence characterization of the energy dissipated during fast fracture of glass
• Roughness and scaling properties of oxide glass surfaces at the nanoscale
• Structure and vibrational properties of sodium silicate glass surfaces
• Roughness of oxide glass subcritical fracture surfaces
• Statistical mechanical model for crack growth
• Surface properties of alkali silicate glasses: Influence of the modifiers