Cyclic fatigue-crack propagation in ceramics: Long and small crack behavior

Stress/life (S/N) and cyclic fatigue-crack growth properties are studied in a Mg-PSZ, with particular reference to the role of crack size. S/N data from unnotched specimens show markedly lower lives under tension-compression compared to tension-tension loading; fatigue limits'' (at 10{sup 8} cycles) for the former case approach 50% of the tensile strength. Under tension-tension loading, cyclic crack-growth rates of long'' (> 3 mm) cracks are found to be power-law dependent on the stress-intensity range {Delta}K with a fatigue threshold, {Delta}K{sub TH}, of order 50% K{sub c}. Conversely, naturally-occurring small'' (1 to 100 {mu}m) surface cracks were observed to grow at {Delta}K levels some 2 to 3 times smaller than {Delta}K{sub TH}. The implications of such data for structural design with ceramics is briefly discussed. 21 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab