Temperature dependent fracture toughness of the particulate-reinforced ultra-high-temperature-ceramics considering effects of change in critical flaw size and plastic power

Abstract The fracture toughness of particulate-reinforced ultra-high-temperature-ceramics changes but does not decrease by a constant gradient with the increase of temperature. The change in microstructure and the occurrence of brittle-ductile transition affect the fracture toughness of materials at high temperature. In this paper, a novel temperature dependent fracture toughness model for the particulate-reinforced ultra-high-temperature-ceramics was developed based on the Griffith energy theories and the concept of the maximum storage of energy associated with fracture. The effect of change in microstructure was considered by introducing a non-dimensional value, the ratio of critical flaw sizes of materials at room temperature and high temperature. The effect of plastic power was included in the model. It should be noted that the model has no any fitting parameter and which only needs some basic material parameters such as Young's modulus and specific heat capacity. The predictions of the fracture toughness of the composites in argon or air agreed well with the experimental measurements.