Residual Lifetime Determination of Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramics

The effect of subcritical crack growth is nowadays intensively studied mainly in relation to the strength of ceramic materials. The main aim of the contribution is to describe behavior of micro-crack propagating in the Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) under subcritical crack growth (SCCG) conditions. The micro-crack behavior is significantly influenced by residual stresses developed in the LTCC due to different coefficients of thermal expansion of individual components. Two-dimensional numerical model was developed to simulate micro-crack propagation through the composite. The micro-crack propagation direction was determined using Sih’s criterion based on the strain energy density factor and the micro-crack path was obtained. The residual lifetime of the specific ceramic particulate composite (LTCC) was estimated on the basis of experimental data. The paper contributes to a better understanding of micro-crack propagation in particulate ceramic composites in the field of residual stresses.