R-curve behavior in fracture of notched porous ceramics

Notched specimens of porous silicon carbide (SiC) with porosity 37% were fractured under four-point bending. A single edge notch with six depths ranging from 0.1 to 2.8 mm was introduced to the specimen with a height of 7 mm. The fracture of specimens with a notch depth of 0.1 mm did not start from the notch, but from the intrinsic defect. The size of the non-damaging notch is about 0.1–0.2 mm and roughly equal to the size of SiC particles. When the notch depth was larger than 0.4 mm, the fracture started from the notch for all specimens. The record of the strain gage glued on the compression surface of the specimen as a function of the load showed nonlinearity before reaching the maximum load. The critical stress intensity factor was nearly constant for crack initiation from the notch. The resistance curve was constructed by estimating the crack length from the compliance change of the specimen, and was used for determining the maximum load point in bending tests. Fractographic observations showed the fracture path along the binder phase between silicon particles.