Brittle solids

Arsenic and antimony resemble phosphorus in having several allotropic modifications. Both have an unstable yellow allotrope. These allotropes can be obtained by rapid condensation of the vapours which presumably, like phosphorus vapour, contain AS4 and Sb4 molecules respectively. No such yellow allotrope is known for bismuth. The ordinary form of arsenic, stable at room temperature, is a grey metallic-looking brittle solid which has some power to conduct. Under ordinary conditions antimony and bismuth are silvery white and reddish white metallic elements respectively. 

Sulfur is pale yellow, odorless, brittle solid, which is insoluble in water but soluble in carbon disulfide. In every state, whether gas, liquid or solid, elemental sulfur occurs in more than one allotropic form or modification these present a confusing multitude of forms whose relations are not yet fully understood. 

B. R. Lawn and T. R. Wilshaw, Fracture of Brittle Solids, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1975. 

In this chapter, we will review the effects of shock-wave deform.ation on material response after the completion of the shock cycle. The techniques and design parameters necessary to implement successful shock-recovery experiments in metallic and brittle solids will be discussed. The influence of shock parameters, including peak pressure and pulse duration, loading-rate effects, and the Bauschinger effect (in some shock-loaded materials) on postshock structure/property material behavior will be detailed. 

While the structure/property behavior of numerous shock-recovered metals and alloys has received considerable attention in the literature to date, the response of ceramics, cermets, and other brittle solids (including geological materials) to shock loading remains poorly understood [9], The majority of shock-recovery studies on brittle materials have concentrated on examining... 

Ceramics, without exception, are hard, brittle solids. When designing with metals, failure by plastic collapse and by fatigue are the primary considerations. For ceramics, plastic collapse and fatigue are seldom problems it is brittle failure, caused by direct loading or by thermal stresses, that is the overriding consideration. 

The third test shown in Fig. 17.2 is the compression test. For metals (or any plastic solid) the strength measured in compression is the same as that measured in tension. But for brittle solids this is not so for these, the compressive strength is roughly 15 times larger, with... 

The chalk with which I write on the blackboard when I teach is a brittle solid. Some sticks of chalk are weaker than others. On average, I find (to my slight irritation), that about 3 out of 10 sticks break as soon as I start to write with them the other 7 survive. The failure probability, Pf, for this chalk, loaded in bending under my (standard) writing load is 3/10, that is... 

A more complicated, and more effective, mechanism operates in partially stabilised zirconia (PSZ), which has general application to other ceramics. Consider the analogy of a chocolate bar. Chocolate is a brittle solid and because of this it is notch-sensitive notches are moulded into chocolate to help you break it in a fair, controlled way. Some chocolate bars have raisins and nuts in them, and they are less brittle a crack, when it... 

In addition to shellac a number of other natural resins find use in modem industry. They include rosins, copals, kauri gum and pontianak. Such materials are either gums or very brittle solids and, although suitable as ingredients in surface coating formulations and a miscellany of other uses, are of no value in the massive form, i.e. as plastics in the most common sense of the word. 

With plastics there is a certain temperature, called the glass transition temperature, Tg, below which the material behaves like glass i.e. it is hard and rigid. As can be seen from Table 1.8 the value for Tg for a particular plastic is not necessarily a low temperature. This immediately helps to explain some of the differences which we observe in plastics. For example, at room temperature polystyrene and acrylic are below their respective Tg values and hence we observe these materials in their glassy state. Note, however, that in contrast, at room temperature, polyethylene is above its glass transition temperature and so we observe a very flexible matoial. When cooled below its Tg it then becomes a hard, brittle solid. Plastics can have several transitions. 

Gahn, C. and Mersman, A., 1999a. Brittle fracture in crystallization processes Part A. Attrition and abrasion of brittle solids. Chemical Engineering Science, 54, 1273-1282. 

Equations 8.24 and 8.25 only apply to elastically brittle solids such as glass. However, many engineering materials only break in a truly brittle manner at very low temperature and above these temperatures failures are pseudo-brittle. These have many of the features of brittle fracture but include limited ductility. This plastic work can be included in the above equations, i.e. 

Characteristically, glasses are brittle solids which in practice break only under tension. The ionic and directional nature of the bonds and the identification of electrons with particular pairs of atoms preclude bond exchange. This, coupled with the random nature of the atomic lattice, i.e. the absence of close-packed planes, makes gross slip or plastic flow impossible. 

FIGURE 1.59 Boron (top) and silicon (bottom) have a diagonal relationship. Both are brittle solids with high melting points. They also show a number of chemical similarities. 

The state of the surface of a brittle solid has been found to exert a considerable influence on the mechanical behaviour observed it is at least as important as the underlying molecular constitution in this regard. The presence of microscopic scratches, voids, or other imperfections will seriously weaken the tensile strength of specimens of glassy polymer, such as poly(methyl methacrylate) at ambient temperatures. 

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