High-temperature cyclic fatigue-crack growth behavior in an in situ toughened silicon carbide

The growth of fatigue cracks at elevated temperatures (25–1300°C) is examined under cyclic loading in an in situ toughened, monolithic silicon carbide with Al–B–C additions (termed ABC–SiC), with specific emphasis on the roles of temperature, load ratio, cyclic frequency, and loading mode (static vs cyclic). Extensive crack-growth data are presented, based on measurements from an electrical potential-drop crack-monitoring technique, adapted for use on ceramics at high temperatures. It was found that at equivalent stress-intensity levels, crack velocities under cyclic loads were significantly faster than those under static loads. Fatigue thresholds were found to decrease with increasing temperature up to 1200°C; behavior at 1300°C, however, was similar to that at 1200°C. Moreover, no effect of frequency was detected (between 3 and 1000 Hz), nor evidence of creep cavitation or crack bridging by viscous ligaments or grain-boundary glassy phases in the crack wake. Indeed, fractography and crack-path sectioning revealed a fracture mode at 1200–1300°C that was essentially identical to that at room temperature, i.e. predominantly intergranular cracking with evidence of grain bridging in the crack wake. Such excellent crack-growth resistance is attributed to a process of grain-boundary microstructural evolution at elevated temperatures, specifically involving crystallization of the amorphous grain-boundary films/phases.