Effect of porosity on the crack pattern and residual strength of ceramics after quenching

The effect of porosity on the crack characteristics of ceramics after water-quenching is studied by measuring the cracks in ceramic sheets. The result reveals that the pore volume fraction has a slight effect on the enhancement of thermal shock resistance of ceramics when the porosity ranges from 0 to 20 %, because the length and density of the long crack in porous alumina are always slightly less than that in dense alumina. This result is in agreement with the prediction based on the minimum potential energy principle using experimentally measured data. Moreover, the proportion of the strength reduction in the third regime decreases significantly with increasing porosity, because the strength of unquenched specimens decreases more rapidly than that of quenched specimens with increasing porosity. The results of this study may help to further understand the thermal shock behavior of ceramics.