TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Bernd R. A1 - Cooper, R.C. A1 - Lange, Axel A1 - Kupsch, Andreas A1 - Wheeler, M. A1 - Hentschel, Manfred P. A1 - Staude, Andreas A1 - Pandey, A. A1 - Shyam, A. A1 - Bruno, Giovanni T1 - Stress-induced microcrack density evolution in β-eucryptite ceramics: Experimental observations and possible route to strain hardening N2 - In order to investigate their microcracking behaviour, the microstructures of several β-eucryptite ceramics, obtained from glass precursor and cerammed to yield different grain sizes and microcrack densities, were characterized by laboratory and synchrotron x-ray refraction and tomography. Results were compared with those obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In SEM images, the characterized materials appeared fully dense but computed tomography showed the presence of pore clusters. Uniaxial tensile testing was performed on specimens while strain maps were recorded and analyzed by Digital Image Correlation (DIC). X-ray refraction techniques were applied on specimens before and after tensile testing to measure the amount of the internal specific surface (i.e., area per unit volume). X-ray refraction revealed that (a) the small grain size (SGS) material contained a large specific surface, originating from the grain boundaries and the interfaces of TiO2 precipitates; (b) the medium (MGS) and large grain size (LGS) materials possessed higher amounts of specific surface compared to SGS material due to microcracks, which decreased after tensile loading; (c) the precursor glass had negligible internal surface. The unexpected decrease in the internal surface of MGS and LGS after tensile testing is explained by the presence of compressive regions in the DIC strain maps and further by theoretical arguments. It is suggested that while some microcracks merge via propagation, more close mechanically, thereby explaining the observed X-ray refraction results. The mechanisms proposed would allow the development of a strain hardening route in ceramics. KW - Beta-eucryptite KW - Microcracked ceramics KW - X-ray refraction KW - Tensile load KW - Strain hardening KW - Synchrotron KW - BAMline KW - Computed Tomography KW - CT PY - 2018 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359645417308881 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2017.10.030 SN - 1359-6454 SN - 1873-2453 VL - 144 IS - Supplement C SP - 627 EP - 641 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-43024 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -