Thermal Shock Testing Ceramics

Thin circular disks are heated up to 1750 k with a tungsten halogen lamp yielding heating rates up to 1200 k s.

Thermal shock testing ceramics. Practical experience has shown that thermal shock tests do not lead to generally useful test data. The thermal shock of ceramic materials is influenced by many factors such as strength young s modulus fracture toughness thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient. Thermal shock testing exposes products to alternating low and high temperatures to accelerate failures caused by temperature cycles or thermal shocks during normal use. The thermal shock and thermal fatigue behaviour of ceramic materials has been determined with a new type of testing system 3.

This is probably due to the fact that thermal shock failure is a complicated function of the external thermal shock conditions and of the temperature functions of five different material properties. Fired ceramic does not withstand thermal shock nearly as well as other materials like steel plastic wood etc.