Abstract

Environmental-assisted subcritical crack growth on two different alpha/beta-sialon ceramics is determined in static fatigue tests. The goal of these investigations was to determine the influence of delivering medium of high pressure pumps on their durability (life cycle). Therefore 4-point-bending bars were statically loaded in distilled water and subcritical crack growth was analyzed. The large number of spontaneous failure and survivals made the development of a modified testing procedure necessary in order to obtain a significant database.