ABSTRACT

COST Action TU0905, Mid-term Conference on Structural Glass – Belis, Louter & Mocibob (Eds)

© 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-00044-5

T. Rouxel & P. Sellappan LARMAUR, ERL-CNRS 6274, University of Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes cedex, France

ABSTRACT: Mechanical damage at the surface of glass, including the formation of indents and indentation cracks, still remains a crucial issue for glass makers, designers, and users because it affects the optical and functional properties as well as the durability of glass parts in service conditions. Some new insight into this problem was reached by investigating the crack initiation and the deformation behavior of oxide glasses from different chemical systems using the Vickers indentation test. It is found that the crack initiation resistance is chiefly governed by the extents to which densification and isochoric shear flow develop in a process zone beneath and within the contact area. Densification is favored in glasses with relatively small Poisson's ratio () whereas shear is favored at large . The residual stresses developing on unloading and which chiefly govern the indentation cracking depend on the extent and on the kinetics of the deformation mechanisms.