Enhanced Thermal Stress Resistance of Structural Ceramics with Thermal Conductivity Gradient

Abstract

The hypothesis is presented that the maximum tensile thermal stresses in brittle ceramics can be reduced significantly by a redistribution of the temperature profile using a spatially varying thermal conductivity. On the basis of a hollow circular cylinder subjected to radially inward or outward steady‐state heat flow, it is shown that such a spatially varying thermal conductivity can lead to significant decreases in magnitude of the maximum tensile thermal stress. Possible techniques of creating such thermal conductivity variations are discussed briefly.