ABSTRACT
During the fracture of metal/ceramic laminates two different damage modes are
observed: one is the formation of a zone of multiple cracks near the tip of a
macroscopic crack, and the other is the continuous propagation of a macroscopic crack
in the ceramic layers while the metal layers remain intact. The criterion for the transition
from single to multiple cracking is a key parameter for the design of metal/ceramic
laminates. A plot (which is called a ‘Fracture map') has been constructed to enable the
designer to determine the fracture mode for a given laminate.
In the present work, a new fracture map is proposed which includes the effect of the
non-deterministic strength of the ceramic on the transition from single to multiple
cracking. The proposed probability-based fracture map is compared with previous
maps, and compared with experimentally observed fracture modes of different
ceramic/metal laminates.