Temperature-diffusion analogy in fracture analysis of ceramic products during the drying process

Abstract

This article presents an approach, combining fracture mechanics and temperature-diffusion analogy, to assess the initialization of cracking and the crack propagation in the drying process in the production of ceramic products. The correspondence between humidity and temperature in the resolving equations of the two processes is used as a basis for the temperature-diffusion analogy. These equations were solved using the “Transient Thermal” and “Static Structural” modules of the ANSYS Workbench software. The mechanical properties of the material necessary for the realization of the solution (coefficient of thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficient) are taken from literature sources. From the model temperature solution, results were obtained for the temperature distribution, which shows the picture of the moisture content in the real drying process. Results for deformations and mechanical stresses in the material have also been obtained. By introducing a crack and applying the apparatus of fracture mechanics, the values of the stress intensity factor at different crack orientations were obtained. The obtained results can be used to optimize the drying process and reduce product defects.