2.1. Volume-gain kinetics model
The healing mechanisms of self-healing ceramics are explained by an oxidation kinetics-based healing model [
39]. This model could be applied to various HAs-based composites. Volume gains due to oxidation-induced reaction leads to weight gain, and the schematic illustration of this phenomenon is presented in
Figure 1.
The isothermal weight gain formula can be expressed as a function of healing temperature and time, oxygen partial pressure, kinetics parameters, and features of the fractured surface and HAs. The general formulation of the isothermal weight gain is as follows:
where
is the oxidation rate constant,
is the holding healing time, and
n signifies the rate-controlling oxidation mechanism. For oxidation of SiC as HA,
n = 2 can be adopted [
39]. Meanwhile,
n = 2 was also considered for the TiC-HA oxidation. Furthermore,
n = 3 is adopted for the oxidation of Ti
2AlC MAX-phase healing agent in alumina matrix [
35]. The rate constant
can be formulated by considering the effect of the oxygen partial pressure as follows:
where
and
are AE and FF of HA-oxidation, respectively, for the oxidation of HAs;
TH is the healing temperature;
is the oxygen partial pressure;
is the standard oxygen partial pressure;
R is the gas constant; m = 0.835 [
39] is a temperature-independent constant experimentally determined for the healing reaction in the N
2-O
2 mixed gas. Hence, the weight gain for HA-oxidations can be described as
Furthermore, the volume gain
during the isothermal oxidation reaction can be converted from the weight gain as follows:
where
(reactive area fraction) = 2
A, and
A is the area of one side of the fractured surfaces.
is the weight gain per unit volume gain for HA oxidation. The volume gain owing to the self-healing reaction depends on the free surface of the unreacted HAs on the fractured surfaces. The volume fraction
of HAs and the crack propagation path determine the actual reactive area fraction of HAs. In general, the volume fraction of HAs,
, ranging from 0.15 to 0.30 has been used for complete healing of cracks based on a number of experimental analysis reported in [
14,
15,
28,
40]. The effective reactive area ratio,
is considered to be 0.5 when the crack propagates along the interface of the matrix–HAs, as the HAs are located on one side of the fractured surface, as shown in
Figure 1. In this study,
is used as 0.5 for SiC-HAs oxidation with alumina and mullite-based matrix. Furthermore,
= 1.0 when the crack propagates through the HAs, which is considered for monolithic ceramics mainly consisting of HAs, such as SiC and Ti
2AlC. Notably,
= 0.5 and
= 1.0 are assumed in the case of TiC and Ti
2AlC oxidation respectively, as detected from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images after cracking, which implies that crack propagate along the interface of the matrix–HAs and through the HAs, respectively [
41,
42]. Here, the crack propagation path could mainly depend on the differences in fracture strength, toughness, and stiffness between the matrix and HAs, [
39].
is the weight gain per unit volume gain for HAs oxidation. For SiC oxidation,
where
MSiC, MSiO2, , and
are the molar mass and molar density of SiC and SiO
2, respectively. Furthermore,
can also be calculated in the similar manner for TiC and Ti
2AlC oxidation by the following general formula:
where
are the molar mass and molar density of
ith healing product (HP), respectively, and
are the molar mass and molar density of HAs, respectively. In this study,
= 1.4908×10
3, 2.9760×10
3, and 4.7133×10
3 were used for SiC-, TiC- and Ti
2AlC-HAs oxidation.
Finally, the volume-gain rate from the oxidation kinetics model is expressed as follows:
The initial value of volume gain
in the numerical analysis is expressed by the following equation:
Here, is the initial time increment. Equations (4), (7), and (8) are useful for determining the healing parameters of different HAs under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions.
2.2. Tip-to-mouth crack-gap filling model
Various experimental studies have been conducted on the self-healing of cracks induced by the Vickers indentation method. Many researchers have revealed that these indented cracks are completely or partially healed with different healing temperatures, times, and other parameters [
15,
17,
23]. The experimental strength of the cracked specimens is recovered through crack-gap filling by the oxidation products from the HAs incorporated within the matrix. Note that crack-gap filling can be modeled theoretically using the tip-to-mouth crack-gap filling model and bridging model [
39]. In this study, the tip-to-mouth crack-gap filling model was adopted.
The crack-gap filling ratio
is an important parameter that determines the level of strength recovery during self-healing and is expressed as follows:
Here,
is the crack-gap volume and is expressed as follows:
where
is the half-crack length, as shown in
Figure 2;
is the crack depth of a median/radial crack introduced by Vickers indentation and is defined by the aspect ratio
= 0.9.
is the maximum crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD), which is related to the initial CMOD, and it decreases significantly due to annealing. In this study, we adopt the following empirical equations applicable for alumina matrix–based composites [
39], to evaluate
:
where
is the initial CMOD before annealing.
= 1523 K and
= 9 are the empirical fitting parameters. The empirical relation between
and half-crack size
c is expressed as follows:
= 4.06 c.
The total crack-gap volume after annealing for a specific crack geometry induced by Vickers indentation can be estimated using Equations (10)–(12). Hence, the filling ratio
for SiC and TiC HA oxidation when incorporated within alumina matrix–based composites becomes
where one side area of the fractured surface is expressed as
A =
(
). As assumed, the oxidation products start filling the crack from the crack tip point to the mouth in the tip-to-mouth filling model. Furthermore, the crack opening displacement increases linearly from the tip to the mouth, as shown in
Figure 2. Thus, the crack size evolution in this model is given as follows:
It is noteworthy that the strength recovery rate is strongly dependent on the remaining crack size
.The theoretical strength recovery rate can be estimated based on nonlinear fracture mechanics [
23,
43,
44] as a function of the remaining crack size, fracture toughness, and smooth specimen strength:
where
F is a geometric factor that can be estimated using the Newman–Raju equation [
45]. For simplicity in calculation, we used the crack size evolution as calculated by Equation (14) and geometric factor estimated by Newman–Raju equation.
is the strength of smooth specimen.
KIC is the mode I fracture toughness of the composite, which can be expressed as follows:
where
K is the stress intensity factor at the crack-tip caused by the external applied stress and
is the stress intensity factor at the crack tip caused by the internal tensile residual stress near the indent. According to Osada et al. [
39],
can be approximated using the following empirical equation:
where
= 1423 K and
p = 11 are the fitting parameters used in this model.
The stress intensity factor due to the residual stress is relaxed significantly by high-temperature healing, which has been followed in this model to predict the theoretical strength recovery behaviors. The remaining crack size in the tip-to-mouth filling model is the only indicator of cracked strength recovery in Equation (15). < 1 owing to the low temperature or short healing period corresponds to a partial crack healing state. In contrast, = 1 corresponding to a high temperature or long period of healing, then = 0, signifying that complete crack healing leads to full strength recovery at the same level as the strength of the smooth specimen.