The Surface Energy of {100} Potassium Chloride

Abstract

A modified Obreimov-Gilman cleavage technique utilizing the apparent variation of cleavage sur face energy with crack length and specimen di mensions has been used to determine the true sur face energy of the planes of potassium chloride at room temperature. The true surface energy of KCl was found to be 110 = 5 ergs/cm2, in good agreement with Born and Stern's theoretical estimation but not with more recent estimates of this quantity. Possible causes for this dis crepancy are discussed. Other experiments re vealed that the presence of a solvent environ ment at the crack tip increased the cleavage fracture energy of potassium chloride only some two or three times. This suggests that the Gurney-Pulliam phenomenon of precipitation at a crack tip is not primarily responsible for the increased strength and ductility observed when certain ionic crystals are tested in solvent environments (Joffe's effect).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0409566

Entities

People

  • A. R. Westwood
  • T. T. Hitch

Organizations

  • Martin Marietta

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Chemistry
  • Chlorides
  • Crack Tips
  • Cracks
  • Crystallography
  • Crystals
  • Energy
  • Ionic Crystals
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • New York
  • Potassium
  • Potassium Chloride
  • Precipitation
  • Single Crystals
  • Surface Energy
  • Surface Properties

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  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).
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