Explosive fragmentations of alumina (Al2O3) under quasistatic compressive loading

Abstract

Quasistatic compression tests for alumina (Al2O3) cylinders were conducted for the investigations of the compressive strengths and the dynamic fragmentation properties of the material. We focused on the post-failure dynamic fragmentation phenomenon. Most of the fragments were collected after tests, the shapes and sizes of these fragments were measured and statistically analyzed. The fragments were divided into three types on basis of their shapes and sizes, namely: the flaky medium sized fragments, the tiny debris, and the remaining large blocks, each type of the fragments were formed at different stages of the compressive failure-fragmentation process. The tiny debris were mainly generated from the ”explosion” of the cylindrical specimen, in this stage the stored elastic energy within the specimen was released rapidly. The tiny fragments accounted the most part of the fragments in numbers. The average fragment size calculated by the proposed formula agree well with the experimental data.