The subcritical crack growth process that controls cracking of SiC/SiC composites at elevated temperatures is a function of temperature, stress, environment, loading mode and time. These processes include oxidation embrittlement (OE) that dominates in high oxygen environments, interphase removal (IR) that dominates in intermediate environments, viscous sliding (VS) that dominates at high temperatures and oxygen concentrations, fiber relaxation (FR) that dominates in low oxygen
environments, and fiber-stress rupture (SR) that dominates a high temperatures. In nuclear environments, other processes become active such as irradiation enhanced creep that extends the FR regime to temperatures substantially below that for thermally activated creep. A crack growth mechanism map depicting the temperature, oxygen concentration and time regimes over which these processes dominate has been developed and will be described. The development of this map required that the crack growth mechanism first be determined and modeled and then the rules governing the boundary between these regimes defined.
Keywords: ceramic composite, high-temperatures, oxygen, crack growth, mechanism map