Influence of the Compositional Profile of Functionally Graded Material on the Crack Path under Thermal Shock

Thermal cracking under a transient‐temperature field in a ceramic/metal functionally graded plate is discussed. When the functionally graded plate is cooled from high‐temperature, curved or straight crack paths often occur on the ceramic surface. It is shown that the crack paths are influenced by the compositional profile of the functionally graded plate. Transient‐thermal stresses are treated as a linear quasi‐static thermoelastic problem for a plane strain state. The crack paths are obtained using finite element method with Mode I and Mode II stress intensity factors.