Abstract
The subcritical crack growth of sintered SiC is investigated under various corrosive atmospheres such as distilled water Murakami solution and saturated KOH solution. The KI-V diagrams are obtained by the load relaxation method and incremental displacement rate method using the double torsion technique. The obtained fracture mechanics parameters (n) of sintered SiC are 79 in Murakami solution and 39 in saturated KOH solution. These data indicate that the subcritical crack growth of sintered SiC is taking place in these two conditions and the stress-corrosion cracking is suggested to be the mechanism. With these KI-V diagrams the life of sintered SiC in these conditions is predicted.