Spontaneous thermal runaway as an ultimate failure mechanism of materials

S Braeck1, Y Y Podladchikov

  • 1Physics of Geological Processes (PGP), University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway. simen.brack@fys.uio.no

Related Concept Videos

Fatigue01:21

Fatigue

Fatigue occurs when materials rupture under repeated or fluctuating loads, even at stress levels far below their static breaking strength. It typically results in brittle failure, even for ductile materials. It is a critical consideration in designing machines and structural components subjected to repetitive or varying loads. The nature of these loadings can range from fluctuating loads like unbalanced pump impellers causing vibrations to repeatedly bending a thin steel rod wire back and forth...
Stress-Strain Diagram - Brittle Materials01:24

Stress-Strain Diagram - Brittle Materials

Brittle materials, including glass, cast iron, and stone, exhibit unique characteristics. They fracture without considerable change in their elongation rate, indicating that their breaking and ultimate strength are equivalent. Such materials also show lower strain levels at the point of rupture. The failure in brittle materials predominantly results from normal stresses, as evidenced by the rupture created along a surface perpendicular to the applied load. These materials do not display...
Spontaneity02:21

Spontaneity

A spontaneous process is one that occurs naturally under certain conditions. A nonspontaneous process, on the other hand, will not take place unless it is “driven” by the continual input of energy from an external source. Processes have a natural tendency to occur in one direction under a given set of conditions. Water will naturally flow downhill (spontaneous process), but uphill flow (nonspontaneous process) requires outside intervention such as the use of a pump. Iron exposed to the earth’s...
Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview01:16

Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview

Sigmatropic rearrangements are a class of pericyclic reactions in which a σ bond migrates from one part of a π system to another. These are intramolecular rearrangements where the total number of σ and π bonds remain unchanged.
Sigmatropic shifts are classified based on an order term [i, j ], where i and j indicate the number of atoms across which each end of the σ bond migrates. Below are examples of a [3,3] sigmatropic shift in 1,5-hexadiene, referred to as...