Stress crack

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Stress crack in the glass of a window pane.

Stress cracks are cracks in materials, workpieces and objects of all kinds that are triggered by stresses in the material itself, not by an external force.

Stress cracks occur when tensions build up in the material that generate greater forces than the material can absorb.

The most common cause of such stresses in the material are temperature differences . Virtually all materials expand when they are warm and contract when they get colder. Are such materials z. B. heated quickly on one side, they only expand partially and cracks or even bursting of the material occur.

Well-known examples are bursting pieces of candy sugar in tea (the well-known crackling occurs when the material, here sugar, tears on the outer edge due to the sudden increase in temperature), ice cubes in hot water, or even shattering glasses when hot liquid is poured in too quickly.

However, stress cracks can also arise due to other causes, e.g. B. by partial chemical change inside the material, such. B. stress corrosion cracking .

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