Abstract
The fracture toughness and micro-fracture mechanisms of the porous glass and stainless fiber reinforced glass composite were evaluated by using the acoustice mission(AE) technique, fracture toughness $test(K_{IC})$ and the macroscopic observation of the specimen surface which was being under the loading. At initial portion of the loading, the AE signals with low energy, of which origins were considered as the micro-cracks formated at the crack tip, were emitted. With increasing the applied load, AE signals having higher energies were generated due to the coalesence of micro-cracks and fast fracture. Based on the such relationship between AE emission and loading condition, fracture toughness $K_{IAE}$ could be defined successfully be using the $K_I$ value corresponding to an abrupt change of the accumulated AE signal energies emitted during the fracture toughness test. In spite of its brittleness of glass material, nonlinear deformation behavior before maximum load was observed due to the formation of micro-cracks. Further, the stainless fiber may have attributed to the improvement of fracture toughness and the resistance to crack propagation comparing to noncomposited materials Finally, models of the micro-fracture process combined with the AE sources for the porous glass material and its composite were proposed paying attention to the micro-crack nucleation and its coalescence at the crack tip. Fiber fracture and its Pullout, deformation of fiber itself were also delinated from the model.