Abstract: A thermo-mechanical model for ceramic materials subjected to thermal shock is presented in this paper .
The model was based on the thermo-mechanical coupling principle , and the statistical method was used to consider the heterogeneity of ceramics at the mesoscopic level , which is different f rom the previous models based on the so-called continuous damage mechanics. The failure process of plane ceramics subjected to thermal shock was investigated to validate this model and also to reveal the failure mechanism of ceramic materials under the thermal condition. The results show that the cracks are initiated ruleless on the surface where it is subjected to thermal shock at the beginning of the thermal shock. However , with the further thermal conduction some cracks gradually grow in the inner normal direction of the surface while the propagation of other cracks is rest rained. The results well agree with the experimental data. The proposed approach provides a new method to model the failure process of ceramic materials subjected to thermal shock.