Interaction between indentation cracks in soda-lime-silica glass

Contact induced flaws encountered in glass processing or during its subsequ ent uses are the main source of strength degradation and damage these 'natu ral' flaws Evolve as microcracks under the influence of external loading by stress concentrations or residual stresses caused by inelastic deformation at localised contacts. Size, density and orientation distribution of these microcracks are dependent on chance. Where their density is high as in imp act erosion (sand blasting) microcrack interaction becomes preponderant. In this work we studied the effect of interaction between two crack systems a rtificially induced by Vickers indentation. WE were interested in the influ ence of the loading magnitude and distance separating two similar indentati ons in a particular configuration.