thermal shock
Sudden heat change
Thermal shock is stress caused by rapid temperature change.
Materials expand when heated and contract when cooled; if the change happens too quickly, the uneven expansion creates cracks or fractures.
The glass shattered from thermal shock when she poured boiling water into it.
Ceramics, glass, and some metals are particularly vulnerable.
The term also applies to biological systems—organisms stressed by sudden temperature shifts in their environment.
- brittlenessProne to snapping
- heat transferMovement of thermal energy
- spallingSurface material fragmenting off
- crazingFine surface fracture pattern
- PyrexHeat-resistant glassware brand
ceramics · borosilicate · tensile strength · coffee pot · glass breakage · stress analysis · glass · heat resistant · aerospace engineering · phase transition · cryogenics · conduction · quenching · cold water · sudden change · heating · strain · rapid
- temperature changestemperature drop, heat waves, temperature rise, cold snaps, temperature spike
- thermal processesheating, burning, cooling, boiling, melting
- shocksanaphylaxis, electroshock, aftershock
- cell lysislysis, cytolysis, cell lysis, osmotic lysis, hemolysis
- Rakutea bowl, tea bowls, rapid cooling, wabi-sabi, smoke marks
- refractoriesrefractories, firebrick, fire brick, fire bricks, fire clay