Abstract：With the rapid development of science and technology, materials are more widely applied in high temperature fields. Ceramic materials as one of the most potential high-temperature candidates can be applied in the thermal protection system of hypersonic flight vehicles, the high temperature components of engines and the key components of nuclear fission reactors. Meanwhile, metal materials also play a very important role in high temperature applications, and have been widely used as the high temperature structural components. Because their mechanical properties at elevated temperatures are quite different from those at room temperature, studies and characterizations on the high-temperature mechanical properties of materials have become the hotspot of current researches. Although theoretical studies on the mechanical properties of these two kinds of materials at room temperature are quite sufficient, the theoretical characterizations of their mechanical properties at different temperatures, especially at elevated temperatures, are still lacking. The recent developments of theoretical characterization methods for their temperature dependent mechanical behavior are summarized and reviewed in this paper. A novel modeling idea for the temperature dependent mechanical properties of materials is mainly introduced: “(1) There is maximum energy storage for a particular material, and this energy storage can be measured by both strain energy and heat energy; (2) There is a quantity equivalent relation between strain energy and heat energy”. And this modeling idea has been applied to characterize the mechanical properties including: (1) the temperature dependent fracture strengths of ceramic materials, mainly including the ultra-high temperature ceramics, particle reinforced ceramic matrix composites, laminated ceramic matrix composite and fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites; (2) the temperature dependent yield strengths of metal materials, including pure metals and alloys; (3) the temperature dependent elastic moduli of metal materials. In addition, the constitutive relation of metal materials at elevated temperatures and high strain rates is also introduced. Finally, the future studies on the theoretical characterization methods for the high-temperature mechanical properties of materials are prospected. Some suggestions are provided for the future work by summarizing the characteristics and shortcomings of the existing researches.
2017, Vol. 38 
