Determining the toughness of ceramics from Vickers indentationsusing the crack-opening displacements: An experimental study
Recently, a method for evaluating the fracture toughness of ceramics has been proposed based on the computed crack-opening displacements of cracks emanating from Vickers hardness indentations. In order to verify this method, experiments were carried out to determine the toughness of a commercial silicon carbide ceramic, Hexaloy SA, by measuring the crack-opening profiles of such Vickers indentation cracks. While the obtained toughness value of Ko = 2.3 MPavm was within 10% of that measured using conventional fracture toughness testing, the computed crack-opening profiles corresponding to this toughness displayed poor agreement with those measured experimentally, raising concerns about the suitability of this method for determining the toughness of ceramics. The effects of subsurface cracking and cracking during loading are considered as possible causes of such discrepancies, with the former based on evidence observed for secondary radial cracking which affected the crack opening profile and deduced toughness values.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director, Office of Science
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 917399
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-51689; R&D Project: 511906; BnR: KC0201030; TRN: US200816%%557
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the American Ceramics Society, Vol. 86, Issue 8; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 08/2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Oxygen Transport Ceramic Membranes
Measurement of the fracture toughness of ceramic materials using a miniaturized disk-bend test