Fracture Toughness
The length of the defect and an understanding of the ceramic materials Young’s modulus is needed to measure the KIC.
Fracture toughness is a critical metric as it determines how a material performs under given conditions. This is important as even in the highest quality ceramic its nearly impossible to guarantee that the end products are totally free from defects and therefore required to measure performance.
Materials Ranked by Fracture Toughness
Zirconia (ZrO2) - CeramaZirc™ Ultra Tough
CeramaZirc Ultra Tough is an advanced zirconia-based ceramic composite material based on partially stabilized zirconia and alumina platelets.
Details
Zirconia (ZrO2) - CeramaZirc™
Unlike traditional ceramics that tend to be hard and brittle, Zirconia offers high strength, wear resistance, and flexibility far beyond those of most other advanced ceramics.
Details
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) – CeramaSil-N™
Silicon Nitride has the most versatile combination of mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of any advanced ceramic material.
Details
Alumina (Al2O3) – CeramAlox™ Ultra Pure
CeramaAlox Ultra Pure is a very high purity (99.95%) grade of Alumina (Aluminum Oxide) exhibiting an exceptional combination of mechanical and electrical properties.
Details
Ceramic Material Comparison Chart
Related Properties
Compressive Strength
Compressive strength is the capacity of a material to withstand loads tending to reduce size. Explained differently, compressive strength resists compression (being pushed together), whereas tensile strength resists tension (being pulled apart).
Fracture Toughness
The ability to resist fracture is a mechanical property of materials known as fracture toughness. For advanced ceramics it uses a critical stress intensity factor known as KIC where the fracture normally occurs at the crack terminations.
Flexural Strength
Flexural strength, also known as bending strength, modulus of rupture or transverse rupture strength, is defined as the maximum stress in a material just before it yields in a bending test