Residual stress determination on lithium disilicate glass-ceramic by nanoindentation

A recently developed method for measuring residual stresses around crystals embedded in the glass matrix, using nanoindentation with cube corner indenter, was used in a lithium disilicate glass-ceramic. We observed that there is a tangential tensile stress at the edge of the crystals that opens and propagates the crack in a direction normal to crystal surfaces. The residual stresses around the crystals are concentrated in the region at distances smaller than 100 μm from the crystal surfaces. At greater distances the stresses are smaller. The limitations and improvements to the method are discussed.