Statistical analysis of fracture toughness of soda-lime glass determined by indentation

Vickers indentation tests were conducted on a commercial soda-lime glass to determine the fracture toughness. The resultant fracture toughness data were then analyzed statistically. It was found that there always exists a somewhat large scatter in the indentation toughness measured at each applied load level. The variability of the measured indentation toughness was modeled by the well-known Weibull statistics. For different sets of indentation toughness data measured at different load levels, the resultant Weibull moduli are nearly identical with each other, indicating that the statistical variability of the indentation toughness is load-independent.