Strength characteristics of toughened ceramics containing contact-induced small surface cracks

Based on an assumption that the R-curve behavior of toughened ceramics can be described with an exponential function, a numerical simulation procedure was designed and performed in this paper to examine the strength characteristics of toughened ceramics containing contact-induced small surface cracks. Some useful relations among fracture strength, initial crack size, Weibull modulus and the R-curve characteristics were deduced and discussed briefly based on the physical meanings of the parameters included in the exponential R-curve equation.