Micro and Macro Mechanics of Fracture in Ceramics.

: The reliability of ceramic materials has been studied by addressing problems concerned with toughness, surface damage and statistics. Toughening effects due to deflecting phases have been studied and shown to yield substantial toughening where rod-shaped phases are used. The surface damage created by machining and implications for NDE have also been addressed, with special emphasis on the role of the residual stresses. Finally, statistical aspects of structural reliability have been studied, both by examining the role of multiple flaw populations on fracture predictability and by quantitatively correlating thermal shock statistics with mechanical strength distributions.