Edge toughness of brittle materials

In industrial applications edge chipping or flaking is one of the most common reasons for the failure of ceramic components. In this work, a previously presented method, found in literature, to investigate the behaviour of ceramic edges under mechanical loading is further developed. This method, involving loading an edge near region in a sample with an indenter until flaking occurs, can be used to characterize ceramic materials and to rank them with respect to their resistance against edge flaking. It is found that the edge geometry has a significant effect on the measured resistance to edge flaking.