STRENGTH ANALYSIS OF YTTRIA-STABILIZED TETRAGONAL ZIRCONIA POLYCRYSTALS

Tensile strength of Y2O3‐stabilized ZrO2 polycrystals (Y‐TZP) was measured by a newly developed tensile testing method with a rectangular bar. The tensile strength of Y‐TZP was lower than that of the three‐point bend strength, and the shape of the tensile strength distribution was quite different from that of the three‐point bend strength distribution. It was difficult to predict the distribution curve of the tensile strength using the data of the three‐point bend strength by one‐modal Weibull distribution. The distribution of the tensile strength was analyzed by two‐ or three‐model Weibull distribution coupled with an analysis of fracture origins. The distribution curve of the three‐point bend strength which was estimated by multimodal Weibull distribution agreed favorably with that of the measured three‐point bend strength values. A two‐modal Weibull distribution function was formulated approximately from the distributions of the tensile and three‐point bend strengths, and the estimated two‐modal Weibull distribution function for the four‐point bend strength agreed well with the measured four‐point bend strength. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved