You are on page 1of 2

Ceramics, are made by the direct method of heating at very hight temperatures and then

rapidly cooling them. Due to this rapid quenching, they do not get enough time to form
proper bonds and the bonds which were able to form in that time, become quiet hard due to
the rapid processing. This, is a major factor which adds to the property of ceramics being
hard and brittle. That is, they are not allowed to cool properly and form pearlites, but left at
a stage of austenite and martensite mixture.

Because ceramics are predominantly made up of ionic and covalent bonds and hence
requires high temperature for dislocation motion at low strain rates. At above normal
temperature some of them (Eg : isotropic single crystals of ceramics (NaCl)) do show
plasticity when tested under low strain rate.
For more details please refer: Introduction to Ceramics by W D Kingery et al book or
Modern Ceramic Engineering book by D W Richerson

Ceramics materials have very small and omnipresent flaws as minute surface or interior
cracks (microcracks), internal pores, and grain corners, which are virtually impossible to
eliminate or control. These flaws serve as stress raisers such that depending on crack
orientation and geometry, applied stress may be amplified or concentrated at the tip of
the crack. When the magnitude of a tensile stress at the tip of one of these flaws
exceeds the value of this criticalstress which is large enough to break apart the
interatomic bonds, a crack forms and then propagates, which results in fracture. Crack
then propagates through the cross section ofmaterial in a direction perpendicular to
the applied load. The energy required simply to break the interatomic bonds is much
less than that absorbed by ductile tearing in a tough material, and this is why materials
like ceramics and glasses are so brittle.

In more detail:

Bond type: The atoms in ceramic materials are most commonly held together by the
twocovalent and ionic primary bonds (or) mix of them. Covalent and ionic bonds are
much stronger than metallic bonds.

Slip systems: Both these bond types have a very few/limited slip systems
(crystallographic planes and directions within those planes) as a consequence
dislocations are limited and results in a negligible or no plastic deformation at room
temperature.
Stress raisers: The effect of a stress raiser is more significant in brittle than in ductile
materials. For a ductile material, plastic deformation ensues when the maximum stress
exceeds the yield strength. This leads to a more uniform distribution of stress in the
vicinity of the stress raiser and to the development of a maximum stress concentration
factor less than the theoretical value. Such yielding and stress redistribution do not
occur to any appreciable extent around flaws and discontinuities in brittle materials;
therefore, essentially the theoretical stress concentration will result.

Fracture strength: The measured fracture strengths for most brittle materials are
significantly lower than those predicted by theoretical calculations based on atomic
bonding energies.

You might also like