Fracture behavior of silicon nitride ceramics under combined compression–torsion stresses analyzed by multiaxial fracture statistics

Combined compression–torsion tests were performed on the thermal-treated and as-machined silicon nitride ceramics to investigate their fracture behavior under multiaxial stress states. The thermal-treated samples showed considerable high strength and low anisotropy to the grinding direction in flexure tests compared to the as-machined samples. Under combined compression and torsion stress states, the thermal-treated samples showed considerably higher tensile strength than that of as-machined samples at low compressive stress states and weakening with increasing compression stress. The as-machined samples showed little decrease in tensile strength with increasing compression stress and comparable tensile strength with the thermal-treated samples under a highly compressive stress state. The behavior of thermal-treated samples were well described by the statistical theory of multiaxial fracture for volume-distributed flaws combined with a mixed-mode fracture criterion with the shear sensitivity constant of 1.75 and 1.65 for Shetty’s criterion and the ellipsoidal criterion, respectively.