Comparison of different failure tests for pharmaceutical tablets: Applicability of the Drucker–Prager failure criterion

Several tests can be used to study the strength of pharmaceutical tablets. Equations exist in the literature to transform the failure force measured into a failure stress which can be considered as a characteristic of the strength of the material. For each failure test, the stress state at failure is different, and as a consequence, the failure stresses obtained are also different. It would thus be interesting to find a failure criterion to unify the different results. In this study four different tests were performed on pharmaceutical compacts of various densities: diametral compression, three-point flexure, biaxial flexure and uniaxial compressive tests. The Drucker–Prager criterion was tested as a possible fracture envelope. The results showed that this criterion is well suited to explain the failures obtained by diametral compression, three-point flexure and biaxial flexure. Nevertheless, for the uniaxial compressive test, the use of this criterion led to a significative underestimation of the experimental value of the failure stress. As a consequence, the Drucker–Prager criterion must be used with caution and is not able to explain all the failures that can occur in a pharmaceutical compact.

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