Fracture characterization of ceria partially stabilized zirconia using the GMTSN criterion

Ceria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (CeO2-TZP) is one of the zirconia-based materials which is reported to have high fracture toughness and strong resistance to low temperature aging degradation (LTAD). Owing to the brittle behavior of CeO2-TZP, its fracture properties can be estimated using the concept of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). In this paper, the generalized maximum tangential strain (GMTSN) criterion is applied to predict the fracture initiation angles and the onset of fractures of CeO2-TZP disk specimens under mixed mode I/II conditions. It is found that the inclusion of T-term, the first non-singular term in strain solution, in the GMTSN criterion would yield significantly improved predictions of the experimental data obtained for CeO2-TZP disk specimens and reported in the literature.