Comparative study of Weibull characteristic strength and mean strength of GPCs to confirm the minimum number of samples needed for confident strength reporting

This short communication determines the strength of two glass polyalkenoate cements that differ from each other through the composition of their glass phase. Sample sets of n=5, 10, 20 and 30 were formulated and tested in biaxial flexure. The derived mean for each sample set was compared against the Weibull characteristic strength. The mean and corresponding characteristic strength show a maximum percentage difference 10.1%, and the 95% confidence intervals calculated from the mean data encompass the corresponding characteristic strength down to a sample set of n=5. This suggests that, for brittle materials such as glass polyalkenoate cements, it is acceptable to test only five samples of each material in biaxial flexure and the resultant 95% confidence intervals will encompass the corresponding Weibull characteristic strength of the material.