Evaluation of fracture toughness of structural ceramic byinstrumented indentation

Fracture toughness of structural ceramic materials can be obtained with one instrumentedmacro-indentation tester with a Vickers indenter, which is superior to the traditional method whichfirst uses a nanoindentation tester or other instruments to get elastic modulus and then use a largeload hardness tester to make crack on the sample surface. Fracture toughness of two ceramicmaterials: silicon nitride and zirconium oxide is tested on the instrumented macro-indentation tester.The results are 5.93 ~7.05MPa m1/2 and 7.68~8.57 MPa m1/2. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.