Ceramics are composed of compounds of metals and non metals and may be crystalline or partly crystalline.

They are characterized as brittle, hard, strong in compression and weak in shearing, tension and impact, also very resistant to both corrosion and very high temperatures.

Ceramics have a wide range of applications, most notably in industries that require materials to withstand large compressive forces or intense heat exposure.

Testing ceramics helps determine if they are suited for specific applications.

Typically this involves a series of tests to measure the material's mechanical properties,including the yield strength, ultimate strength, tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, fracture strength, hardness, fracture resistance and creep rate.

Common Test Methods:

There are many different tests that can be performed upon ceramics but the most common and important are those that involve compression, tension, flexural, and fracture mechanics.

Because of the way that ceramics are constructed,they generally posses vary high compressive strengths and will most often fail due to tensile, flexural or fracture forces; therefore it is very important to test these properties.

Specimens:

Depending on the method of testing,a ceramic test sample can come in several different forms.

For compression testing,a ceramic sample is usually in the sample of a simple brick, cube or cylinder.

Flexural and fracture testing require the sample to be smaller than compression testing but it is still rectangular in nature with the flexure sample,generally as a thin rectangle,and the sample for fracture ranging from a beam to a brick.

For tensile testing, they are very brittle in nature and prone to fracturing when loaded improperly. The sample is generally the same as other tensile samples with the exception of the ends which are usually formed as button headed to fit into specially designed grips to avoid any incidental failure.