Bending strength of silica glass

Tensile and bending tests are useful to characterize the mechanical behavior of ceramics. Theoretical comparisons between results of both tests are usually done based on Weibull statistics. In previous experiments on borosilicate glass, no agreement was found between experimental and theoretical values of the ratio of the maximum bending and tensile stresses at 50 percent probability of fracture. In this investigation, additional experiments in bending have been performed, to measure the distribution of fracture initiation points. Good agreement with theory is found. The previous disagreement could be attributed to fatigue effects. (C) 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers.