Custom Mechanical Strength Test Specimens for Brittle Materials and Their Components

When conventional or standardized test methods cannot be used, it becomes necessary to develop customized test methods to evaluate the mechanical properties of brittle materials used in structural applications. This chapter presents several examples of customized and unconventional test methods used successfully to evaluate the tensile strength of brittle materials. These test methods include the C-sphere, sectored flexural, serpentine bending, anticlastic bending, miniature bend bar, concurrent electric field and ball-on-ring, and laser shock tests. Each of the tests is briefly overviewed in context to the application that motivated their development and the sought applied tensile stress state.