A Comprehensive and Self-Contained Treatment of the Theory and Practical Applications of Ceramic Materials When failure occurs in ceramic materials, it is often catastrophic, instantaneous, and total. Now in its Second Edition, this important book arms readers with a thorough and accurate understanding of the causes of these failures and how to design ceramics for failure avoidance. It systematically covers: * Stress and strain * Types of mechanical behavior * Strength of defect-free solids * Linear elastic fracture mechanics * Measurements of elasticity, strength, and fracture toughness * Subcritical crack propagation * Toughening mechanisms in ceramics * Effects of microstructure on toughness and strength * Cyclic