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Tsukuba, Japan - Ceramic materials that are resistant to cracking are used in a variety of industries from aerospace engineering to dentistry. Toughening them to improve their efficiency and safety is therefore an important area of investigation. Researchers from the University of Tsukuba have used time-resolved X-ray diffraction to observe transformation toughening in zirconia ceramics during dynamic fracture. Their findings are published in
Applied Physics Letters.
Current methods of observation allow the formation of cracks in materials to be observed in situ while loads are applied. These close-up analyses can capture changes on a very small scale with fast resolution, providing clear pictures of fractures and of how the material resists them through toughening.