Calculation of the Ceramics Weibull Parameters

The paper deals with calculation of the parameters of ceramic material from a set of destruction tests of ceramic heads of total hip joint endoprosthesis. The standard way of calculation of the material parameters consists in carrying out a set of 3 or 4 point bending tests of specimens cut out from parts of the ceramic material to be analysed. In case of ceramic heads, it is not possible to cut out specimens of required dimensions because the heads are too small (if the cut out specimens were smaller than the normalised ones, the material parameters derived from them would exhibit higher strength values than those which the given ceramic material really has). On that score, a special testing jig was made, in which 40 heads were destructed. From the measured values of circumferential strains of the head’s external spherical surface under destruction, the state of stress in the head under destruction was established using the final elements method (FEM). From the values obtained, the sought for parameters of the ceramic material were calculated using Weibull’s weakest-link theory. Keywords—Hip joint endoprosthesis, ceramic head, FEM analysis, Weibull's weakest-link theory, failure probability, material parameters