Composite and nanocomposite ceramics have achieved special interest in recent years when used for biomedical applications. They have demonstrated, in some cases, increased performance, reliability, and stability in vivo, with respect to pure monolithic ceramics. Current research aims at developing new compositions and architectures to further increase their properties. However, the ability to t...

Grinding can introduce surface and subsurface damage into ceramics, which may reduce the load-bearing area, and thus the residual strength of a ground component. In this study, the principle of continuum damage mechanics (CDM) is applied to predicting grinding damage for ceramics. A nonlinear thermodynamic constitutive model is established to describe the response of ceramics to complex grindin...

Introduction Ceramics have been introduced in total hip arthroplasty for several advantages including minimal friction, low wear, biocompatibility, no ageing problems and no problems related to the systemic increases in serum metal concentrations. In the first generation of ceramic components introduced in the 1970’s the risk of fracture was substantial, reaching up to 13.4 %. After introducing...

Polycrystalline alumina developed by the Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC) has been studied as a candidate thermal diffusivity reference material. It was experimentally confirmed that the alumina developed by the JFCC is homogeneous and stable enough to be used as a reference material. The thermal diffusivities of two specimens of different thicknesses (2 and 3 mm) were measured by the laser fl...

Dielectric constants of Al2O3 (alumina) ceramic samples have been measured with non-destructive terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Using an effective medium approximation, we demonstrated that the relative permittivity can be used to evaluate porous alumina samples, porosity fractions ranging from 0% 20% per volume. This result makes it possible control sample porosity, a key material paramete...