LAUSR

Abstract ASTM C1678 describes the state-of-the-art's fractographic techniques to estimate the fracture strength of glasses and ceramics through empirical, strength vs. fracture mirror length relationships. However, the methodology is subjective and only applicable to a few loading scenarios and relatively pristine fracture surfaces. This work presents a semi-automated, alternative approach to objectively estimate the strength of silicate glasses for ampler loading and geometric scenarios. The proposed method relies on a baseline set of fracture surface profilometry-scans gathered on samples of known strengths. A computer vision-based algorithm compares relevant, topological features extracted from the baseline set to the features on the fracture surfaces investigated. An empirical relationship based on over 2,100 fractured silicate specimens is used to compute the strength of the trial sample. The proposed scheme could accurately estimate the strength of specimens beyond the capacity of ASTM C1678, such as in chemically strengthened glasses and fracture surfaces displaying significant damage.