NOTICE: Due to a lapse in annual appropriations, most of this website is not being updated. Learn more.
Form submissions will still be accepted but will not receive responses at this time. Sections of this site for programs using non-appropriated funds (such as NVLAP) or those that are excepted from the shutdown (such as CHIPS and NVD) will continue to be updated.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
ramics are hard, brittle, and chemically inert under most environments. They wear by abrasion and fracture. Since brittle fracture is very sensitive to stress intensity factors, ceramic wear is dominated by stress intensity at various scales. Under mild wear regime, asperity stresses cause intergranular cracking leading to grain pull-out and substrate fatigue process from repeated cycles of stresses. Since ceramics are hard, the wear particles are relatively hard and large as contrasted with wear debris in the metal systems. This eventually introduces large third bodies in the contact. The presence of third bodies intensifies the stress intensity and more fractures take place. Wear transitions occur.
Hsu, S.
, Gates, R.
and Deckman, D.
(2003),
Ceramics Lubrication, International Ceramics Congress | 10th | | Techna, Florence, IT
(Accessed October 11, 2025)