ABSTRACT
Improving toughness or other mechanical properties of ceramics by fiber or whisker reinforcement must, of course. be demonstrated by testing. Several types of mechanical tests were described earlier. This chapter presents a more in-depth look at testing. Although mechanical test procedures for monolithic materials, including ceramics, have been well developed and standardized over the years, testing of fiber reinforced materials generally requires modification of existing test methods or development of new methods. Since the technology of polymer matrix composites is more mature than that of ceramic matrix composites, current mechanical test development for ceramic matrix composites draws considerably from the testing used for polymer matrix composites. However, just as test requirements for composites differ from those of monolithic materials, test requirements among different types of composites differ also.
