Ceramics and other brittle materials often exhibit outstanding functional and mechanical properties, positioning them as indispensable elements in a diverse array of technical applications. Due to their inherent lack of plasticity, these materials can fail spontaneously under the combination of tensile stresses and pre-existing defects such as pores, agglomerates, or surface imperfections like scratches. Given that tensile stresses are inevitable in nearly all technical applications, understanding the mechanical behavior of these materials becomes paramount for ensuring their reliability and structural integrity.
Various mechanical testing procedures are proposed and discussed in terms of their applicability to distinct material classes and specimen geometries. The systematic analysis of the obtained data allows for the establishment of correlations between microstructural characteristics, crystallographic orientation, fracture behavior, environmental effects, and the observed mechanical properties. The insights gained through these correlations are crucial for advancing our understanding of brittle material failure mechanisms and for informing the design and optimization of structural components in various engineering applications.