Abstract
Recent investigations on the mechanics of dental lithium disilicates have gathered mounting evidences of a probable R-curve behavior. Here we use an indirect approach to obtain the contours of the R-curve using the relationship between strength and initial crack size obtained from quasi-static fracture toughness tests. The tangent condition formed by the multiple KI,appl (ai,j) curves give a smoothened polygonal envelope for the R-curves. The R-curves obtained this way were extended toward an initial value at the onset of stable crack extension, obtained hereusing a microcantilever specimen featuring a sharp notch produced by focused-ion-beam milling. The presence of an R-curve effect was confirmed for the three evaluated lithium disilicates, being more pronounced for the injection-molded material having an oriented elongated Li2Si2O5 microstructural architecture, with crystal fraction playing an important role for low-aspect ratio randomly-oriented microstructures.
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