Subcritical Crack Growth in Dense Alumina Exposed to Physiological Media

Dense alpha alumina plates were fabricated using a slip‐casting process. These samples were used to evaluate the subcritical crack‐growth characteristics of the alumina in various physiological media. Specifically, the double‐torsion method was used to obtain crack velocity vs stress intensity factor plots in distilled water, saline solution, and medium 199 at 37°C. The resulting data suggested that for the particular alumina samples analyzed, K 1 was not independent of the crack length and thus this method was not entirely valid. Despite these problems, there was a tendency for the stress corrosion to be greatest in the distilled water and least in the medium 199. Finally, the experimental crack‐growth parameters were within the range reported for similar biomaterials.