| Abstract Scope |
The traditional labeling of ceramics as brittle materials has been challenged by the last decades of efforts in toughening them with a variety of strategies. Multiscale designs and controlled phase transformations have shown promising results. The processing of such toughened ceramics, however, requires innovative approaches.
We show here how multiple toughening strategies can be combined into bulk all-ceramic materials. Specifically, we present an optimization-driven approach to creating a double-tough ceramic material with a brick-and-mortar microstructure, where the mortar is itself transformation-toughened, engineered with the goal of simultaneously achieving high strength and fracture toughness. As the design of such a material, driven by multiscale toughening mechanisms, requires a laborious trial-and-error approach, we propose a Bayesian optimization framework as an integral part of our methodology to streamline and accelerate the design process. As a result, we develop a bio-inspired all-ceramic composite that exhibits an exceptional balance between bending strength and fracture toughness. |