FAILURE ANALYSIS OF A CERAMIC BIDET

The failure of a bidet under conventional operational conditions led t o serious injuries for the individual concerned, and prompted the need for a detailed failure analysis. This paper describes this failure an alysis from a fracture mechanics point of view, since there was a larg e pre-existing cast-in and glazed defect in the box rim section, which was believed to have been the main cause of failure. Slow crack exten sion developed from this defect as the result of environmentally assis ted crack growth, probably under the combined effect of cyclic loading , together with high (measured) residual stresses. A linear elastic fr acture mechanics analysis, using measured fracture toughness values, a nd realistic estimates of the stress, indicated that the cast-in glaze d defect was the most plausible explanation for the failure. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.