Alveen, PatriciaPatriciaAlveenCarolan, DeclanDeclanCarolanMcNamara, DeclanDeclanMcNamaraet al.2014-09-292014-09-292013 Elsev2013-11Computational Materials Sciencehttp://hdl.handle.net/10197/5905A combined experimental–numerical method was used to investigate the role of microstructure on the fracture of advanced ceramics. In particular, the effect of grain size and matrix content were examined. Two dimensional representative finite volume (FV) microstructures were created using Voronoi tessellation to synthetically represent the microstructure of a two phase ceramic composite. It is shown, by comparing with real micrographs, that the method captures the features of real microstructures in terms of grain size distribution, grain aspect ratio and the distribution of second phase agglomerations. Simulation results indicate the computed elastic parameters are within the Hashin–Shtrikman bounds and also agree well with the Eshelby–Mori–Tanaka method. It is found that the underlying microstructure significantly affects the local stress and strain distributions in these advanced ceramics.enThis is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Computational Materials Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Computational Materials Science (79, , (2013)) DOI: http://dx.doi/org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2013.08.006Advanced ceramicsMicrostructureVoronoi tessellationNumerical modelImage analysisFinite volume analysisJournal Article7996097010.1016/j.commatsci.2013.08.0062014-09-26https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/