The Strength of Bone China and Hard Porcelain

This report addresses three questions: Is bone really used in bone china? Is bone china stronger than hard porcelain? Can synthetic materials be used in the fabrication of bone china? The report includes an extensive and detailed review of strength and related measurements of bone china, hard porcelain, and aluminous porcelain, enabling answers to the three questions to be given as ``yes, usually, and yes." A fracture mechanics model of porcelain strength is developed, based on microstructural toughening effects related to included particle size, and used to describe observed strength variations. Other fracture related phenomena in porcelain, such as nonequilibrium crack propagation and electrical breakdown are also reviewed. 300 references are included, covering 100 years of porcelain measurements.