Residual strain mapping through pair distribution function analysis of the porcelain veneer within a yttria partially stabilised zirconia dental prosthesis

Objective: Residually strained porcelain is influential in the early onset of failure in Yttria Partially Stabilised Zirconia (YPSZ) – porcelain dental prosthesis. In order to improve current understanding it is necessary to increase the spatial resolution of residual strain analysis in these veneers. Methods: Few techniques exist which can resolve residual stress in amorphous materials at the microscale resolution required. For this reason, recent developments in Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analysis of X-ray diffraction data of dental porcelain have been exploited. This approach has facilitated high-resolution (70 μm) quantification of residual strain in a YPSZ-porcelain dental prosthesis. In order to cross-validate this technique, the sequential ring-core focused ion beam and digital image correlation approach was implemented at a step size of 50 μm. This semi-destructive technique exploits microscale strain relief to provide quantitative estimates of the near-surface residual strain. Results: The two techniques were found to show highly comparable results. The residual strain within the veneer was found to be primarily tensile, with the highest magnitude stresses located at the YPSZ-porcelain interface where failure is known to originate. Oscillatory tensile and compressive stresses were also found in a direction parallel to the interface, likely to be induced by the multiple layering used during fabrication. Significance: This study provides the insights required to improve prosthesis modelling, to develop new processing routes that minimise residual stress and ultimately to reduce prosthesis failure rates. The PDF approach also offers a powerful new technique for microscale strain quantification in amorphous materials.