Numerical Simulation of Crack Formation in All Ceramic Dental Bridge

Ceramics have rapidly emerged as one of the major dental biomaterials in prosthodontics due to exceptional aesthetics and outstanding biocompatibility. However, a challenging aspect remaining is its higher failure rate due to brittleness, which has to a certain extent prevented the ceramics from fully replacing metals in such major dental restorations as multi-unit bridges. This paper aims at simulating the crack initiation and propagation in dental bridge. Unlike the existing studies with prescriptions of initial cracks, the numerical model presented herein will predict the progressive damage in the bridge structure which precedes crack initiation. This will then be followed by automatic crack insertion and subsequent crack growth within a continuum to discrete framework. It is found that the numerical simulation correlates well to the clinical and laboratory observations.