INVESTIGATION OF THE NON-LINEAR ASYMMETRIC BEHAVIOR OF FLEXIBLE CERAMICS THANKS TO DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION Younes Belrhiti a , Arnaud Germaneau c , Pascal Doumalin c , Jean Christophe Dupre c , Arnaud Alzina a,b , Philippe Michaud a,b , Ion Octavian Pop a , Marc Huger a , Thierry Chotard a,b a Groupe d’Etude des Matériaux Hétérogènes (GEMH), CEC, 12 rue Atlantis, 87068 Limoges Cedex, France b Institut Universitaire Technologique du limousin, Département GMP, 2 Allée André Maurois, 87065 Limoges Cedex, France c Institut Pprime, CNRS, Université de Poitiers, 11 Boulevard Marie et Pierre Curie, 86962 Futuroscope Chasseneuil Cedex, France ABSTRACT Large strains to rupture are essential, for refractory materials, to improve their thermal shock resistance. In fact, the non-linear comportment under loading of specific developed ceramics associated to their type of microstructure (micro-cracked) leads to the possibility to increase their strain-to-rupture level. This limit allows a better accommodation of a high level of strain induced by thermal shock solicitations. Aluminum titanate and magnesia spinel ceramics are characterized by a mechanical behavior strongly dependent on their microstructure. Indeed, this behavior can vary from a fragile one to a large non-linear one according to the degree of micro-cracking present within the material. The study of the mechanical behavior is done thanks to four-points bending and wedge splitting tests coupled with digital image correlation technique. Results highlight the asymmetric character of the mechanical behavior of a microcracked aluminum titanate and analyzing the crack propagation and the presence of damage process in the case of magnesia spinel.