The aim of this project developed by the Structural Integrity and Materials Reliability Center (CIEFMA UPC), was to study and design methods to prevent the failure of zirconia materials with rough surfaces by examining their micromechanics and correlating the damage produced with various parameters. In addition, zirconia with greater resilience to fracture and resistance to hydrothermal degradation was developed, with an appropriate distribution of grain size and composition that increases resilience without affecting resistance. Because of the small scales involved, in the order of a few microns, advanced microstructure and mechanical characterisation techniques such as nanoindentation and ion beam microscopy, and tomography for 3D reconstructions of regions of interest, were used.