A work on the brittle to ductile transition (BDT) in single crystal alumina has been performed to understand and assess the dynamics of dislocation mobility around crack tip of brittle material. The critical stress intensity factor and yield strengths were obtained from bending test using precracked specimens at elevated temperatures. It was found that the BDT temperature was dependent on strain rate and orientation of specimen : for (1120) fracture surface, $1034^{circ}C$, $1150^{circ}C$ for $4.2 imes 10^{-6}$, $4.2 imes 10^{-7}s^{-1}$ respectively. Under a 4 point bending test, the moving distance of dislocation generated near crack front in ductile range is determined by an etch pits method. The velocity of dislocation in sapphire obtained from the double etching method was applied to modelling study.