The Spherical Indentation Approach for Fracture Toughness Evaluation: A Study Based on the Energy Release Rate

Author(s):  
Tairui Zhang ◽  
Weiqiang Wang ◽  
Aiju Li

In this study, we investigated the drawbacks of previous studies regarding the evaluation of fracture toughness from spherical indentation tests (SITs). This was achieved by an examination of the material damage mechanism during indentation tests, uniaxial tensile tests, and Mode I/II fracture tests. A new approach based on the energy release rate was proposed in this study to evaluate the fracture toughness of ductile metals. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations revealed that the mechanism for material damage during an indentation test was different with the material damage in uniaxial tensile tests and Mode I fracture tests, but similar to that in Mode II fracture tests. Thus, the energy release rate during SITs should be correlated with JIIC. Compared with previous studies, this new proposed method was more consistent with the actual damage mechanism and did not rely on the specific critical damage values. Experiments on SA508, SA533, 15CrMoR, and S30408 revealed that the maximum error from this energy release rate-based approach was no more than 13% when compared with their conventional counterparts (compact tension tests), and thus can meet the precision requirement of engineering applications.

2014 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theocharis Baxevanis ◽  
Chad M. Landis ◽  
Dimitris C. Lagoudas

A finite element analysis of steady-state crack growth in pseudoelastic shape memory alloys under the assumption of adiabatic conditions is carried out for plane strain, mode I loading. The crack is assumed to propagate at a critical level of the crack-tip energy release rate and the fracture toughness is obtained as the ratio of the far-field applied energy release rate to the crack-tip critical value. Results related to the influence of latent heat on the near-tip stress field and fracture toughness are presented for a range of parameters related to thermomechanical coupling. The levels of fracture toughness enhancement, associated with the energy dissipated by the transformed material in the wake of the growing crack, are found to be lower under adiabatic conditions than under isothermal conditions [Baxevanis et al., 2014, J. Appl. Mech., 81, 041005]. Given that in real applications of shape memory alloy (SMA) components the processes are usually not adiabatic, which is the case with the lowest energy dissipation during a cyclic loading–unloading process (hysteresis), it is expected that the actual level of transformation toughening would be higher than the one corresponding to the adiabatic case.


2003 ◽  
Vol 795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng Liu ◽  
Hee C. Lim ◽  
Min Qu ◽  
John F. Federici ◽  
Gordon A. Thomas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe have measured and calculated the propagation velocity of successive cracks in a single sample of amorphous SiNx as a function of energy release rate. We have obtained the conditions for controlled, repetitive crack formation by using a substrate of compliant plastic that survives the cracking of a thin film formed on it. We have recorded the crack velocity curves using high-speed micro-photography using dark field illumination. Under uniform, uniaxial tensile strain, the films crack in an array of essentially straight, parallel lines, if the increase of the strain density is slow. We find reasonable agreement in the comparison of theory and experiment and find a linear relationship between the initial velocity and energy release rate threshold. Consequently, in cases where the theoretical agreement with the data is reasonable, the successive cracks show velocity curves that scale with each other.


Measurement ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 106884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Ying ◽  
Zheming Zhu ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Meng Wang ◽  
Caoyuan Niu ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (23) ◽  
pp. 1722-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masood Nikbakht ◽  
Hossein Hosseini Toudeshky ◽  
Bijan Mohammadi

Critical energy release rate for delamination initiation in composites as a material property, supposed to be independent from non-material variables. However, a thorough literature review presented in this study shows that in many cases it may vary with the variation of layup configuration or geometrical and dimensions. This study is aimed to investigate the effect of interface layers orientation on fracture toughness by eliminating the other influential parameters such as stacking sequence, by selecting the anti-symmetric layup configuration of Double Cantilever Beam, [Formula: see text], in which θ will be 0°, 30°, 45° and 60°. The energy release rates data have been calculated using different criteria and techniques to obtain the load and displacement at initial crack growth and the results were compared with the standard methods. The damage zone near the crack tip is also illustrated before and after the crack propagation by microscopic images of delamination front, and discussed for all investigated interface fiber angles. Experimental results show that the effect of interface layers orientation on fracture toughness of the investigated layup configurations based on the nonlinear technique as a standard procedure is negligible while other techniques show a considerable changes in the calculated energy release rate with the increase of interface layers angle from zero to 60 degrees.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sheng Zhang ◽  
Longfei Wang ◽  
Mingzhong Gao

To study the size effect of the fracture toughness of notched semicircular bend (NSCB) specimens, the dimensionless energy release rate equation of the NSCB specimen was deduced on the basis of the Bažant energy release rate. The influence of the crack length and the specimen size on the fracture toughness was analyzed. The Bažant scale equation was obtained using the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems, and Structures (RILEM) method. Finally, the Bažant equation was used to analyze the fracture toughness of an NSCB specimen with a radius of 75 mm, and the degree of variation was predicted. The results show that a longer fracture is correlated with a lower fracture toughness value for the same sample size and that a larger specimen radius is correlated with a higher fracture toughness value for the same crack length. The obtained Bažant equation correctly reflects the scale law of the fracture toughness of the NSCB specimen and provides highly accurate predictions of the fracture toughness of large specimens, with an error of not more than 3%. The results obtained in this study provide a new reference method and theoretical basis for the future testing work.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 407-416
Author(s):  
X.-Y. DUAN ◽  
X.-F. LI

The mechanical properties of materials such as elastic modulus, hardness, and fracture toughness, can be measured by nanoindentation. For a thin film coated on an elastic substrate, the cross-sectional nanoindentation technique can decrease the influence of plastic deformation around the nanoindenter apex on fracture toughness for interface delamination. Considering the effect of the elastic substrate, the theory of an elastic beam bonded to an elastic foundation is further developed to obtain the energy release rate of interfacial debonding. Explicit closed-form solutions are determined, and the influence of the substrate on the energy release rate is shown graphically.


Author(s):  
Zafrul Khan ◽  
Hasan M. Faisal ◽  
Rafiqul Tarefder

Fracture toughness and fracture energy release rate are two important parameters to understand the crack propagation within any material. Fracture toughness of asphalt concrete (AC) is vital to explain the fatigue cracking and low temperature cracking of asphalt pavement. These two types of distresses are still unsolved issues for asphalt researchers. Measuring fracture toughness of AC is not a new phenomenon. Recently, researchers have used several techniques to measure the fracture toughness of AC. Tests like semi-circular bending (SCB) and disk-shaped compact specimen (DCT) testing have been used to measure the fracture toughness of the AC. From the SCB or DCT tests, past researchers have shown that crack in AC propagates through mainly binder and mastic phase. All these conventional tests are carried out in macro scale. It is important to understand that before propagation of these macro scale cracks, the cracks initiates at the nano/micro scale level. With the increment of the loads these nanoscale cracks become macro scale cracks and propagates through the sample. Therefore, it is important to understand the cracks at nanoscale. In this study, nanoindentation test was introduced to measure the fracture toughness of the asphalt concrete. In a nanoindentation test, the sample surface is indented with a loaded indenter. For this test, Berkovich indenter with load control method was used. A field cored asphalt concrete sample was used for this study. The sample was collected by coring at interstate 40 (I-40) near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The sample was field aged for four years. The maximum load applied in this study was 5-mn and the unloading was done at a faster rate than the loading rate. From the load-displacement curves of the nanoindentation tests, fracture toughness of the samples was measured. The unloading curve of the nanoindentation test was further used to obtain reduced modulus of the asphalt concrete using Oliver-Pharr method. In this study, fracture energy is thought of as a portion of irreversible energy. This irreversible energy is comprised of plastic energy and energy required for propagation of crack. By analyzing the load displacement curve along with the maximum indentation depth, energy release rate and mode I fracture toughness of asphalt concrete was measured.


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