A Technique for High-Speed Microscopic Imaging of Dynamic Failure Events and Its Application to Shear Band Initiation in Polycarbonate

An experimental technique is reported, which can image the deformation fields associated with dynamic failure events at high spatial and temporal resolutions simultaneously. The technique is demonstrated at a spatial resolution of ~1 μm and a temporal resolution of 250 ns, while maintaining a relatively large field of view (≈ 1.11 mm × 0.63 mm). As a demonstration, the technique is used to image the deformation field near a notch tip during initiation of a shear instability in polycarbonate. An ordered array of 10 μm diameter speckles with 20 μm pitch, and deposited on the specimen surface near the notch tip helps track evolution of the deformation field. Experimental results show that the width of the shear band in polycarbonate is approximately 75 μm near the notch-tip within resolution limits of the experiments. The measurements also reveal formation of two incipient localization bands near the crack tip, one of which subsequently becomes the dominant band while the other is suppressed. Computational simulation of the experiment was conducted using a thermo-mechanically coupled rate-dependent constitutive model of polycarbonate to gain further insight into the experimental observations enabled by the combination of high spatial and temporal resolutions. The simulation results show reasonable agreement with the experimentally observed kinematic field and features near the notch-tip, while also pointing to the need for further refinement of constitutive models that are calibrated at high strain rates (~105/s) and also account for damage evolution.

Transitions in Charpy Energy and Splitting for X80 Pipe Steel

Using data obtained for a recent production 48-inch diameter X80 PSL2 pipe, the transition in fracture behavior between fully brittle and fully ductile modes was examined to assess any effects of transverse splits or delaminations. The additional surface area formed at the splits can increase and decrease the Charpy energy by expending energy to form more fracture surface and reduce constraint on the propagating crack as it extends through the unnotched Charpy ligament. Fitting of full Charpy energy transition curves for the tested material with standard hyperbolic tangent functions does not represent the behavior well. An important transition is noted in the behavior between splitting that initiates at the initial notch tip and splitting that occurs further down in the ligament. Spitting across the notch tip increases Charpy energy by releasing constraint on crack initiation behavior at the machined notch and occurs at temperatures just above the lower shelf temperature where brittle fracture dominates. The splitting behavior can also be correlated to effects on fracture toughness in the same orientation for CTOD specimens in the base material and for correlated effects on CTOD behavior in the weld heat affected zone when the crack advance is in the through thickness direction.