Fracture toughness

About: Fracture toughness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 39642 publications have been published within this topic receiving 854338 citations.

Switch-toughening of ferroelectrics subjected to electric fields

Abstract: Electric fields can influence the fracture toughness of ferroelectrics. For example, poled ferroelectrics exhibit fracture toughness anisotropy: the material is tougher for a crack parallel to the poling direction but less tough for a crack perpendicular to it. When an electric field is applied to a poled sample, a positive field reduces its fracture toughness but a negative field enhances it. Previous investigations attribute these phenomena to polarization switching. This paper proposes a model of stress-assisted 90 polarization switching to quantify the toughening process. Small scale switching and uniform electric fields are assumed. An analytical solution is presented for a mono-domain ferroelectric crystal undergoing a confined polarization switch. This solution and the domain orientation pattern enable us to estimate the fracture resistance against the steady state crack growth in ferroelectrics by a Reuss-type multiple-domain assembly. A dimensionless group of material parameters and an electric field function emerge, and form the key ingredients of switch-toughening. The model is used to delineate several observations, including: poling-induced anisotropy of the fracture toughness, asymmetric variation of the fracture toughness under positive and negative electric fields of a poled specimen; upside-down butterfly loop for the fracture toughness response under cyclic electric loading.

Application of Cracked Triangular Specimen Subjected to Three-Point Bending for Investigating Fracture Behavior of Rock Materials

Abstract: Numerical and experimental studies were performed on a new fracture test configuration called the edge cracked triangular (ECT) specimen. Using several finite-element analyses, the fracture parameters (i.e., K I, K II, and T-stress) were obtained for different combinations of modes I and II. The finite-element results show that the ECT specimen is able to provide pure mode I, pure mode II, and any mixed-mode loading conditions in between. Also, a series of mixed-mode fracture experiments were conducted on Neiriz marble rock using the proposed specimen. Furthermore, the generalized maximum tangential stress (GMTS) criterion was used to predict the experimental results. The GMTS criterion makes use of a three-parameter model (based on K I, K II, and T) for describing the crack tip stresses. Due to the significant positive T-stresses that exist in the ECT specimen, typical minimum fracture toughness values were expected to be obtained when the ECT specimen is used. The direction of fracture initiation and the path of fracture growth were also obtained theoretically using the GMTS criterion, and good agreement was observed between the experimental fracture path and theoretical simulations. The fracture study of this specimen reveals that the ECT specimen can be also used in mixed-mode fracture studies of rock materials in addition to the conventional circular or rectangular beam test samples.

Effects of recycling on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of isotactic polypropylene

Abstract: Polypropylene (PP) was injection moulded several times to mimic the effect of recycling procedures. The influence of the recycling was studied by following changes in chemical structure, melt viscosity, crystallisation behaviour, and tensile and fracture properties. The main effect of recycling is the lowering of the melt viscosity, which is attributed to molecular weight decrease. Recycled PP exhibits greater crystallisation rate, higher crystallinity and equilibrium melting temperature than those measured for virgin PP. Elastic modulus and yield stress increase with the number of recycling steps. However, elongation at break and fracture toughness decrease.

Fracture toughness of polycrystalline tungsten alloys

Abstract: Tungsten and tungsten alloys show the typical change in fracture behavior from brittle at low temperatures to ductile at high temperatures. In order to improve the understanding of the effect of microstructure the fracture toughness of pure tungsten, potassium doped tungsten, tungsten with 1 wt.% La 2 O 3 and tungsten rhenium alloys were investigated by means of 3-point bending, double cantilever beam and compact tension specimens. All these materials show the expected increase in fracture toughness with increasing temperature. The experiments demonstrate that grain size, texture, chemical composition, grain boundary segregation and dislocation density seem to have a large effect on fracture toughness below the DBTT. These influences can be seen in the fracture behavior and morphology, where two kinds of fracture occur: on the one hand transgranular and on the other hand intergranular fracture. Therefore, techniques like electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray line profile analysis were used to improve the understanding of the parameters influencing fracture toughness.