Fracture toughness

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

Fracture toughness and fatigue life of MWCNT/epoxy composites

Abstract: The present work experimentally characterizes the mode-I fracture toughness and stress–life curve of multi-walled carbon nanotube-(MWCNT-)reinforced epoxy-matrix composites. The effects of carbon nanotube weight fraction and voids on the composite fracture toughness are studied. The average fracture toughness of 1 wt%- and 3 wt%-MWCNT/epoxy composites is 1.29 and 1.62 times of that of pure epoxy, respectively. The 0.5 wt%-MWCNT/epoxy composites’ fatigue lives are 10.5 and 9.3 times of the average fatigue life of neat epoxy, when they are subjected to cyclic loadings with stress amplitudes of 8.67 MPa and 11.56 MPa, respectively. The micrographs indicate that the separation and uniform distribution of MWCNTs in the matrix and the formation of voids significantly affect the fracture and fatigue behavior of MWCNT-reinforced composites.

Effect of Temperature on the Adhesive Fracture Behavior of an Elastomer-Epoxy Resin

Abstract: The bulk and adhesive fracture behavior of a diglycidyl ether bisphenol-A epoxy modified with 15% carboxy-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile was determined as a function of temperature. The bulk fracture toughness increased sharply near the resin Tg in a manner similar to unmodified epoxy resins. The adhesive fracture energy exhibited a maximum with respect to bond thickness and this maximum broadened and shifted to larger bond thicknesses with increasing temperature. These results are discussed in terms of the size and stress condition of the crack tip deformation zone.

Size effect and quasi-brittle fracture: the role of FPZ

Abstract: Fracture process zone (FPZ), or the crack-tip damage zone created by crack-bridging and micro-cracking activities, in a specimen of a concrete-like material is comparable to the crack size and un-cracked ligament, so fracture is typically quasi-brittle. Increasing or decreasing the specimen size, quasi-brittle fracture transition occurs towards the toughness-controlled or strength-controlled fracture, which is known as size effect (SE). In this study it is shown that the “size-dependent” quasi-brittle fracture transition is actually due to the interaction of FPZ with the nearest structure boundary rather than the size variation, and the widely-accepted SE for geometrically-similar specimens of different sizes is only a special case of quasi-brittle fracture controlled by the FPZ/boundary interaction. Relevant SE relations are critically reviewed and explained by emphasizing the key SE mechanism, FPZ/boundary interaction.

Rising Fracture Toughness from the Bending Strength of Indented Alumina Beams

Abstract: The analytical function of crack extension to a fractional power is used to represent the fracture resistance of a vitreous-bonded 96% alumina ceramic. A varying flaw size, controlled by Vickers indentation loading between 3 and 300 N, was placed on the prospective tensile surfaces of four-point bend specimens, previously polished and annealed. The lengths of surface cracks were measured by optical microscopy. Straight lines were fitted to the logarithmic functions of observed bending strength versus indentation load in two series of experiments: (I) including the residual stress due to indentation and (II) having the residual stress annealed out at an elevated temperature. Within the precision of measurement these lines have the same slope, being about 32% less than the -1/3 slope which a fracture toughness independent of crack extension would indicate. Considering the criteria for crack extension and specimen failure, the fracture mechanics equations were solved for the conditions of the two series of experiments. Approximately the same values of fracture toughness, rising as a function of indentation flaw size, were obtained from both series of experiments.