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Fracture Mechanics - Lecture 3

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20 views15 pages

Fracture Mechanics - Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Hayder Alsaraj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lec.

3:

(4) Stress Concentration:


- The measured fracture strengths for most brittle materials are
significantly lower than those predicted by theoretical
calculations based on atomic bonding energies.

- This discrepancy is explained by the presence of very small,


microscopic flaws or cracks that always exist under normal
conditions at the surface and within the interior of a body of
material.

- These flaws are a detriment to the fracture strength because an


applied stress may be amplified or concentrated at the tip, the
magnitude of this amplification depends on crack orientation and
geometry.
1
- This phenomenon is demonstrated in Fig.(11), a stress profile across a
cross section containing an internal crack.
- As indicated by this profile, the magnitude of this localized stress
diminishes with distance away from the crack tip.

Fig.(11): (a) The geometry of surface and internal cracks. (b) Schematic
stress profile along the line X–X’ in (a), demonstrating the stress
amplification at the crack tip positions.
2
- At positions far removed, the stress is just the nominal stress σo
or the applied load divided by the specimen cross-sectional area
(perpendicular to this load).

- Due to their ability to amplify an applied stress in their local,


these flaws are sometimes called stress raisers.

- If it is assumed that a crack is similar to an elliptical hole through


a plate, and is oriented perpendicular to the applied stress, the
maximum stress, σm, occurs at the crack tip and may be
approximated by

𝒂
σm = 2σo 𝝆𝒕
(𝟑. 𝟒)

(For tensile loading, computation of maximum stress at a crack tip)


3
- where σo is the magnitude of the nominal applied tensile stress, 𝝆𝒕 is
the radius of curvature of the crack tip (Fig. 11a), and a represents the
length of a surface crack, or half of the length of an internal crack.

- For a relatively long microcrack that has a small tip radius of curvature,
𝒂
the factor may be very large.
𝝆𝒕

- This will yield a value of σm that is many times the value of σo.
- Sometimes the ratio σm/σo is denoted as the stress concentration
factor Kt:

σm 𝒂
Kt = σo = 𝟐 𝝆𝒕
(𝟑. 𝟓)

- which is simply a measure of the degree to which an external


stress is amplified at the tip of a crack.
4
- It should be said that stress amplification is not restricted
to these microscopic defects; it may occur at macroscopic internal
discontinuities (e.g., voids), at sharp corners, and at notches in large
structures.
- Furthermore, the effect of a stress raiser is more significant in
brittle than in ductile materials.

- For a ductile material, plastic deformation ensues when the


maximum stress exceeds the yield strength.
- This leads to a more uniform distribution of stress in the vicinity
of the stress raiser and to the development of a maximum stress
concentration factor less than the theoretical value.

- Such yielding and stress redistribution do not occur to any


appreciable extent around flaws and discontinuities in brittle
materials; therefore, essentially the theoretical stress
concentration will result.
X 5
Using principles of fracture mechanics, it is possible to show that the
critical stress σc required for crack propagation in a brittle material is
described by the expression

𝟐𝑬γ𝒔
σc = (3.6)
π𝒂
where
E = modulus of elasticity
γs = specific surface energy
a = one half the length of an internal crack

- All brittle materials contain a population of small cracks and flaws


that have a variety of sizes, geometries, and orientations.

- When the magnitude of a tensile stress at the tip of one of these


flaws exceeds the value of this critical stress, a crack forms and then
propagates, which results in fracture.
6
- Very small and virtually defect-free metallic and ceramic whiskers have
been grown with fracture strengths that approach their theoretical
values.

Fracture Toughness:
- Furthermore, using fracture mechanical principles, an expression has
been developed that relates this critical stress for crack propagation (σc)
and crack length (a) as

Kc = Yσc πa (3.7)

(Fracture toughness dependence on critical stress for crack propagation


and crack length)

- In this expression, Kc is the fracture toughness, a property that is a


measure of a material’s resistance to brittle fracture when a crack is
present.
7
- Worth noting is that Kc has the unusual units of MPa m or
psi in (alternatively, ksi in).

- Furthermore, Y is a dimensionless parameter or function that depends


on both crack and specimen sizes and geometries, as well as the manner
of load application.

- Relative to this Y parameter, for planar specimens containing cracks that


are much shorter than the specimen width, Y has a value of approximately
unity.

- For example, for a plate of infinite width having a through-thickness crack


(Fig.12a), Y = 1.0; whereas for a plate of semi-infinite width containing an
edge crack of length a (Fig.12b), Y ≅ 1.1.

- Mathematical expressions for Y have been determined for a variety of


crack-specimen geometries; these expressions are often relatively
complex.
8
Fig.(12): Schematic representations of (a) an interior crack in a plate of
infinite width, and (b) an edge crack in a plate of semi-infinite width.
9
- For relatively thin specimens, the value of Kc will depend on specimen
thickness.
- However, when specimen thickness is much greater than the crack
dimensions, Kc becomes independent of thickness; under these conditions
a condition of plane strain exists.
- By plane strain we mean that when a load operates on a crack in the
manner represented in Fig.(12a), there is no strain component
perpendicular to the front and back faces.

- The Kc value for this thick-specimen situation is known as the plane


strain fracture toughness Kc; furthermore, it is also defined by

KIc =Yσ πa (3.8)

- Klc is the fracture toughness cited for most situations. The I (i.e., Roman
numeral “one”) subscript for denotes that the plane strain fracture
toughness is for mode I crack displacement.
10
- Brittle materials, for which appreciable plastic deformation is not
possible in front of an advancing crack, have low KIc values and are
vulnerable to catastrophic failure.

- On the other hand, KIc values are relatively large for ductile
materials. Fracture mechanics is especially useful in predicting
catastrophic failure in materials having intermediate ductilities.

- Plane strain fracture toughness values for a number of different


materials are presented in Table(3.1) and Fig.(13); a more extensive
list of values is contained in Table (3.2).

- The plane strain fracture toughness is a fundamental material


property that depends on many factors, the most influential of
which are temperature, strain rate, and microstructure.

- 11
Table (3.1): Room-Temperature Yield Strength and Plane Strain Fracture Toughness
Data for Selected Engineering Materials

12
Fig.(13): Bar-chart of room-temperature resistance to fracture (i.e., fracture
toughness) for various metals, ceramics, polymers, and composite materials.
(Reprinted from Engineering Materials 1: An Introduction to Properties,
Applications and Design, third edition, M. F. Ashby and D. R. H. Jones, pages 177
and 178, Copyright 2005, with permission from Elsevier.)
13
Table (3.2): Room-Temperature Plane Strain Fracture Toughness and
Strength Values for Various Engineering Materials

14
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