Vibrationdata

Crack Growth & Fracture

By Tom Irvine

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Introduction to Crack Growth

• Recognizes cracks and their effect on strength

• Assumes pre-existing crack with size a0

• Sensitive to geometry

• Depends on a stress intensity factor & compliance function

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1942 – Liberty Ships
SS Schenectady
• Ships were often over-loaded with
cargo, resulting in high stress levels
• Had to withstand high winds and
rough waves
• All-welded structures to reduce cost and
construction time
• 1500 instances of cracking noted
• Several ships broke in the center of hull
during use
• Low grade steel material was found to be
susceptible to cracking in cold weather
• Material changed from ductile to brittle at
cold temperatures
• Fatigue cracks nucleated at the corners of
square hatches and propagated rapidly by
brittle fracture
• Welding defects also contributed to fracture
• Riveted joints are more crack resistant than
welded joints in ship hulls
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Crack Growth Stages • Transition from shear to tensile crack

• Stage I : a crack propagates along high

shear stress planes, 45 degrees

• Stage II: slips start to develop in different

planes close to the crack tip When the
stress intensity factor K increases as a
consequence of crack growth or higher
applied loads

• Transition requires sufficient energy for

crack to cross the grain boundaries

• Grain refinement is capable of increasing

fatigue strength of the material by the
insertion of a large quantity of grain
boundaries which are an obstacle to crack
propagation

• Stage III: unstable crack growth leading to

catastrophic failure

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Stress Intensity Factor K

• Stress at crack tip approaches infinity

• The severity of the crack is given by the intensity factor K

• K has dimension: [ force / length2 ] · sqrt(length)

• Typical units: Pa m or psi in

• This is the basis of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics

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Stress Intensity Factor Equation
The stress intensity factor K

K  Y a

where

Y is the non-dimensional geometry or stress intensity factor

 is the tensile stress opening at the crack length
a is the crack length

These conditions are required for failure to occur

1. An existing crack or defect

2. Sufficient Tensile stress, opening up the crack
3. The stress intensity K reaches a critical level of intensity known as the fracture
toughness KIC

Reference: http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/gravity/project.php?project=fracture
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Typical Fracture Toughness Values

Fracture Toughness
Material type Material
KIc (MPa · m1/2)

Aluminum alloy (7075) 24

Metal Steel alloy (4340) 50

Titanium alloy 44–66
Aluminum 14–28
Aluminum oxide 3–5
Silicon carbide 3–5
Ceramic
Soda-lime glass 0.7–0.8
Concrete 0.2–1.4

Polymethyl methacrylate 0.7–1.6

Polymer
Polystyrene 0.7–1.1

Mullite-fibre composite 1.8–3.3

Composite
Silica aerogels 0.0008–0.0048

Reference: Wikipedia

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 Facture Toughness Test

• The test piece is placed between the cylindrical supports and the top and bottom jaws are
forced together
• The fracture toughness is calculated from the stress at which the test piece fractures together
with the geometry of the test piece
• The environmental control chamber allows the temperature of the test piece to be varied

Images courtesy of European Space Agency 8

Crack Displacement Modes

• Mode 1 is the most common

• Image courtesy of Nuha Mashaan

Tensile Crack Growth Shear Crack Growth_______

Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3

(opening) (sliding, in-plane shear) (tearing, out-of-plane shear)
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Through Cracks, Plates with Finite Widths

References: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~e_m.424/fracture.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_mechanics
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Through Crack Right Angle

Plate width >> a

Brittle Stress Failure Threshold f

K IC
f 
a

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Through Crack Right Edge Right Angle

Plate width >> a

Brittle Stress Failure Threshold f

K IC
f 
1.12  a

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Partial Through Thickness Cracks

Stress required to propagate a partial through-the-thickness, crack-like discontinuity

K IC
f 
 a 
 a sec  
 2t 

where a is the depth of penetration of the flaw through a wall thickness t

Reference: http://academic.uprm.edu/pcaceres/Courses/INME4011/MD-5B.pdf

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Example

• Material 7075-T6 aluminum alloy

• Fracture toughness = 24 MPa  sqrt(m)

• Flaw is 5 mm deep in a wall of 13 mm thick

• Determine brittle stress fracture threshold

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Vibrationdata Matlab GUI

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Brittle Crack Stress Threshold = 174 MPa

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Fracture under Cyclical Loading

• The range of the stress intensity factor  during the fatigue cycle

K  Kmax  Kmin   Y  a

 is the cyclical tensile stress amplitude, perpendicular to the crack length

Y is a non-dimensional geometry parameter
a is the crack length

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Crack Growth Rate: Paris–Erdogan's law

The Paris-Erdogan law relates the stress intensity factor range to sub-critical crack
growth under a fatigue stress regime

da dN  C K m

da dN is the crack growth rate per loading cycle due to fatigue

C and m are constants that depend on the material, environment and stress ratio

 is the range of the stress intensity factor during the fatigue cycle

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Paris–Erdogan's Law, Plot 1

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Paris–Erdogan's Law, Plot 2

Kth is threshold value of  below which cracks will not propagate

KC is the fracture toughness

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