EME 4353 Advanced Engineering Materials

Lecture 6 :
Fracture Mechanics

PowerPoint® Slides
by Dr Lai MK
 Learning Objectives

1. To be able to describe the mechanism of crack

propagation
2. To be able to explain why strength of brittle materials
are much lower than theoretical calculations
3. To be able to define fracture toughness

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 Introduction

• Fracture mechanics is a technique of fracture analysis used to

determine the stress level at which preexisting cracks of known size
will propagate, leading to fracture
• Fracture strength of a solid material is a function of the cohesive
forces that exist between atoms
 Energy required to break atomic bonds across a lattice plane
• Theoretical energy is ~ E/10 but experimental values are up to
1000x smaller
 Existence of microscopic flaws or cracks

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 Crack Propagation

 




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 Stress Concentration (Inglis Solution)

1) The presence of any sudden change of section (obstacle), hole,

sharp corner, notch, material flaw, etc, the local stress will rise
significantly:

 a 
1/ 2

 m   o 1  2  
  t  

2) For a relatively long microcrack that has small tip radius of

curvature (a >> t), 1/ 2
 a
 m  2 o  
 t 
1/ 2
  a
K t  m  2  , where K is the stress concentration factor
o  t  t

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 Limitations of Inglis Solution

1) To address the limitations in Inglis solution:

 why large cracks tend to propagate more easily than
small cracks?
 what is the physical significance of the radius of
curvature at the tip of a real crack?
2) Griffith explained that the discrepancy is due to the
inherent defects in brittle materials leading to stress
concentration implies lower the fracture strength of the
materials

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 Griffith Theory of Brittle Fracture

1) Consider a through thickness crack of length 2a, subjected to a

uniform tensile stress σ, at infinity.
2) Crack propagation occurs when the released elastic strain energy
is at least equal to the energy required to generate new crack
surface. 2 E s
f  γ is the specific surface
a energy
For ductile materials,

2 E ( s p ) 2 E p (γp is the plastic

f  
a a deformation
energy, >> s)
 - critical strain energy release rate

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 Example 1

A relatively large plate of glass is subjected to a tensile

stress of 40 MPa. If the specific surface energy and
modulus of elasticity for this glass are 0.3 J/m2 and 69
Gpa, respectively, determine the maximum length of a
surface flaw that is possible without fracture

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 Mode of crack surface displacement

• 3 fundamentals ways which a load can operate on a

crack:

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 Fracture Toughness

1. K is termed stress intensity factor, unit is MPa m

K  Y a Y is dimensionless parameter
2. When the applied stress exceeds some critical value c,
this is termed fracture toughness Kc
a 
1/ 2
W
Kc  Y (a / W ) c a where Y (a / W )   tan 
 a W
Kc – fracture toughness
Y(a/W) – Y as a function of a and W
a – crack length
W – component width
3. Fracture toughness is a measure of a materials
resistance to brittle fracture when crack is present

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 K values of various crack geometries

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 Plane Strain Fracture Toughness

1. For thin specimens (plane stress), Kc depends on and

decrease with increasing specimen thickness, B
2. For thicker specimens (plane strain), this value is known
as plain strain fracture toughness KIc. Subscript I
denotes this critical value of K is for mode I crack
displacement

2
 K Ic 
B  2.5 
 
 y 

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 Example 2

A structural component in the form of a very wide plate is to be

fabricated from a 4340 steel. Two sheets of this alloy, each having a
different heat treatment and thus different mechanical properties, are
available. One, denoted material A, has a yield strength of 860 MPa
and a plane strain fracture toughness of 98.9 MPa m . For the other,
material Z, y and KIc values are 1515 MPa and 60.4 MPa m ,
respectively.
(a) For each alloy, determine whether or not plane strain conditions
prevail if the plate is 10 mm thick.
(b) It is not possible to detect flaw sizes less than 3 mm, which is the
resolution limit of the flaw detection apparatus. If the plate thickness is
sufficient such that the KIc value may be used, determine whether or
not a critical flaw is subject to detection. Assume that the design stress
level is one-half of the yield strength; also, for this configuration, the
value of Y is 1.0.
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 Ductile to Brittle Transition Behaviour

1. BCC structure metals experience ductile‐to‐brittle transition

behaviour when subjected to decreasing temperature, resulting
from a strong yield stress dependent on temperature.
2. The criterion for a material to change its fracture behaviour from
ductile to brittle mode is when the yield stress at the observed
temperature is larger than the stress necessary for the growth of
the microcrack indicated in the Griffith theory.

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