Fracture Toughness

Fracture toughness is an indication of the amount of stress required to propagate a preexisting flaw. It is a very important material property since the occurrence of flaws is not completely avoidable in the processing, fabrication, or service of a material/component. Flaws may appear as cracks, voids, metallurgical inclusions, weld defects, design discontinuities, or some combination thereof. Since engineers can never be totally sure that a material is flaw free, it is common practice to assume that a flaw of some chosen size will be present in some number of components and use the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) approach to design critical components. This approach uses the flaw size and features, component geometry, loading conditions and the material property called fracture toughness to evaluate the ability of a component containing a flaw to resist catastrophic fracture.

A parameter called the critical stress-intensity factor (K_C) is used to represent the fracture toughness of most materials. A Roman numeral subscript indicates the mode of fracture and the three modes of fracture are illustrated in the image to the right. Mode I fracture is the condition in which the crack plane is normal to the direction of largest tensile loading. This is the most commonly encountered mode and, therefore, for the remainder of the material we will consider K_I

The stress intensity factor is a function of loading, crack size, and structural geometry. The stress intensity factor may be calculated by the following equation:

$$K_{I}=\sigma \beta \sqrt{\pi a }$$

Where:	KI	is the stress intensity factor in $\mathrm{MPa}/\sqrt{\mathrm{m}}$ or $\mathrm{psi}/\sqrt{\mathrm{in}}$
	σ	is the applied stress in MPa or psi
	β	is a dimensionless correction factor depends on specimen geometry.
	a	is the crack length in meters or inches

The fracture toughness K_C of a material is defined as the critical stress intensity factor for immediate crack growth under given conditions. Under prescribed-load boundary conditions, such crack growth will be immediately catastrophic. Any flaw large enough (length a) that its stress intensity K_I might reach K_C under the loading σ may cause immediate failure.

In larger objects the applied load for catastrophic fracture may be significantly lower than expected from the the nominal ultimate strength of the material. As such, catastrophic fracture is often the limiting factor in engineering design. In addition, repeated stress intensities K_I which do not reach K_C can still cause slow crack growth due to fatigue.

Role of Material Thickness

Specimens having different thickness produce different values for K_C. Thin specimens cannot have stress components normal to their free surfaces, whereas the inside of thicker specimens may be constrained by surrounding material and develop stress components in the thickness dimension. Such thin specimens have a higher value of K_C because they have a much larger plastic zone area than thicker specimens, spreading the fracture energy over that larger area. The value of K_C decreases with thickness until the the thickness exceeds some critical dimension. At this point the value of K_I becomes relatively constant and this value, K_IC, is a true material property which is called the plane-strain fracture toughness. K_IC is usually measured by the process specified in ASTM Standard E399. The relationship between stress intensity, K_I, and fracture toughness, K_IC, is similar to the relationship between stress and tensile stress. The stress intensity, K_I, represents the level of “stress” at the tip of the crack. The fracture toughness, K_IC, is the highest value of stress intensity that a material under very specific (plane-strain) conditions can withstand without fracture. As the stress intensity factor reaches the K_IC value, unstable fracture occurs. As with a material’s other mechanical properties, K_IC is commonly reported in reference books and other sources.

Plane Strain - a condition of a body in which the displacements of all points in the body are parallel to a given plane, and the values of theses displacements do not depend on the distance perpendicular to the plane

Plane Stress – a condition of a body in which the state of stress is such that two of the principal stresses are always parallel to a given plane and are constant in the normal direction.

Plane-Strain and Plane-Stress

When a material with a crack is loaded in tension, the materials develop plastic strains as the yield stress is exceeded in the region near the crack tip. Material within the crack tip stress field, situated close to a free surface, can deform laterally (in the z-direction of the image) because there can be no stresses normal to the free surface. The state of stress tends to biaxial and the material fractures in a characteristic ductile manner, with a 45^o shear lip being formed at each free surface. This condition is called “plane-stress" and it occurs in relatively thin bodies where the stress through the thickness cannot vary appreciably due to the thin section.

However, material away from the free surfaces of a relatively thick component is not free to deform laterally as it is constrained by the surrounding material. The stress state under these conditions tends to triaxial and there is zero strain perpendicular to both the stress axis and the direction of crack propagation when a material is loaded in tension. This condition is called “plane-strain” and is found in thick plates. Under plane-strain conditions, materials behave essentially elastic until the fracture stress is reached and then rapid fracture occurs. Since little or no plastic deformation is noted, this mode of fracture is termed brittle fracture.

Fracture Energy Release Rate or Work of Fracture

The fracture energy release rate (or equivalently work of fracture) G_C of a material is an alternate form sometimes used in place of the critical stress intensity factor K_C. The relationship between G_C and K_C is

$$G_{C}=K_{C}^{2}/E^{*}$$

where E^* is an equivalent modulus:

$E^{*}=E$ for plane stress;

$E^{*}=E$ for plane strain cases such as material property G_IC and K_IC values.

Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness Testing

When performing a fracture toughness test under ASTM E399, the most common test specimen configurations are the single edge notch bend (SENB or three-point bend), and the compact tension (CT) specimens. From the above discussion, it is clear that an accurate determination of the plane-strain fracture toughness requires a specimen whose thickness exceeds some critical thickness (B). Testing has shown that plane-strain conditions generally prevail when:

$$B\geq2.5\left(\frac{K_{IC}}{\sigma_{y}}\right)^{2}$$

Where:	B	is the thickness, constrained to produce plane strain conditions for most of the crack
	KIC	is the fracture toughness of the material
	σy	is the yield stress of material