Crack/craze dynamics

Experimental Evidence. Morphology. Figure 3 (33) shows in phase contrast microscopy the development of crack or craze patterns around rubber particles in a toughened polystyrene. The lack of dependence of crack inclination on direction of stress is especially marked in this micrograph, and can be explained only by reference to dynamic branching rather than to crack or craze nucleation by stress raisers. Schmitt and Keskkula refer to the lines as craze cracks and cracks. ... 

Rubber Content. In the theories of toughening where the role of rubber particles is (a) to absorb energy directly or (b) to induce matrix yielding through stress concentration or hydrostatic tension effects, energy absorption should increase linearly with the number of rubber particles (proportional to rubber content if particle size is invariant). On the other hand, if dynamic craze/crack branching is the operative mechanism, evidence of an exponential law may be expected. The exponential form of the law may be derived as follows. 

The cohesive surface formulation for crazing implemented within a thermomechanical framework provides insight into the heat generation during crack propagation, and indicates that the temperature-dependent critical craze thickness can result in an increase in toughness, but the marked rise reported in [60,62] probably has another origin. Here, we believe that dynamic effects need to be considered. 

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