Stress fracture mechanics

The purpose of surface preparation is to remove contamination and weak surface layers, to change the substrate surface geometry, and/or introduce new chemical groups to provide, at least in the case of metals, an oxide layer more receptive to the adhesive. An appreciation of the effects of pretreatments may be gained from surface analytical or mechanical test techniques. Experimental assessments of the effects of surface pretreatment, even when using appropriate mechanical tests, are of limited value unless environmental exposure is included. Self-stressed fracture mechanical cleavage specimens, as discussed in Chapter 4 and in the texts edited by Kinloch(2,5) for example, are therefore referred to wherever possible. 

SCC development depends on both the duration and magnitude of applied tensile stress. Fracture mechanics tools for the determination of crack growth rates are commonly used in the evaluation of SCC resistance for aluminum alloys [90]. Such tests suggest a minimum (threshold) stress intensity that is required for cracking to develop. 

Using flaw visuahzation system data the strength and fracture mechanics estimations are carried out in accordance with defect assessment regulatory procedure M-02-91 [5]. Recently, the additions had been included in the procedure, concerning interpretation of expert flaw visualization sysf em data, computer modelling, residual stresses, in-site properties of metal, methods of fracture analysis. 

The Institute has many-year experience of investigations and developments in the field of NDT. These are, mainly, developments which allowed creation of a series of eddy current flaw detectors for various applications. The Institute has traditionally studied the physico-mechanical properties of materials, their stressed-strained state, fracture mechanics and developed on this basis the procedures and instruments which measure the properties and predict the behaviour of materials. Quite important are also developments of technologies and equipment for control of thickness and adhesion of thin protective coatings on various bases, corrosion control of underground pipelines by indirect method, acoustic emission control of hydrogen and corrosion cracking in structural materials, etc. 

Crack Tip Stresses. The simplest case for fracture mechanics analysis is a linear elastic material where stress. O, is proportional to strain, S,... 

Fracture Mechanics. Linear elastic fracture mechanics (qv) (LEFM) can be appHed only to the propagation and fracture stages of fatigue failure. LEFM is based on a definition of the stress close to a crack tip in terms of a stress intensification factor K, for which the simplest general relationship is... 

Substantial work on the appHcation of fracture mechanics techniques to plastics has occurred siace the 1970s (215—222). This is based on earlier work on inorganic glasses, which showed that failure stress is proportional to the square root of the energy required to create the new surfaces as a crack grows and iaversely with the square root of the crack size (223). For the use of linear elastic fracture mechanics ia plastics, certaia assumptioas must be met (224) (/) the material is linearly elastic (2) the flaws within the material are sharp and (J) plane strain conditions apply ia the crack froat regioa. 

Fracture mechanics (qv) affect adhesion. Fractures can result from imperfections in a coating film which act to concentrate stresses. In some cases, stress concentration results in the propagation of a crack through the film, leading to cohesive failure with less total stress appHcation. Propagating cracks can proceed to the coating/substrate interface, then the coating may peel off the interface, which may require much less force than a normal force pull would require. 

The elastic stress cannot exceed the yield stress of the material, implying a region of local yielding at the crack tip. Nevertheless, to apply the simple framework of hnear elastic fracture mechanics, Irwin [J. Applied Mechanics, 24, 361 (1957)] proposed that this process zone size / be treated as an effective increase in crack length be. Fracture toughness is then given by... 

Fracture Mechanics Methods These have proved very usebd for defining the minimum stress intensity K[scc. t which stress corrosion cracking of high-strength, low-ductihty alloys occurs. They have so far been less successful when apphed to high-ductility alloys, which are extensively used in the chemicm-process industries. 

Fracture mechanics can be applied to this problem, much as it is to fatigue. We use only the final result, as follows. If the standard test which was used to measure (Tts takes a time f(test), then the stress which the sample will support safely for a time t is... 

Linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) is based on a mathematical description of the near crack tip stress field developed by Irwin [23]. Consider a crack in an infinite plate with crack length 2a and a remotely applied tensile stress acting perpendicular to the crack plane (mode I). Irwin expressed the near crack tip stress field as a series solution ... 

The basic assumptions of fracture mechanics are (1) that the material behaves as a linear elastic isotropic continuum and (2) the crack tip inelastic zone size is small with respect to all other dimensions. Here we will consider the limitations of using the term K = YOpos Ttato describe the mechanical driving force for crack extension of small cracks at values of stress that are high with respect to the elastic limit. 

The utility of K or any elastic plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) parameter to describe the mechanical driving force for crack growth is based on the ability of that parameter to characterize the stress-strain conditions at the crack tip in a maimer which accounts for a variety of crack lengths, component geometries and loading conditions. Equal values of K should correspond to equal crack tip stress-strain conditions and, consequently, to equivalent crack growth behavior. In such a case we have mechanical similitude. Mechanical similitude implies equivalent crack tip inelastic zones and equivalent elastic stress fields. Fracture mechanics is... 

Fracture mechanics analysis requires the determination of the mode I stress intensity factor for a surface crack having a circular section profile. Here the circular section flaw will be approximated by a semi-elliptical flaw. 

The decrease in with crack depth for fracture of IG-11 graphite presents an interesting dilemma. The utihty of fracture mechanics is that equivalent values of K should represent an equivalent crack tip mechanical state and a singular critical value of K should define the failure criterion. Recall Eq. 2 where K is defined as the first term of the series solution for the crack tip stress field, Oy, normal to the crack plane. It was noted that this solution must be modified at the crack tip and at the far field. The maximum value of a. should be limited to and that the far... 

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