Experiment 1

Determination of Plain Fracture toughness of material as per

ASTM 399

Objective:

The objective of this experiment is to determine the Fracture toughness (KIC) under Plain
strain condition experimentally for standard Aluminium specimen.

Theory:

Fracture mechanics is a field of engineering that deals with the study of behaviour of
materials with pre-existing cracks or defects under load. In the presence of a crack or flaw,
the distribution of stresses in the structure changes, and the material strength also alters. As a
result, the stresses cannot be used as the basis for evaluating the structure's performance.
Instead, fracture mechanics employs the concept of KI (crack driving force) to evaluate the
loading or stresses in a cracked body. Failure occurs when KI becomes equal to KIC, the
critical fracture toughness of the material.
To apply fracture mechanics to predict failure in real-world applications, one must determine
the fracture toughness of the material. Fracture toughness is a measure of a material's ability
to resist crack propagation. ASTM E399, "Standard Test Method for Plane-Strain Fracture
Toughness of Metallic Materials," provides a step-by-step procedure for measuring fracture
toughness and ensuring that the test data are valid. The test method involves creating a
specimen with a pre-existing crack, applying a load to the specimen, and measuring the
amount of energy required to propagate the crack.
It has been observed that as test samples get thinner and the plane-strain constraint is relaxed,
the measured fracture toughness increases. ASTM E399 provides a lower bound to the
fracture toughness by ensuring plane-strain conditions, which is a conservative approach. The
fracture toughness obtained by ASTM E399 is Mode 1 Fracture Toughness, which refers to
the resistance to crack propagation in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the applied
load.
The fixtures used in fracture toughness testing typically consist of a clevis and pin
arrangement. This arrangement allows the specimen to rotate freely when loaded. The
fracture toughness measurement capacity of each specimen is defined by Brown and Srawley
based on the net section nominal stress. For most test pieces, the highest capacity values are
found at a/w ratios of 0.45 and 0.55, where "a" is the crack size and "w" is the width of the
specimen. Therefore, it is recommended to keep the a/w ratio within this range.
To ensure the validity of the results obtained from the fracture toughness testing, it is
necessary to follow certain guidelines. According to ASTM E399, the thickness "B" and
crack size "a" should be greater than 2.5 times the ratio of critical stress intensity factor (KIC)
to yield strength square (σys)2 of the material. This is necessary to ensure that the fracture
toughness is not affected by the material's yield strength and that the crack tip remains sharp
during the test.

To ensure plain strain failure and accurate KIC measurement the following constraints must be
satisfied: -
1. w/4 < B < w/2
2. 0.45 < a/w < 0.55
3. a, B > 2.5[KIC /(σys)2]

Procedure:

 Measure all the important dimension of the specimen i.e., w, a0, B(thickness) using
ruler and vernier callipers.
o w = 50.32 mm
o a0 = 22.55 mm
o B = 12.78 mm
 Check if the first condition is satisfied or not, if satisfied then proceed to next step. In
our case w = 50.32 mm and B = 12.78 mm,
w/4 < B < w/2
=> 12.58 < 12.78<25.16, which is satisfied.

 Now proceed to generate a crack of depth a’, we can use the second condition to
find the a’ value i.e., 0.45< a/w <0.55, where a = a0 + a’ from above calculation we
will get a’ = 3.14 mm for a/w=0.51, therefore we will create a crack of 3.14 mm using
a hacksaw and then find out a which is a = a0+a’= 22.55+3.14 =25.69 mm. Hence
second condition also satisfied.

o a = 25.69 mm

 Load the specimen in the UTM and conduct the test, and draw the plot between
stress and strain.

Specimen after Fracture

Observation:

Load vs Extension
9000

8000

7000

6000

5000
Load(N)

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
0.13197
0.17381
0.21565
0.25756
0.29934
0.34116
0.38309
0.42492
0.46674

0.55043
0.59228
0.63419
0.67598

0.75972
0.80153

0.88523
0.92711
0.96899

1.22
0.0072193

0.5086

0.7179

0.8434

1.0108
1.0526
1.0945
1.1364
1.1782

1.2619
1.3038
1.3456
0.048238
0.090091

Machine Extension (mm)

Calculation:

To ensure that a reliable KIC value has been obtained, it is essential to compute a conditional
fracture toughness value KQ and assess its consistency with the size and yield strength of the
specimen. KQ is an indicative value of the fracture toughness of the material under specific
testing conditions.
i. Draw a secant line OP5 through the origin of the test record with slope = 0.95*slope
of the tangent OA to the initial part of the record. Load PQ is then determined as
follows.
If the load on every point preceding PQ is lower than P5 , then PQ = P5
If there is a maximum load preceding P5 then PQ = Pmax (Type II and Type III)
ii. Calculate the ratio Pmax / PQ in the case of type II and III. If the ratio does not exceed
1.10 proceed to calculate KQ. If Pmax / PQ exceeds this value the tests are invalid.
iii. Calculation of KQ from PQ:

iv. If this quantity is less than both B and crack length a then KQ = KIC. If not use a
specimen 1.5times larger than the first and repeat the test until this condition is
satisfied.
When the line of 95 percentage slope is drawn, we found out PQ = 5719 N.
Using the above-mentioned formula in iii., we can calculate KQ and check the final condition
to confirm the KQ can be classified as KIC.

α = 0.51053
f(α) = f(a/w) = 8.28416
then substituting the values of B and PQ and w in given units,
we calculated KQ = 19.6384 MPa m1/2
Now we have to satisfy condition 3 for plain strain condition (a, B > 2.5[KQ /(σys)2]).

2.5[KQ /(σys)2] = 12.7393 mm which is less than both a (25.69 mm) and B (12.78 mm)
Conclusion:

We can conclude that KIC equals KQ since the standardized ASTM E399 procedure has been
followed and all three test conditions have been fulfilled.

Hence, The value of KIC = 19.6384 MPa m1/2

Reference:

"Standard Test Method for Plane-Strain Fracture Toughness of Metallic Materials".

"Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications, Fourth Edition” T.L. Anderson.
"Introduction to Fracture Mechanics, Fourth Edition" D.R.H. Jones and M.F. Ashby.