Chapter 9

Fracture Testing

Impact Testing
Impact Testing
Charpy Impact

Testing

(a) Charpy impact testing machine.

(b) Charpy impact test specimen.
(c) Izod impact test specimen.

Energy Absorbed vs. Temperature

Energy absorbed versus temperature for a steel

in annealed and in quenched and tempered
states. (Adapted with permission from J. C.
Miguez Suarez and K. K. Chawla, MetalurgiaABM, 34 (1978) 825.)

Temperature Effect on Fracture Appearance

Effect of temperature on the morphology of fracture surface of

Charpy steel specimen. Test temperatures Ta < Tb < Tc < Td. (a)
Fully brittle fracture. (b, c) Mixed-mode fractures. (d) Fully
ductile (fibrous) fracture.

Charpy Testing of Steel: DBTT

Energy absorbed, cleavage area ,and lateral

expansion as a function of temperature of
testing for AISI 1018 steel (cold drawn).

Drop-Weight Test Specimen

Charpy V-notch Curve for a

Pressure Vessel Steel

Charpy V-notch curve for a pressure-vessel steel. Note

that the NDT temperature determined by the dropweight test corresponds to the high-toughness region
of the Charpy curve. Pneumatic pressurization;
material: 21/4 Cr-1 Mo steel, yield stress 590 MPa.
(After W. J. Langford, Can. Met. Quart., 19 (1980)
13.)

Instrumented Charpy Test

(a) Typical oscilloscope record of an instrumented

Charpy impact test.
(b) Schematic representation of (a).

Fracture Toughness Test Specimens

Typical ASTM standard plane-strain

fracture toughness test specimens.
(a) Compact tension.
(b) Bending.
(c) Photograph of specimens of various
sizes. Charpy and tensile specimens are
also shown, for comparison purposes.
(Courtesy of MPA, Stuttgart.)

Load Displacement Curves vs. Fracture Toughness Test

Schematic of typical loaddisplacement curves in a KIc test.

Plastic Zone at Crack Tip

Plastic zone at the x1 crack tip in a plate of finite thickness.

Clip Gage for Displacement Measurement

Assembly for measuring displacement in a notched specimen.

Procedure for Measuring Conditional KQ

Checklist for the KIc Test

Variation of Kc with Specimen Dimensions

Variation in Kc with flaw size, specimen thickness, and specimen width.

Load vs. Crack Opening Displacement

Plastic Hinge Mechanism

J-Integral Testing

Method for determining JIc.

(a) Load identical specimens to different
displacements.
(b) Measure the average crack extension by
heat tinting.
(c) Calculate J for each specimen.
(d) Plot J versus a to find JIc.

Flexure Test

Normal stresses along a section of beam for a linearly elastic material.

Three-Point and Four-Point Bend (Flexure) Tests

TThree-Point

Application of load and bending moment

diagrams for
(a) three-point bending and
(b) four-point bending tests.

Miniaturized Specimen:Four-Point Bending

Shematic drawing of the miniaturized

disk-bend test. (Adapted from H. Li, F.
C. Chen, and A. J. Ardell, Met. Trans A,
22 (1991) 2061.)

Fracture Testing Methods for Ceramics

Fracture-testing methods for brittle

materials.
(a) Double-cantilever beam (DCB).
(b) Double torsion.
(c) Notch flexure.
(d) Chevron notch

Chevron Notch Test

(a) Schematic of the test arrangement and the details

of the notch plane.
(b) The chevron tip length, a0, can be measured from
optical micrographs of broken specimens.
(c) Chevron short-rod specimen.

Hardness Indentation in Brittle Materials

Fractures produced by hardness indentations in

(a) AsS3 glass (courtesy of B. R. Lawn and B.
J. Hockey) and
(b) Al2O3.

Plastic Deformation and Crack in Indentation of Brittle Material

Schematic representation of indentation generating a

plastic deformation region and a semicircular crack.

Fracture Toughness for Ceramics and Glasses

Comparison of Results

Comparison between conventional and

indentation fracture toughness
determinations for glasses and ceramics.
(From G. R. Anstis, P. Chankitul, B. R.
Lawn, and D. B. Marshall, J. Am. Cer.
Soc., 64 (1981) 533.)

Adhesion of Thin Film to Substrate: Testing

Indentation tests for the determination

of toughness of bond between substrate
and thin film;
(a) Method used for ductile
coating on brittle substrate (typical
of electronic components);
(b) Method used for brittle coatings
on ductile substrate;
(c) Calculated normalized energy
release rate as a function of normalized
crack diameter.
(Adapted from J. J. Vlassak, M. D.
Drory, and W. D. Nix, J. Mater. Res., 12
(1997) 100.)