Holistic investigation chain for the experimental determination of fracture mechanical material parameters with special specimens

In addition to the classical strength calculation, it is important to design components with regard to fracture mechanics because defects and cracks in a component can drastically influence its strength or fatigue behavior. Cracks can propagate due to operational loads and consequently lead to component failure. The fracture mechanical analysis provides information on stable or unstable crack growth as well as about the direction and the growth rate of a crack. For this purpose, sufficient information has to be available about the crack location, the crack length, the component geometry, the component loading and the fracture mechanical material parameters. The fracture mechanical properties are determined experimentally with standardized specimens as defined by the guidelines of the American Society for Testing and Materials. In practice, however, especially in the context with damage cases or formed material fracture mechanical parameters directly for a component are of interest. However, standard specimens often cannot be extracted at all due to the complexity of the component geometry. Therefore, the development of special specimens is required whereby certain arrangements have to be made in advance. These arrangements are presented in the present paper in order to contribute to a holistic investigation chain for the experimental determination of fracture mechanical material parameters with special specimens.