New Post-Yield Fracture Toughness Parameters for Engineering Materials

1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.-J. Wang ◽  
Z.-B. Kuang

Micromechanics approach is employed to investigate the constraint effect on post-yield fracture toughness. Relationships between the conventional post-yield fracture toughness values, J1c and δc, and crack tip constraint characterized by the crack tip stress triaxiality are derived on the basis of an improved micromechanics criterion for ductile fracture. Then, new crack tip parameters Jmc and δmc (and associated new criteria for ductile fracture) are proposed, in which the effects of crack tip deformation and constraint are taken into account. Experiments show that both Jmc and δmc are material constant independent of stress state or specimen geometry. They can serve as new post-yield fracture toughness parameters to differentiate the fracture toughness of engineering materials, which provide new approaches for fracture assessments of engineering structures.

Author(s):  
J. F. Zarzour ◽  
Y. Dah-Wei ◽  
M. J. Kleinosky

Abstract Single edge notched bars (SENB), in the bending mode, with a/W ratios ranging from 0.05 to 0.5 were examined for fracture toughness in terms of the J-integral approach. The results indicate that for a/W ratios less than 0.3, there is a significant loss of J-dominance. This loss is attributed to the effect of plastic deformation on the cracked face. For a/W ratios greater than 0.3, J-dominance is maintained into the large scale yielding regime. According to the recently developed two-parameter criterion (J,Q), compressive Q-stress was interpreted as an indication of low crack-tip stress triaxiality for shallow cracks, while positive Q-stress was associated with high crack-tip stress triaxiality for deep cracks. For the material properties and specimen geometries considered herein, a fracture toughness locus was constructed in terms of the (J,Q) parameters for each of the a/W ratios. The overall fracture data are in agreement with those predicted by other approaches and provide a rigorous framework for interpreting the effect of loss of crack-tip constraint in elastic-plastic fracture analyses.


Author(s):  
R. S. Kulka ◽  
A. H. Sherry

During fracture toughness testing of C(T) specimens, an important assumption is that the test specimen is highly constrained. This is ensured by testing a deeply cracked specimen, with in-plane and out-of-plane dimensions that are sufficient to guarantee an appropriate level of crack tip stress triaxiality. This condition guarantees that high-constraint fracture toughness values are derived, conservative for use in standard fracture mechanics assessments. In reality, many components have small out-of-plane dimensions (small thicknesses). This often causes a reduction in crack tip constraint of a sufficient amount to increase the effective fracture toughness of the components. However, there is currently limited understanding as to the magnitude of the benefits that could be claimed from out-of-plane constraint loss. Finite element and damage modelling of thin C(T) specimens under different loading conditions has been undertaken, looking at the effects of loss of out-of-plane constraint, to help validate the results of an on-going testing programme. When available, data from testing of thin C(T) specimens could allow the parameters of the damage model, based upon a ductile criterion, to be calibrated. Material resistance to fracture under different situations has been determined, leading to a correlation of toughness to the constraint condition for a nominal set of material parameters.


Author(s):  
R. S. Kulka

During fracture toughness testing of SEN(B) specimens, an important assumption is that the test specimen is highly constrained. This assumption is ensured by the testing of a deeply cracked specimen, with in-plane and out-of-plane dimensions that are sufficient to guarantee an appropriate level of crack tip stress triaxiality. This condition guarantees that high-constraint fracture toughness values are derived, conservative for use in standard fracture mechanics assessments. In reality, many components have small in-plane or out-of-plane dimensions. It is considered that this could cause a reduction in crack tip constraint of a sufficient amount to increase the effective fracture toughness of the components. However, there is currently limited understanding as to the magnitude of the benefits that could be claimed. Finite element analysis of various thin-width SEN(B) specimens has been undertaken. The knowledge gained can be used to develop fracture mechanics methodology for the testing of thin-width specimens and the subsequent derivation of appropriate toughness values.


Author(s):  
Dieter Siegele ◽  
Igor Varfolomeyev ◽  
Kim Wallin ◽  
Gerhard Nagel

Within the framework of the European research project VOCALIST, centre cracked tension, CC(T), specimens made of an RPV steel were tested and analysed to quantify the influence of local stress state on fracture toughness. The CC(T) specimens demonstrate a significant loss of crack tip constraint resulting in a considerable increase in fracture toughness as compared to standard fracture mechanics specimens. So, the master curve reference temperature, To, determined on the basis of CC(T) tests performed in this study is about 43°C lower than To obtained on standard C(T) specimens. Finite element analyses of the tests revealed that the above experimental finding is in a good agreement with the empirical correlations between the reference temperature shift and the crack tip constraint as characterised by the T-stress or Q parameter (Wallin, 2001; Wallin, 2004). The results of this work are consistent with a number of other tests performed within the VOCALIST project and contribute to the validation of engineering methods for the crack assessment in components taking account of constraint.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nam-Su Huh ◽  
Yun-Jae Kim ◽  
Jae-Boong Choi ◽  
Young-Jin Kim ◽  
Chang-Ryul Pyo

One important element of the Leak-Before-Break analysis of nuclear piping is how to determine relevant fracture toughness (or the J-resistance curve) for nonlinear fracture mechanics analysis. The practice to use fracture toughness from a standard C(T) specimen is known to often give conservative estimates of toughness. To improve the accuracy of predicting piping failure, this paper proposes a new method to determine fracture toughness using a nonstandard testing specimen, curved wide-plate in tension. To show validity of the proposed curved wide-plate test, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test is compared with that from the curved wide-plate test and that from C(T) specimen. It is shown that the J-resistance curve from the curved wide-plate tension test is similar to, but that from the C(T) specimen is lower than, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test. Further validation is performed by investigating crack-tip constraint conditions via detailed three-dimensional finite element analyses, which shows that the crack-tip constraint condition in the curved wide-plate tension specimen is indeed similar to that in the full-scale pipe under bending.


Author(s):  
X. Wang ◽  
R. Bell ◽  
S. B. Lambert

The loss of crack tip constraint leads to enhanced resistance to both cleavage and ductile tearing. However, conventional failure assessment schemes (CEGB-R6, BS-7910) use lower bound toughness obtained from highly constrained test specimens. Cracks in many real engineering structures are not highly constrained, which makes failure predictions using conventional failure assessment schemes based on lower bound fracture toughness values overly pessimistic. Excessive pessimism in the structural assessment can lead to unwarranted repair or decommissioning of structures, and thus cause unneeded cost and inconvenience. Recent developments on constraint-based fracture mechanics have enabled the practical assessment of defective components including the constraint effect. For example, the recent revision of R6 and the newly developed structural integrity assessment procedures for European industry (SINTAP) have suggested a framework for failure assessments including the constraint effect. In this paper, the constraint-based failure assessment of surface cracked T-plate welded joints under tension load is presented. Different issues including the constraint-based failure assessment diagrams, the treatment of combining primary and the secondary loads, and the calculation of stress intensity factors, limit loads and constraint parameters for surface cracked T-plate joints are discussed. It is demonstrated that when the lower constraint effect is properly accounted for, the maximum allowable tensile stress level increases substantially.


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