Determination of dynamic fracture initiation toughness of linear elastic materials

Abstract

The need to guarantee the structural integrity of key mechanical and structural components require the use of the damage tolerant concepts in their design, and the fracture properties of the material must be known in actual operations conditions. The behaviour of components subjected to dynamic loads is very different from that under static loads: the existence of inertial forces and the strain rate may affect the properties of the material. This works aims to present the experimental techniques most commonly used to determine the dynamic fracture properties of linear elastic materials, as well as the analytical and numerical tools used to interpret the experiments.