Abstract
This article presents the results of an investigation of crack nucleation and propagation in a transparent polydimenthylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer. The main objective of the investigation is to characterize quantitatively the evolution of crack nucleation and propagation behavior not just through the usual macroscopic load and displacement data, but with synchronized optical images at high spatial and adequate temporal resolution that will resolve the evolution of the failure processes. This is augmented with X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans to characterize the three-dimensional geometry of the cracks nucleated in the interior of the elastomer. Towards this goal, we reproduce the classical poker-chip experiment of Gent and Lindley (Proc R Soc Lond A 249(1257):195–205, 1959) in which the specimen’s diameter-to-thickness ratio is varied over a broad range to cover crack nucleation, propagation, and their coalescence. These experiments are performed on transparent PDMS with different compositions, first in a specially built loading machine that is fitted with a high magnification microscopic camera that permits the measurement of the load while simultaneously providing images of the specimen configuration and subsequently in an apparatus built for in situ observations using an X-ray CT scanning system. These experiments reveal that nucleation of multiple microcracks dominates when the diameter-to-thickness aspect ratio \(\alpha \) is sufficiently large, because the incompressibility of the material induces substantial, nearly uniform hydrostatic tension in the specimen. In contrast, specimens with smaller aspect ratio tend to nucleate fewer cracks, and are dominated by the growth of these cracks. At even smaller \(\alpha \), the hydrostatic stress is significantly lowered and failure is dominated by surface flaws. The three-dimensional geometry, and the spatial distribution of the nucleated cracks were evaluated using optical microscopy and X-ray CT scans. This revealed cracks of three different shapes, one of which was confined in a layer near to the upper or bottom boundary of the poker-chip, another was across the thickness, but with a tilt relative to the axis of the specimen, and the last was propagating along the radial direction.
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Notes
Lindsey et al. (1963) have used a similar approach and observed the nucleation of cracks.
The Young’s moduli of PC and PMMA are 2.4 GPa and 2.9 GPa, respectively, while the PDMS elastomer has an initial modulus on the order of 0.1 MPa.
Lindsey (1966) introduced bubbles and demonstrated that their influence on the response was indeed negligible.
The original tomographic image stack in tiff-format was denoised with Gaussian filter of radius in [10,20] pixels in ImageJ, which was followed by a binarization with the default threshold method; the thresholded images were thereafter imported to 3D Slicer for segmentation and quantitative measurement of each crack of interest via segmentation-related modules and python scripts.
We refrain from calling these cavities because by the time the intrinsic defects of size 10 to 100 nm grow to a visible size of 10 to 100 \(\upmu \)m, it must have transitioned into a crack. Also, it is difficult to achieve higher spatial and temporal resolution; given this limitation, the identified event is an upper bound for the nucleation of the crack.
We know from X-ray CT scans described later that these are actually ellipsoidal.
Since the central region is under a nearly uniform stress state, random nucleation is expected from the weakest point for the first crack. However, the next crack is nucleated, almost always, in the vicinity of the previously nucleated crack - not from the next weakest point globally, but from the weakest point in the neighborhood of the first crack; this is why we refer to the subsequent cracks being “triggered” by the previously nucleated cracks. The nucleation of the first crack causes the stress in the vicinity to drop (due to the increase in the local compliance of the specimen), and shields a certain region from further nucleation; but it must also elevate the stress beyond the region and cause the second nucleation.
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The financial support of the US National Science Foundation through Grant Number 1900191 is gratefully acknowledged.
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J.G: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data analysis, Data interpretation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing. K.R-C: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data interpretation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition
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Guo, J., Ravi-Chandar, K. On crack nucleation and propagation in elastomers: I. In situ optical and X-ray experimental observations. Int J Fract 243, 1–29 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-023-00714-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-023-00714-x