Abstract
On the bases of recent achievements on the micro-mechanism of cleavage this paper analyses the inherent deficiencies of the stress intensity factor K I which is used to evaluate the fracture toughness of quasi-brittle and micro-inhomogeneous materials. The K I parameter can uniquely determine the field intensity ahead of a crack tip in the condition of elastic and small scale yielding (SSY). However, the K I cannot uniquely determine the critical condition triggering the cleavage fracture in a quasi-brittle and inhomogeneous steel where the cleavage fracture process is not a direct extension of the precrack but is initiated at a variable distance from the precrack tip. The variable distances of cleavage initiations invoke varied critical values of K I. On the bases of authors' experiments, this paper analyses the physical meaning of the local fracture stress σf, its stability and the feasibility to be used as an engineering parameter for assessing the fracture toughness.
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Chen, J., Wang, G. Study on cleavage fracture criteria of the quasi-brittle and micro-inhomogeneous materials. International Journal of Fracture 108, 143–164 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007614505509
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007614505509