Abstract
A simple atomistic approach to the mechanical strength and the fracture toughness of brittle materials is made by the use of a universal expression for binding potential energy versus atomic separation curves. The scaling factors for the atomic separation and for the energy amplitude successfully apply to describing the intrinsic fracture toughness K* in a scaled dimensionless form. It is demonstrated that the intrinsic fracture toughness combined with a stress shielding coefficient (SSC) yields the fracture toughness of real materials. Microfracture mechanisms for crack-tip stress-shielding processes, as well as the interrelationship between the stress intensity- and the potential energy-derived fracture toughness, are addressed.
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Sakai, M. Atomistic considerations on the fracture toughness of brittle materials. Journal of Materials Research 8, 668–674 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.1993.0668
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.1993.0668