Journal Club for December 2016: Dynamic

Fracture - when the going gets tough . . .

Introduction

Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens. - Fay Weldon

Fracture in nominally brittle materials behaves much like the above quote, in that during the
build up of stresses at the crack tip, at least from the naked eye, all remains calm until suddenly
and catastrophically, the crack takes off and propagates through a material. On some level, one
could argue that all fracture is dynamic; however it is generally acknowledged in the mechanics
community that the dynamic nature of cracks is relevant to failure criteria when the inertia is
large enough that it requires the kinetic term to be included in the total energy balance.

While not a new subject, there remains fundamental open questions in dynamic fracture,
including two most relevant to this discussion:

How fast can cracks propagate?

What are the physics governing the mechanisms of dynamic crack tip instabilities?

Figure 1: Homalite 100 plate with center hole and pre-crack in slight tension (less than 4 MPa)
fractured from an out-of-plane high-energy-density impact which acts like a local explosion,
where resulting cracks grow left to right in the field of view. Under certain conditions, cracks
grew faster and exhibited branching characteristics, as circled (top), whereas in other less-
extreme cases, cracks exhibited slower speeds and an oscillating crack path [1].
Background

I feel the need . . . the need for speed. - Maverick & Goose, Top Gun (1986)

Even though the study of dynamic fracture in nominally brittle materials has been around for
quite some time (often first credited to Shardin who examined dynamic crack growth around in
the 1930), there are some puzzling contradictions behind some of the continuum dynamic
fracture mechanics theory; particularly in regard to instabilities, or when transient effects come
into play.

Pragmatically speaking, the American Society for Testing and Materials has well-established and
detailed standards for static fracture toughness testing, including ASTM E399 for metals, and
ASTM C1421 for ceramics [2-4]; yet no generally accepted procedure to examine the dynamic
fracture toughness of these materials exists. Dynamic fracture characterization methods are
generally grouped by types of high-rate bending, high-rate tension, dynamic wedging, and
single-point impact (with an extensive body of work on wire explosions for mode II fracture) [4-
9]. At the same time, there lies a key discrepancy between static and dynamic initiation fracture
toughness values, some materials such as aluminum 7075-T6 have been shown to exhibit little
rate dependency, while others such as Ti-6264 and 4340 steel show as much as 1.4 to 1.6 times
higher toughness under dynamic loading conditions [10]. For PMMA, the dynamic fracture
toughness was shown to be three times higher than its static initiation value [11]. Indeed, our
research group has shown that a MAX phase (metal-ceramic nanolayered material) Ti3SiC2,
exhibited no real rate dependency on its dynamic initiation toughness, whereas tungsten carbides
with various levels of nickel and cobalt binders exhibited dynamic toughness increases on the
order of 20% from their quasi-static values [12,13].

From these selected examples, differences appear to be key signatures of the lower length scale
initiation mechanisms which govern material inertia or resistance to initiation in the formation of
a macrocrack, as well as a function of (given different dynamic loading conditions with various
methods of evaluating dynamic fracture) wave interactions in the material, ahead of the moving
crack front where the theory used to extract relevant stress intensity values is
leveraged. Regardless of these material differences, those few researching experimental
dynamic fracture appear to agree that the history of loading on the crack tip, even in rate-
insensitive materials, directly affects resulting crack growth [14].
Figure 2: MAX phase Ti3SiC2 fracturing from the pre-crack and notch on the right hand side,
when impacted by a steel rod at 4 m/s on the left hand side. In this case, DIC is used to measure
deformation fields which are then optimized using a least squares overdeterministic analysis to
extract the stress intensity factor in mode I (opening). Displacement in the y-direction in
millimeters shown left, and corresponding inertia absorbing microstructural features of kink
bands and delaminations in resulting SEM fractography shown right [12].

Classical Dynamic Fracture Mechanics

Aye, theres the Rub! - Shakespeare, from Hamlet's Soliloquy

In classical dynamic fracture mechanics, experimental evaluation leverages derived physical

quantities that require adequate theory [15]. Problems dealing with dynamically loaded
stationary cracks are relatively well understood, although not straightforwardly computed in
terms of linear elastodynamics. However, crack initiation and propagation under transient
conditions exhibits a rapidly changing stress field at the crack tip. While the typical square root
singularity exists, the field initially is present only in an asymptotically small zone around the
crack tip that spreads as a function of the wave speed, influenced by the geometry of the sample
[16]. As a result, this domain has been shown to take a characteristically long time to develop,
generally recognized to depend on the difference between the shear wave speed and crack
propagation velocity. Thus, the faster the crack propagates (or more dynamic the case), the
longer it takes for this domain to develop ahead of the moving crack front. Often, series
expansion descriptions of the stress fields are employed, yet this approach implies steady-state
conditions and consequently raises questions on the validity in accurately evaluating dynamic
crack tip energetics by these means. At the same time, it is argued and reasonably shown in
literature that at least to some degree, this condition is met and the results are still useful forms of
predictive fracture criterion [15]. In fact, you will see a lot of the experimental dynamic fracture
literature employing various means such as long bars and low impedance boundaries with clay to
help ensure this condition is met (and the validity of their solutions held); but in doing so, are
essentially mitigating the interesting and under-explored, yet more complex transient regimes
where crack speeds and complex wave interactions are increased, unstable crack fronts are
instigated, and branching often ensues. It should be noted that the most useful mathematical
solutions considered infinite domains with asymptotic behavior of the deformation (and stress)
fields near the moving crack tip, and were originally supplied by Freund and Kostrov [17,18].

Measuring Dynamic Stress Intensity Factors (SIF)

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so. - Galileo Galilei

Characterizing fracture behavior under dynamic conditions is a fundamentally more challenging

problem than its quasi-static counterpart. Classically, the methods of photoelasticity and caustics
are used to evaluate crack tip stresses, and extract stress intensity factor(s) (SIFs) by combining
high-speed imaging with coherent light and optics. The former method relies on the interference
of light, while the later relies on the reflection/refraction of light. Caustics is related to simple
geometric measurements of the shadow spot at the crack tip to determine a stress intensity value,
whereas photoelasticity determines the SIFs non-trivially based on the isochromatic fringe
pattern that is generated when the material undergoes stress. Both methods have drawbacks of
requiring a transparent or reflective material, or in the case of photoelasticity, a birefringent
material [19]. Photoelasticity can be used with a greater range of materials through the
application of a birefringent coating, yet issues can arise with the thickness and adherence of the
coating to the true behavior of the material being investigated. In addition, while the crack tip
location is known with photoelasticity, the domain at the crack tip is generally not well
resolved. Caustics has the issue of being a purely local measurement, and there is still some
ambiguity of the true crack tip location and sizing of the z or out of plane focus in regards to
encompassing the process zone [15]. These drawbacks are mentioned for discussion only, and
not to understate the fact that there has been a large body of impressive work using these
techniques spanning over 40 years.

More recently, the proliferation of advanced computing equipment and development of newer
full-field experimental techniques (namely shearing interferometry methods such as coherent
gradient sensing, coherent digital sensing, and digital image correlation) has given rise to new
methods to extract fracture behavior [20-22]. Tippurs and Yoneyamas laboratories, in recent
times, developed a method for extracting SIFs from DIC data taken during fracture by using the
relationship between SIFs and displacement around the crack tip [23,24]. This method has been
applied to SENBs of tests for several materials. Yoneyama first developed the technique based
on earlier work by Sanford mapping deformation fields around a crack tip to fracture properties
[25]. Yoneyamas experiments focused on an isotropic material loaded quasi-statically [24].
Kirugulige and Tippur examined mixed-mode loading in syntactic foams under dynamic loading,
expanding the method to work with higher loading rates [26]. Lee, Tippur, and Bogert studied
graphite/epoxy composites both prior to and during crack propagation, further broadening the
applicability of the technique to anisotropic material under dynamic conditions [27]. While the
spatial resolution is dramatically increased using a DIC based approach (increasing the amount
of data available), the major drawback remains that the precise location of the crack tip is an
unknown, and must be optimized in a nonlinear formulation to numerically determine. My
reserach group has used this increased resolution that full-field displacement mapping provides
to explore uncertainty quantification in extracting SIFs; namely the influence of data size and
location in regards to maintaining K-dominance, as well as quantifying error in the location of
the crack tip [28]. These newer experimental dynamic fracture investigations - with increased
resolution - usher in a new era of hybrid numerical-experimental methods to deal with the sheer
volume of measured field data available in a meaningful way.

Figure 3: Example of photoelasticity and caustics in Homalite 100 plate (FOV 150 mm) in slight
tension fracturing from hypervelocity impact at 6 km/s [1].

Considerations for Dynamic Crack Behavior

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going" English proverb

So why do these differences between quasi-static and dynamic toughness exist? How do we
begin and/or continue to understand material inertia, transient effects, and their dependence on
crack tip velocity and instabilities? Kalthoff in 1986 first suggested an incubation time for
dynamic initiation, during which the SIF increases rapidly above the quasi-static value
[29]. Aoki and Kimura in 1993 also suggested a delay time, but further surmised that it was a
pragmatic result of detecting a surface crack via a 2D optical technique, where in reality the SIF
at the mid-thickness of the specimen is higher than that on the outer surface, and the time is due
to the propagation of the intensity to the outer surfaces (creating a dwell time) [30]. Others still
have suggested that the higher dynamic toughness values from quasi-static can be attributed to
the time needed to establish the singular crack-tip field as compared to the actual fracture time
[31,32].

Another train of thought for a physical explanation of this phenomenon is that the actual crack
front shape (the area being created by the moving crack) might have some roughness or lower
length scale irregularities- which have since been visualized by post-mortem fractography
[33,34]. Theoretically, this microstructural insight has been explored by Gao and Rice in 1989 as
heterogeneity along the crack tip, in addition to a weak geometric perturbation (transient effects),
illustrating a dynamic toughening effect [35]. Broadly speaking, crack front perturbations and
influence of local microstructural variation along the crack path have been addressed from a
statistical physics view via crack pinning and depinning due to local obstacles [36]. It has been
pointed out that the energy dissipation increases with crack velocity, a fact that is reasoned by
the increasing process zone size by Broberg [37].

A simpleminded way to explore this is in terms of energy release rate, G, and assume the critical
energy release rate correlates to fracture toughness of the material. When considering the
potential energy of the material with A as the crack area (where you may be used to seeing crack
length a), by definition, the energy release rate is a measure of energy available for crack
extension [38]. For quasi-static regimes, this is simply determined as the change in two energy
states 1 and 2 (in equilibrium) as a function of change in crack area with known elastic fields U1
and U2, with the same prescribed loads for ease, so only the crack area and crack front shape are
different between the two states. State 1 is initial crack condition, and state 2 is final crack shape
and area after an incremental propagation taken in the limit.

For the dynamic case, there is a term to account for inertial effects in kinetic energy, Ek (where
the dynamic path-independent J integral is equal to G [39]):

where F is the work done by external forces. For the sake of discussion, if we further assume
(for simplicity) that the forces prescribed are identical, the dynamic energy release rate can be
approximated (for the case of general crack advance for triangual and flat crack fronts) as:

So using this simple means, we can demonstrate that fundamentally the kinetic term leads to a
toughening effect, as was first suggested by Chandra and Krauthammer in 1995 [40]. Further,
depending on microstructural considerations which influence material resistance to fracture on a
local scale (i.e. crack front shape), along with transient effects creating a gradient of forces
rapidly changing across the moving crack front, one would modify the work term that was
neglected here and create interplay in the overall energy balance available for crack
extension. This competition is what creates interesting and useful understanding of true dynamic
fracture, and perhaps sheds light on the reported rate-sensitivity for a given type of loading,
geometry and material microstructure.

Next-Generation Dynamic Fracture Mechanics?

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research " - Albert Einstein

With the increase in spatial and temporal resolution of high-speed and ultra high-speed imaging
(see a nice chart of the current specs on cameras by Dr. Phillip Reu here:
http://photodyn.org/tools/ultra-high-speed-camera), as well as increasing resolution of full-field
optical techniques, the future holds the possibility of accurately measuring not only
displacements, but also acceleration fields ahead of a moving crack under dynamic loading. This
is a very powerful metric on many fronts, not only in general dynamic behavior reserach, but
also specifically for dynamic fracture. Namely, that ability would lead to a direct means of
assessing the kinetic term that gives rise to the aforementioned dynamic toughening effect, and
allows for more quantitative tracking of the transient nature of a moving crack front under
conditions with high rates of loading and complicated wave interactions. In some regard,
tracking spatially and temporally evolving acceleration fields suggests a shift away from the
classical dynamic fracture mechanics of square root singularity, or K dominant zone, and opens
the door to directly extracting the energetic balance terms directly and straightforwardly (albeit
with a new, yet less stringent set of assumptions to reckon with). It should be noted that at
present noise in experimental resolution of accelerations, due to the fact that with full-field
methods like DIC or grid methods you are taking a derivative of the measured deformation field
data not once, but twice, which magnifies noise, remains somewhat prohibitively significant (to
the authors chagrin); yet again this notion demonstrates promise in moving dynamic fracture
mechanics forward in regards to its fundamental understanding, remaining open questions, and
associated experimental techniques, leaving restrictions of singular domains and asymptotically
fitted solutions (in infinite spaces), or complications of a direct J-integral leveraging in its wake
(excuse the pun). To this end, we are presently demonstrating the full-field image-based energy
method to extract dynamic fracture behavior virtually via FE modeling, examining the
implication of some of the assumptions of classical dynamic fracture mechanics and correlations
to the J-Integral. One can think of this approach akin to a control volume problem, where now
we are celebrating transient fields instead of avoiding them as in more classical methods
[41]. Its an exciting future for dynamic fracture mechanics- keeping in mind that the
information we extract from such experiments provides essential failure criteria for relevant
dynamic modeling. Regardless, who doesnt like to break stuff for a
living?! (See https://sem.org/dynamic-behavior-of-materials-technical-division/ for proof.)
Figure 4: Example of virtual dynamic fracture experiment in Mode I on PMMA using Abaqus
explicit (with cohesive surfaces). An impulse akin to a striker is introduced on the left hand side,
and the wave propagates to the right hand side, opening up the notch in tension. The top images
show the acceleration field in the x direction, where waves are interacting and reloading the
crack tip during crack extension. The bottom plot illustrates the total energy balance (calculated
from field quantities of displacement and accelerations extracted in the model, as like what
would be done experimentally), with green being the input energy, red the kinetic, and navy the
strain. Note that the energy lost is going to fracture, as shown by the light blue line. The black
line shows the total energy balance of the system is maintained.

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