2.3 Toughness Sooner or later, when subjected to an increasing stress, a piece of material will break — a crack moves though the single piece and produces two or more pieces. This process is called fracture and the ‘stress at which il happens defines the strength of the material — the tensile strength to pull it apart and the compressive strength to crush it. Do not confuse strength with toughness. Toughness is to do with the ature of the fracture process and, in particular, with how much tesistance a material offers to a crack attempting (© grow through it. ‘The materials in most products either already contain cracks or have structural flaws that, under stress, can readily turn into eracks. A. ‘material with & high toughness makes crack growth difficult, whereas in cone with a low toughness cracks grow readily. You can see that toughness is an extremely important property. It accounts for why aeroplanes and ships can operate happily with cracks in them (provided, as you will see, the cracks are not too long), why the branch of a tree is difficult to break even when it is part-sawn, and why glass breaks catastrophically. Formally, toughness is considered in terms of the different forms of energy involved in deformation and fracture, and how one form is coaverted to another. Since deformation is produced by stress, work is done when a material is deformed (work is force times distance) and toughness can be assessed in terms of the work that has to be done in propagating a crack, It is defined as the energy absorbed in creating unit arca of crack and has the symbol G.. ¥ Work of deformation and fracture A derives its units and looks at another energy term we shall use, elastic strain energy. Table 2.1 gives typical values of G, for a variety of materials tested under similar conditions. Table 211 Toughness* G. (kim) Material 1000 rid Stel 100 GERP. siressed along aligned fibres 100 GERD. random fibres 40 ‘wood! stressed across grain Ss stressed along grain os polyethylene 510 ast iron upto 3 concrete: reinforsed upto 4 cement 001-003 epoxy 03 polyester On ‘uaning 0.02-0.06 porcelain (electrical) 001 glass 0.001. 0.01 he wid rn ‘in internal structure of the materials, ot i of values for some merials shows that Gis vety sensitive to variationssation (that is, the work done) has ‘be cither siored or used in some way, ‘much work is done and what my ded by the testing machine that sd the load-estension curve of @ etal shown in Figure 2.13? (Note that os material dave rot obey Heoke's law.) Figure 2.14 Stress strain curve the stres-strain curve for a matersal thet does obey Hooke’s law EXERCISE 22 A material has a Young's modulus £ und is deformed in accordance with Hooke’s law to a ‘sirest ¢ and a strain #. Derive an ‘expression for the work of deformation per unit volume, Win terms of (a) c ands, (b) o and &, arca under the cure (©) #4 Jridx). The urea is Where does this work of deformation 0? As always, energy (or work) is conserved; itis mersly transformed from one kind to another during deformation. First, ‘consider elastic deformation. By definition, this strain is reversible, so all the work of clastic deformation can be recovered from 1 the materi when it i nloaded, Thi "> called clastic strain energy. Itis what you ly sron-srain curves rater than © proguce when SoU wind yp Sour eld iG-extension curves are used. What are" frechanical alarm clock; you store eneray e under a stress-strain in he spring in order to power the © mechanism. They will be the product of the units of > What about the work of plastic stress (N m~*) and the units of strain (m 3 Geformation? If you've over burnt your sm), that is N'm-?, These units may be p fingers picking up the offeats ‘rom fumits of force) > [units of distance) fay be confirmed by supposing the to be constant over the sin heise W = Fx. So th eu ire Nx 1, of Nm, which is the ais the joule, J syriten as “packsawing you will have © pretty good Rae = Wma? idea of whese some of the work of Jn> deformation goes, In fact most of the ‘work done ia plastic deformation is So what isthe significance of the area transformed heat 0% in metals, 60% nde stvay-sttan ene’ in polymers) and ag ayant the covironment. No wont he plastic The unis tll us that it represents the ‘Work done during deformation per nit Yolume of the deformed material Figure 2.14 shows the stres-sirain curve for 4 material that does not abey Hooks’ Jay. ‘The area under the curve, presenting work done per unit volume, is shown shiced. The dashed line shows suruns are not reversiole if the eneray is tlssipated in thie way, [Not all of the work of plastic deformation is wansformed to beat, The amount remaining is desribed in Figure 2.15 ‘The eneray corresponding to the triangle ABC is elastic strain encrgy and is recoverable when the material is unloaded, ‘The eneray equal 16 the remaining, ares tunder the stress-stein curve (VAR) is cither dissipated as heat or absorbed by the material, largely inthe creation of dofeeis known as dslcestions during plastic low. (Dislocations are considered ‘in Section 2.5.2), ° aaa ea Figure 2.15 Stess-strain curve for plastically deformed material ‘Now winat about the foughness G.? Wel, this ic the work needed to break 4 piece of ‘material which already contains a cick G-can be measured froms the area under the stress-strain curve obtained by testing ‘asamp that contains a crack, thal i, the work done is associsted directly with the propogation of u erach. But what about the unis? You will notice that plastic ‘work of deformation hus anits of Jr and G, has units of J m If the sample already contains # crack that will propagais, the work done will be Concentrated around the tip of the crack as the material is torn apart. Se, the energy aksorhed by the sample is given by plastic work of | volume of seformation plastically (anit m) Seformed region ‘around the erack (anim!) ‘This energy (unit J) is expended over an area (unit m’) aliead of the erack, so G, has units of Jm* In general the values of G obtained may depend on the size of the erack, the size of the specimen undes test and the way the specimen is siresied 66The thermosetting plastic epoxy is commonly used as the matrix mnatetial in GFRP, Compare its values of G, with that of glass and GFRP; you will see that toughness does not obey the law of mixtures. Notice, also, the enormous range of values, with GERP well up the list ‘and at best as tough as mild steel. Note however that in steel the toughness is the same in all directions: it is said to be isotropic. GFRP is only very tough when siressed parallel to the fibres. It is anisotropic. Ifthe similar values of G, for mild steel and GERP suprises you, it is probably because you associate lack of toughness with brittleness. Ina nutshell, materials with some degree of toughness — most metals, GERP. wood (stressed across the grain), thermoplasties und so on have crack-stopping mechanisms “builtinto’ their siructuses. Many of these materials are ductile and it is the plastie flow that they ean undergo which provides the crack-stopping mechanisms; more about these in Section 2.6, Such mechanisms are not available in brittle materials, that is those which do not exhibit plastic flow. If possible they have to invoke other erack-stopping mechanisms. Most can’t, but fibre-reinforced composites such a GFRP, wood and bone do, with Considerable success. To understand how, we need to establish the conditions under which a crack grows in a material, Before doing this, I stiggest that you have a go at SAQ 2.2 to check that you can distinguish between the four important terms T have just used: strong, tough, brittle, ductile. See also YDuctility and brittleness. Soot $49.29 (Revision) seokaeads ploatce Axe there errors in the statements below? If there are, correct them using one of the words from each of the following pairs: # strong or weak (low strength) ‘+ brittle or ductile * tough or not tough Note: Iam asking you to make relative judgements, and I suggest that you don’t just restrict yoursell to tensile properties (@) A steel car body panel is strong, brittle and tough. (6) A GERP car body panel is strong, brittle and tough. (©) A pottery mug is weak, brittle and not tough: (d) A polyethylene bag is weak, ductile and tough. (©) Raspberry jelly is weak, brittle and tough.AD Wei MiuRe OATES longation obtained i tensile he ensive plastic flow ike this with the jow being concentrated ia U called necking. Figure 2.18 shows a closs- up of a neck in a ald steel test pice and the resulting feactate. Wher necking occur i ie m sure ductility n cross-sectional Lis important not to assume that particular materials ere always ductile and Sees ~ Casta) x ples tesied under various conditions to Smm Notice that P: stplece, The samples shown are: cleaving of slate. On the other hand, the at bates widhh Sk Clete sae mg. the specimen, This proces is eal sé at 800K (ductile. ae Be ict siorse Gea xtensively great deal of plastic flow has payee ee soon Polypropylene conted at vslow strain {obviously occurred as the material has a 5 | been tom apart A lot more ene 7 Polypropylene tested ata fast strain | c&pended breakic (bse \ witirthe glass 2) Mild stee} ested a Wien mild steel 8 brittle, a8 in Fi (5, Mild steel tested nt 200K } 2.16 specimen (P) each broken grsin or he frdchure surface ac turly The d ttle tranaition smooth and shiny a From Figure 2.16 the distinction b For a given method of testing, the change yume ~ ductile and a brttle material is From ductile 9 brittle hehaviour occurs juste material exhibits plastie fo ‘ound a particula ceuctite-brit mn the condition of the material b . n the sie and shape of ) fae is eltively st. ate of deformation (ttn Figure 2.18 (a) Neck developing in me hiny. It is characteristic of the easy of aplied sires system steel (6) Frac ; mes) 1 eeche (onddyis o2.3.1 A model for toughness One reason why strength and toughness are often confused is that they are intimately linked. Indeed, current knowledge of the behaviour of cracks and the imporiance of toughness stems from studies of the strength of solids started some 70 years ago by A. A. Grillth, How tough should a material containing a crack be (theoretically)? Griffith proposed a model for fracture hased on a balance of the different forms of energy involved. Basically, the idea is that the growth of a crack requires the provision of the work needed to create the two ew surfaces of @ growing crack, and that this has to be provided by the clastic strain energy released by the crack growth. Tt turns ut that when these energies are in balance, an internal erack propagates under a stress of Qa) where 2/ is the length of the internal crack, F is the Young’s modulus and G, is the toughness, This equation is of fundamental importance for any structure under load. Now, G and # are determined by the structure of the material concerned; see Table 2.1 for G, values. So the variables in Equation (2.1) are o and /, and they can be viewed in two ways. First, if a material already contains a crack, the length of the crack determines the stress the material can withstand. Second, for any given stress, there is a critical length of crack 2/, which will propagate catastrophically. $AQ 2.3 (Objective 2.3) Calculate the criti operating at a working stress of 200MN m °. Take G, and Eas 200GPa. Equation (2.1) clearly demonstrates the importance of the value of G, Some materials, such as alumina and glass, have a low G, and a crack propagates easily. Many metals have a high G, and are difficult to break. Polymers are in between and can be improved by reinforcing them with fibres. So, what are the crack-stopping mechanisms, and why are they lacking in some materials? Before we can answer that question we should look at erack initiation and growth, and for that we require two new ideas. First, we need the idea of the ideal tensile strength of a solid. This is the stress that can be withstood by a perfect solid, that is one without a crack or any other defect. A model of atomic bonding is needed to derive this, which we shall do in Chapier 3. In general, the ideal strength is at least a factor of ten greater than the tensile strength found in real materials, and often much more. aSecond, we need the ides of stress concentrations. These are geometrical irregularities that cause the stress applied to a material to be magnified locally. The magnification may be so great that the local stress reaches ‘the itleal tensile strength. The irregularities can be large or small, from holes, notches and sharp corners to inclusions and cracks (see WStress oucentrations in practice), The vitally important point about a stress concentration is its shape, rather than its size. A small round ole magnifies stress in its locality just as much as, say, a round porthole in a ship In some transparent materials, the effect of o stress concentration can be Seen in polarized light, Figure 2.19 shows ‘photoelastic’ fringes around 4 sharp notch in a sheet of transparent polycarbonate. The fringes are actually contours of equal maximum shear stress (shear stress and strain ate considered later), Just as on a land map contours close together denote a steep gradient, the contours ia Figure 2.19 show that there is a Sicep stress gradient around the notches. For round or ellipitical holes in an elastic material, the applied stress is enhanced locally by a factor of where 21 is the length of the major axis of the hole (sce Figure 2.20) and ris the cadius at the sharper end. For a circular hole] — rand the siress concentration factor becomes three, As r gets smaller compared to [ihe elliptical hole becomes crack-like and the stress concentration factor increases. For small values of r the expression approximates to () To see how dramatic the effect is, imagine a sharp crack 1 um (10-¢m) Jone and with a tip radius of 10m (of the order of the distance between atoms in a solid). The stress concentration is 2) pe = 2 fig = 200 Now le’s consider the toughness of some typical materials. In a ductile ‘metal, that is one that can undergo extensive plastic deformation, the stress concentration at the tip of a erack means that the yield stress is reacted locally when the overall applied stress is much lower. So plastic flow occurs around the crack tip and has two effecis. First, of course, it consumes a lot of energy which is why G, is high and why the surface of the steel in Figure 2.17(b) is so distorted. Second, it blunts the crack, that is it increases the radius of curvature of the erack tip. which “decreases the streas concentration, So, plastic os an important toughening mechanism. Figure 2.19 Photochstie fringes in polycarbonate Figure 2.20 ‘VStress concentrations in practice A Tis fact [thot stress concentrations ean Jead (0 the failure of structures thought to be perfecily safe} has eon known, of course, in 2 general sort of way, to the people who put the grooves in slabs of chovolate and to these who perforate postage stamps and other kinds of paper: A dressmaker euts a ‘nick’ in the selveige ff s piece of cloth before che tears it, In te early 1500s serious engineers, however, had not shown much interest these fracture phenomena, which were not considered {0 belong to ‘proper engineering! (From J. B, Gordon, Structures, Penguin, 1978) ooOn the other hand, in their normal condition ceramics and glass do not possess toughening mechanisms. Since they do not exhibit significant plastic flow, the stress at a erack tip is much magnified and reaches the ideal strength for relatively low values of overall applied stress. With no mechanism to resist it, which is reflected in a Jow value af G,, the crack propagates through the material very easily. The low value of G, for these materials makes them very fragile, The smallest crack ot flaw can lead to fracture. This fact is exploited in the cutting of window glass and has to be guarded against in the production of glass optical fibres for communication systems. 2.3.2 Toughening mechanisms in composites The commonly used matrices for GFRP are the thermosetting plastics rack fibre polyester and epoxy, both of which are fairly brittle and have low ie toughness (see Table 2.1). How is it that embedding brittle glass fibres in them produces « tough composite? What happens depends very much on the strength of the bonding @ rs ) between the fibres and the matrix. If the bond is strong, a crack propagating in the matrix at right angles to aligned fibres will pass Figure 2.21 Crack stopping at « weak through the fibres with very little hindrance. The toughness of the inmerfice composite will probably obey the law of mixtures and lie somewhere between those of the two components (that is, Low). If, on the other hand, the bond is relatively weak, debonding can occur at the interface between the fibres and the matrix. Figure 2.21 shows a highly simplified situation, with a crack approaching a single fibre. In a real fibre composite the fibres would be packed closely together. As a crack approaches « fibre, the magnified stress ahead of the tip separates, or debonds, the fibre from the matrix and the crack is diverted harmlessly along the interface, parallel to the applied stress. Again, there are two ellects. Energy is consumed in the creation of the new debonded surfaces — hence a fairly high value for G,. And the crack is blunted (or even deflected in another direction) and therefore needs a higher stress to continue moving. So a strong, tough composite needs some bonding between fibres and matrix, but not a strong bond. The required bond is called a weak interface. There is a further conttibution to G_ from the debonded fibres. For the composite to fail completely, the fibres and matrix must fracture. The fibre fractures do not all occur in the same place, so the fibre ends have to be pulled out of the matrix and work is done against friction. (Figure 2.22 shows the result.) A combination of these two mechanisms is responsible for the high toughness of GFRP. Bear in mind, however, that these processes cannot operate for cracks running parallel to the fibres; the toughness is very much less in this direction. Figure 2:2 Fibre ‘pullout, ia this ease é z ‘ caLboo fixes from i ghis mati The strategy of providing weak interfaces is @ powerful way of ‘Cotitesy of Harwell Caborataries AEA producing én anisotropically tough material. It is ubiquitous in nature Technology 01 mm »