Fracture toughness K1c and Toughness Gc

Definition and measurement.

Energy release rate G and toughness Gc.
Drilling down: the origins of toughness.
Further reading.

Definition and measurement. The

fracture toughness, , (units:

MPa m1/2 or MN/m1/2) measures
the resistance of a material to the
propagation of a crack. It is
measured by loading a sample
containing a deliberately-
introduced contained crack of
length or a surface crack of
length (Figure 1), recording the

tensile stress or the bending

load at which the crack suddenly propagates. The quantity is then calculated, respectively, from

or

where Y1 and Y2 are geometric factors, near unity, that depend on details of the sample geometry, E is

Youngs modulus and and are the beam thickness and depth, as in the figure. Measured in this

way has well defined values for brittle materials (ceramics, glasses, and brittle polymers). In ductile
materials a plastic zone develops at the crack tip. If this is small compared to all dimensions of the test
sample the measurement remains valid; if not, a more complex characterization is required. If the plastic zone
size exceeds the sample thickness the crack does not propagate at all; the sample yields before it breaks.

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Energy release rate and toughness . When a sample fractures, new surface is created. Surfaces have
energy, the surface energy , with units of Joules per square meter (typically = 1 J/m2). If you fracture a
sample across a cross-section area you make an area of new surface, requiring an energy of at least

Joules to do so. Consider first the question of the necessary condition for fracture. It is that sufficient
external work be done, or elastic energy released, to at least supply the surface energy, per unit area, of the
two new surfaces that are created. We write this as

where G is called the energy release-rate. In practice, it takes much more energy than because of plastic

deformation round the crack tip. But the argument still holds: growing a crack costs energy J/m2 for the

two surfaces a sort of effective surface energy, replacing . It is called, confusingly, the toughness (or the

critical strain energy release rate). This toughness is related to the fracture toughness in the
following way.
Think of a slab of material of unit thickness carrying a stress . The elastic energy stored in it is

per unit volume. Now put in a crack of length , as in Figure 2. The crack relaxes the stress in a half-cylinder
of radius about the reddish half-cylinder in the figure releasing the energy it contained:

Suppose now that the crack extends by ,

releasing the elastic energy in the yellow segment. This
energy must pay for the extra surface created, and the cost

is . Thus, differentiating the last equation, the

condition for fracture becomes

But is just , so, taking = 1,

This derivation is an approximate one. A more rigorous (but much more complicated) one shows that the
form of this equation is right, but that it is too small by exactly a factor of 2. Thus, correctly, the result we
want (taking the square root) is:
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Drilling down: the origins of toughness. Cracks

concentrate stress. A remote stress applies a force
that is transmitted through a cracked material in the

way suggested by Figure 3. The local stress, ,

proportional to the number of lines of force crossing
unit length of cross-section, is greater on the plane
containing the crack (because its area is less), and it is
non-uniform, rising steeply as the crack tip is
approached. Analysis of the stress field of a sharp

crack shows that the local stress at a distance

from its tip is

so near the tip it rises as . Ceramics and glasses have very high yield strengths, giving them no way to
relieve this stress by plastic flow. That means that, near the tip, the stress reaches the ideal strength calculated
earlier. That is enough to tear the atomic bonds apart, allowing the crack to spread, carrying its stress field
with it, by what is called cleavage fracture, as in Figure 4(a). Cleavage cracks propagate very fast, limited
only by the speed of sound in the material.
 For ductile materials like metals and many polymers the picture is different (Figure 4(b)). The stress

still rises as as the crack tip is approached, but at the point that it exceeds the yield strength the
material yields, relieving the stress, and except for some work hardening the stress cannot climb higher

than this (see Yield strength (elastic limit)). The radius of the plastic zone is calculated by setting

in last equation giving

(assuming ). Note that the size of the zone shrinks rapidly as increases: cracks in soft metals
have large plastic zones; those in ceramics and glasses have small zones or none at all.

Even when nominally pure, most metals contain tiny inclusions or foreign particles, often formed by
reaction of the metal with oxygen or impurities. Within the plastic zone, plastic flow round these inclusions
causes them to debond, leading to elongated cavities that grow and link to give a ductile fracture. The
plasticity also blunts the crack, and the stress concentrating effect of a blunt crack is less severe than that of a
sharp one, so that at the crack tip itself the stress is just sufficient to keep plastically deforming the material
there.

Cleavage fracture is much more dangerous than one that is ductile: it occurs without warning or any
prior plastic deformation. At low temperatures, some metals and all polymers become brittle and the fracture
mode switches to one of cleavage in fact only those metals with an fcc structure (copper, aluminum, nickel,
and stainless steel for example) remain ductile to the lowest temperatures. All others have yield strengths that
increase as the temperature falls, with the result that the plastic zone at any crack they contain shrinks until it
becomes so small that the fracture mode switches, giving a ductile-to-brittle transition. For some steels that
transition temperature is as high as 0oC (though for most it is considerably lower), with the result that steel
ships, bridges, and oil rigs are more likely to fail in winter than in summer. Polymers, too, have a ductile to
brittle transition, a consideration in selecting those that are to be used in freezers and fridges. See also
Fatigue strength at 107 cycles.

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Further reading.

Author Title Chapter

Ashby et al Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design 8

Ashby & Jones Engineering Materials Vol 1 & 2 Vol. 1, Chap. 13, 14, 15

Askeland The Science and Engineering of Materials 7

Budinski Engineering Materials: Properties and Selection 2, 21

Callister Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction 6

Callister & Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering: An 7, 9, 15

Rethwisch Integrated Approach

Shackelford Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers 8

Further reference details

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