Griffith theory

The term brittle fracture may be defined as a fracture which takes

place by the rapid propagation of a crack with negligible deformation.



Brittle failure is due to a critical combination of several factors, including
material structure and composition ,temperature ,rate of loading , size and shape ,
types of stress, defects and dislocation
Many materials such as glass and ceramics are considered brittle.
However, as temperature is increased, more ductile behavior is observed
such as the drawing and blowing of glass. It has been shown that some
brittleness is due to the trace of impurities or dislocation .the brittleness of glass
was first explained by A.A. GRIFFITH (1920). As being due to internal cracks
producing excessively high local stresses at the crack tips.

In order to explain the mechanism of brittle fracture, let us consider the stress
distribution near the crack and the condition under which it propagates .

Now consider a crack of elliptical C/S in a rect specimen,


Let

= Tensile stress applied to the specimen.
C = Half length of the crack
r = Radius of the curvature at its tip.






It has been applied that when a tensile stress is applied to the specimen ,
the stress is distributed about the crack in such a way that max stress occur at its
tip. The expression for the max stress at the tip of the crack is given by the relation


max = 2
we know that a certain amount of energy is always stored in a
material before the propagation of crack is known as elastic strain
energy .the energy is released when the crack begins to
propagate.


UE = -( c
2

2
)/E

E= youngs modulus of elasticity
= surface energy per unit area in joules/sq. meter

Then the surface energy due to the presence of crack of length 2c is
given by
US = 4C ( )


Total energy resulting from the creation of crack

U = UE + US = -( c
2

2
)/E + 4C ( )

du/dc = d/dc (-( c
2

2
)/E + 4C ( ))=0

-(2c
2
) /E +(4)=0

1/2
= (2E

/C)


The above expression gives us the stress required to propagate
a crack in a brittle material as a function of the size of the
micro crack. The expression indicates that the fracture stress
is inversely proportional to square root of the crack length.