Premium
Computer simulation of conic‐shaped patterns on fracture surfaces of polymers
Author(s) -
Wenbo Luo,
Tingqing Yang
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.12352
Subject(s) - ellipse , materials science , fracture (geology) , composite material , conic section , intersection (aeronautics) , parabola , scanning electron microscope , fracture mechanics , brittleness , geometry , mathematics , engineering , aerospace engineering
Fractographic analysis, using scanning electron microscopy, is an important method to study polymer fracture behavior. There are several distinctive patterns on fracture surfaces, such as radial striations, regularly spaced ‘rib’ markings, and conic‐shaped patterns. The conic‐shaped pattern is the intersection locus of a moving planar crack front and a radially growing circular craze or secondary crack front. In this paper, the effects of the ratio of crack velocity to growing craze or secondary crack velocity on the shape of intersection loci are discussed using computer simulations. It is shown that when the ratio of crack velocity to craze or secondary crack velocity ( $\dot{a}/\dot{c}$ ) increases progressively, the fracture surface pattern changes from a parabola or a prolate parabola to an ellipse and finally to an approximate circle. Therefore, the crack growth velocity can be estimated based on the fracture surface morphology and then related to the fracture processes as well as to the ductile–brittle transition or toughening mechanism of brittle polymers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 1722–1725, 2003