Procedural Aspects of the Wedge Splitting Method to Measure the Fracture Energy of Ceramic Materials

摘要

To study the fracture energy of materials, the stable crack propagation must be observed during the test. To this end, an appropriate method, particularly in the case of large samples, is the wedge splitting method. By this method, the test machine stores less elastic energy, facilitating stable propagation. The materials tested in this study were mortars with sandxement ratios of 2:1 and 3:1. Two types of samples were prepared: one with a notch and grooves produced with a diamond disk and the other with notch and grooves produced directly during molding of the mortar. The crack moved easily along an imaginary vertical plane defined by the grooves. The methodology proved sensitive to the material's microstructure, modified here by varying its formulation. High sensitivity was also found in relation to the shape of the tip of the notch, whether V-shaped or square. In the material studied here, the values of fracture energy varied from 23 to 56 J.m~(-2).