Velocity-toughening and Crack Speed Oscillations in the Dynamic Fracture of PMMA Plates

摘要

To study the propagating behavior of a dynamic crack in brittle materials, an experimental technique was developed that measures the propagation speed of a fast crack in a preloaded brittle strip. The specimen is a rectangular PMMA plate clamped by two heavy steel fixtures that are attached to a MTS test machine. After the specimen was tensile loaded to a prescribed load level, a sharp crack was initiated at the middle point on one side of the specimen. Due to the brittleness of the material, the crack propagates quickly across the specimen. The propagation velocity of the crack was measured by using the equally spaced conductive lines that were painted on the specimen surface before the tests. High speed video camera was also used for monitoring the propagation behavior of the cracks. The experimental results show that for each preloaded plate, the crack arrives at a steady velocity v0 after a short acceleration stage. In the steady stage crack propagation is in self-similar state. The steady velocity of the crack was found to be an increasing function of the energy Gc stored in the preloaded strip, which means that the material has a "velocity-toughening" property. When the crack speed exceeds a threshold, the crack exhibits apparent speed oscillations. This speed oscillation corresponds to the occurrence of the periodic grooves on the fractured surface. Further increase of the preload results in the bending, micro branching, and full bifurcations of the crack paths.