Mixed-Mode Toughness of An Aluminum Based COmposite

摘要

The advancement of technology has increased the need for materials which have exceptional performance characteristics. In many situations where the structural integrity is important, the fracture toughness of the material is crucial in dtermining its suiability. Traditionally, fracture toughness has been determined under tensile or Mode I conditions. However, cracks in realmaterials can be subjected not just to tensile stresses but to complex stress states so that the development of suitable parameters to characterize mixed-mode crack initiation and propagation is important in the evolution of suitable design criteria. Further, observations indicate that initially flat cracks in some tough materials tend to reorient themselves to oblique planes during growth. For these materials, crack propagation can be said to occur under combind mode conditions. THe present set of experimens aims to establish the mixed mode I/II fracture behavior of an aluminum based metal matrix composite while at the same time trying to correalate the data in the context of the fracture mechanaism map.