HR-EBSD analysis of in situ stable crack growth at the micron scale

Understanding the local fracture resistance of microstructural features, such as brittle inclusions, coatings, and interfaces, at microscale is critical for microstructure-informed design materials. In this study, a novel approach has been formulated to decompose J-integral evaluation elastic energy release rate three-dimensional stress intensity factors directly from experimental measurements deformation gradient tensors crack field by in situ high (angular) resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD). An exemplar study presented quasi-static crack, inclined observed surface, propagating on low index {hkl} planes (001) single crystal silicon wafer.