Crack tip dislocations in silicon single crystals were observed by combining high-voltage electron microscopy and electron tomography. Cracks were introduced by an indentation method and dislocations were introduced around the crack tip by keeping the indented sample at high temperatures for several hours. The number of dislocations emitted from the crack tip was controlled by changing the hold...

Interface cracks are seldom subjected to pure Mode I or pure Mode II conditions. Station~y interface cracks between two distinct, bonded elastic-creep materials subjected to remotely applied mixed mode loading are simulated. The finite element method (FEM) is used to examine crack tip fields and candidate driving force parameters for crack growth. Plane strain conditions are assumed. In most ca...

The well-known J integral of elastic fracture mechanics has been related to potential energy-release rate associated with crack extension and has proved to be of great value in fracture testing. In particular, the pathindependence of the J integral has been used to an advantage in performing acoustoelastic measurements along a closed contour surrounding a crack tip. In Mode I (opening mode) for...

A continuum model based upon the Peierls-Nabarro description of a dislocation ahead of a crack is used to evaluate the critical mode I loading for dislocation nucleation at the tip of a finite, pre-blunted crack. A similar approach is used to evaluate the critical mode I loading for atomic decohesion. Results are presented for various crack tip root radii (a measure of bluntness), for several c...

We here report on a detailed experimental study whose goal is to investigate spontaneous crack propagation in bonded and intact materials subjected to quasi-static far-field tensile loading. The cracks nucleate from a tiny circular hole and are triggered by an exploding wire. They subsequently propagate under the action of a constant far-field load. Dynamic photoelasticity in conjunction with h...

Following our innovative experimental spontaneous fracture models for frictional fractures (compression and shear) and mixed-mode fractures (tension and shear) in identical materials, we designed a laboratory model to investigate the effects of material contrast on mixed-mode spontaneous fracture along a bimate-rial interface. A series of interesting phenomena are observed, including asymmetry ...

We present results of molecular dynamic simulations aimed at examining crack tip dislocation emission in fcc solids. The results are analyzed in terms of recent continuum formulations of this problem. In mode II, Au, Pd, and Pt displayed a new unanticipated mechanism of crack tip dislocation emission involving the creation of a pair of Shockley partials on a slip plane one plane below the crack...

In this paper, the use of a cohesive-zone approach to model the mode-I fracture of adhesive joints made from a polymer-matrix composite is demonstrated. Cohesive-zone parameters were obtained by matching numerical results to experimental observations. It is shown that there is a distinction between the characteristic strength of the interface associated with the toughness, and the intrinsic coh...

Experiments of crack propagation in rubbers have shown that a discontinuous jump of crack propagation velocity can occur as energy release rate increases, which is known as the "mode transition" phenomenon. Although it is believed that the mode transition is strongly related to the mechanical properties, the nature of the mode transition had not been revealed. In this study, dynamic crack propa...

We study experimentally the propagation of an in-plane fracture into a transparent and heterogeneous Plexiglas block. A stable crack propagation in mode I is monitored by an imposed displacement. The experimental setup allows a high resolution observation of the crack front in situ. Self-affine properties of the crack front are described over more than three decades using several techniques: va...