An Examination of a Proposed Method for Evaluating Nonlinear Effects in Fracture Assessment

Abstract

A proposal put forward by Liebowitz and Eftis suggests a method of accounting for nonlinear behavior observed in fracture. A simple model analysis of a center crack sheet and supporting experimental results, indicate that the corrected toughness based on load point displacement will not be single valued for a specific material. It is established that both the correction factor and deviation from linearity due to cracktip yielding vary with specimen length. Additionally, tests on compact tension specimens indicate that difficulties exist when trying to correlate corrected toughness values from one specimen configuration to another.