DYNAMIC CRACK PROPAGATION AND CRACK ARREST INVESTIGATED WITH A NEW SPECIMEN GEOMETRY: PART I: EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS

A new test specimen geometry was advised to investigate unstable crack propagation and crack arrest. This geometry is a cracked ring which is subjected to a compressive load applied to its poles while the crack is located on the equatorial plane at the outer surface of the specimen. The main interest of this geometry lies in the variation of the stress intensity factor, K, with crack length which follows a bell-shaped curve numerically determined. The increasing part of the curve enables us to study unstable propagation and the decreasing one ensures crack arrest. This experiment has two major advantages in comparison with other specimen geometries; the boundary conditions are well controlled during the propagation, and the loading conditions of the crack are therefore precisely known. The round shape of the ring reduces wave reflection effects from free boundary surfaces. It is therefore shown that a static analysis can then be used to investigate crack arrest behaviour.