TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of crack tip geometry on dislocation emission and cleavage
T2 - A possible path to enhanced ductility
AU - Schiøtz, J.
AU - Canel, L.
AU - Carlsson, A.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - We present a systematic study of the effect of crack blunting on subsequent crack propagation and dislocation emission. We show that the stress intensity factor required to propagate the crack is increased as the crack is blunted by up to thirteen atomic layers, but only by a relatively modest amount for a crack with a sharp 60° corner. The effect of the blunting is far less than would be expected from a smoothly blunted crack; the sharp corners preserve the stress concentration, reducing the effect of the blunting. However, for some material parameters blunting changes the preferred deformation mode from brittle cleavage to dislocation emission. In such materials, the absorption of preexisting dislocations by the crack tip can cause the crack tip to be locally arrested, causing a significant increase in the microscopic toughness of the crack tip. Continuum plasticity models have shown that even a moderate increase in the microscopic toughness can lead to an increase in the macroscopic fracture toughness of the material by several orders of magnitude. We thus propose an atomic-scale mechanism at the crack tip, that ultimately may lead to a high fracture toughness in some materials where a sharp crack would seem to be able to propagate in a brittle manner. When the crack is loaded in mode II, the load required to emit a dislocation is affected to a much higher degree by the blunting, in agreement with the estimates from continuum elasticity. In mode II the emission process is aided by a reduction of the free surface area during the emission process. This leads to emission at crack loadings which are lower than predicted from the continuum analysis of Rice.
AB - We present a systematic study of the effect of crack blunting on subsequent crack propagation and dislocation emission. We show that the stress intensity factor required to propagate the crack is increased as the crack is blunted by up to thirteen atomic layers, but only by a relatively modest amount for a crack with a sharp 60° corner. The effect of the blunting is far less than would be expected from a smoothly blunted crack; the sharp corners preserve the stress concentration, reducing the effect of the blunting. However, for some material parameters blunting changes the preferred deformation mode from brittle cleavage to dislocation emission. In such materials, the absorption of preexisting dislocations by the crack tip can cause the crack tip to be locally arrested, causing a significant increase in the microscopic toughness of the crack tip. Continuum plasticity models have shown that even a moderate increase in the microscopic toughness can lead to an increase in the macroscopic fracture toughness of the material by several orders of magnitude. We thus propose an atomic-scale mechanism at the crack tip, that ultimately may lead to a high fracture toughness in some materials where a sharp crack would seem to be able to propagate in a brittle manner. When the crack is loaded in mode II, the load required to emit a dislocation is affected to a much higher degree by the blunting, in agreement with the estimates from continuum elasticity. In mode II the emission process is aided by a reduction of the free surface area during the emission process. This leads to emission at crack loadings which are lower than predicted from the continuum analysis of Rice.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0001165357&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.55.6211
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.55.6211
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001165357
SN - 1098-0121
VL - 55
SP - 6211
EP - 6221
JO - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
JF - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
IS - 10
ER -