Measurement of Mixed-mode Fracture Toughness of Polypropylene using Multi-specimen J-integral Method

For ductile fracture, the toughness can be measured as a single parameter value or in a resistance curve format (J-R curve) and is often characterized by the J-integral for elastic-plastic materials. Because of their effectiveness in measuring toughness, the J-integral and J-R curve have become the most important material parameters in elastic-plastic fracture mechanics, and have been applied widely in practical engineering. Polymeric materials are widely being used for load-bearing structural applications and, therefore, understanding of their fracture properties is becoming more important. In this study, mixed-mode I/II stable crack growth experiments were carried out on a widely used polymeric material, polypropylene, using recently modified fixture. Multi-specimen R-curve method were used for obtaining J-R curves of different states of mixed-mode loading conditions from pure mode-I to pure mode-II by varying the loading angle by 15° steps accordance with the standard ASTM-D6068 and then the resulting R-curves have been evaluated to determine the values of initiation toughness, JIC, following the schemes of the E813 and E1820 standard procedures. Finite-element analyses were done by ABAQUS and mode-I and mode-II non-dimensional stress intensity factors and geometric work factors of elastic-plastic fracture were obtained for different conditions. Results show that for this material the value of JIC is much more than the value obtained for the JIIC. This material also exhibited a greater resistance to ductile crack growth in mode-I.