Fracture investigation of critical fracture load in V0-noshes made of W-Cu FGM under prevalent mode II loading

In this paper, the fracture of V- notches with end holes (VO- notch) in tungsten-copper functionally graded material (W-Cu FGM) under the prevalent mode II loading is studied experimentally and theoretically. W-Cu FGM specimens are made by powder metallurgy technique in the experimental part. Several fracture tests are done on VO- notched W-Cu FGM specimens under prevalent mode loading for different notch tip radii and notch depths. To predict the fracture loads of VO- notched FGM specimens under prevalent mode loading, the Averaged Strain Energy Density (ASED) over a well-defined control volume is applied in the theoretical section. Moreover, the effect of notch tip radius, notch depth and notch opening angle on the fracture loads is investigated. In addition to good agreement between the numerical and experimental results, this study shows that Strain Energy Density (SED) theory works well on VO- notched FGM specimens under prevalent mode loading.