Damage and fracture: Review of experimental studies

Abstract

This paper is a part of a review of recent (last 15 years) publications on experimental and theoretical methods and approaches for studying damage accumulation and fracture in crystalline solids. The first part of the review is devoted to the experimental studies that examine the physical mechanisms of microdamage nucleation and growth under various thermomechanical loads, physical and mechanical properties of materials, and the issues concerning the formation and growth of main cracks and transition to macrofracture. Particular attention is given to the studies of fatigue failure of various metals and alloys, particularly the features of micro- and macrodamage nucleation and growth in structures and specimens at different loading cycle parameters, and the effect of grain size, solid phase inclusions, grain boundaries, twins, etc. on damage evolution. A whole variety of modern approaches to the experimental study (including in situ studies) of specimen structure and stress-strain state is shown. Disadvantages of current experimental studies on damage and fracture are discussed, such as insufficient attention to the scale factor and determination of the representative volume for fracture analysis.