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This thesis concerns mechanical and fracture properties of a thin aluminium foil and polymer laminate that is widely used as packaging material. The possibility of controlling the path of the growing crack propagation by adjustment of the adhesion level and the property of the polymer layer is investigated. First, the fracture process of the aluminium foil is investigated experimentally. It is found that fracture occurs at a much lower load than what is suggested by standard handbook fracture toughness. Observations in a scanning electron microscope with a tensile stage show that small-scale stable crack growth occurs before the stress intensity factor reaches its maximum. An examination using an optical profilometric method shows almost no plastic deformation except for in a small necking region at the crack tip. However, accurate predictions of the maximum load are obtained using a strip yield model with a geometric correction. Secondly, the mechanical and fracture properties of the laminate are studied. A theory for the mechanics of the composite material is used to evaluate a series of experiments. Each of the layers forming the laminate is first tested separately. The results are analysed and compared with the test results of the entire laminate with varied adhesion. The results show that tensile strength and strain at peak stress of the laminate, with or without a crack, increase when the adhesion of the adhesive increases. It is also found that a much larger amount of energy is consumed in the laminated material at tension compare with the single layers. Possible explanations for the much higher toughness of the laminate are discussed. Finally, the behaviour of a crack in one of the layers, perpendicular to the bimaterial interface in a finite solid, is studied by formulating a dislocation superposition method. The stress field is investigated in detail and a so-called T stress effect is considered. Furthermore, the crack tip driving forces are computed numerically. The results show that the analytical methods for an asymptotically small crack extension can also be applied for a fairly large amount of crack growth. By comparing the crack tip driving force of the crack deflected into the interface with that of the crack penetrating into the polymer layer, it is shown how the path of the crack can be controlled by selecting a proper adhesion level of the interface for different material combinations of the laminate.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Kevin Lease / Over the past several years the crack tip opening angle (CTOA) has been identified as one of the key fracture parameters to characterize low constraint stable tearing and instability in structural metallic alloys. This document presents the results of experimental stable tearing characterizations. Characterization methods include optical microscopy and marker band measurements of crack front tunneling. Specific attention is given to the measurement methods used, and also the correlation between CTOA and Delta-5. The effect of tunneling and comparisons with computational results are discussed, and the effect of material and measurement method on CTOA is observed and a clear relationship is seen. Preliminary work on future studies into internal features and behavior is also presented.

For the characterization of crack advance in mechanical components and specimens under monotonic and fatigue loading, many engineering approaches use the assumption that the plastic deformation at the crack tip is isotropic. There are situations when this assumption is not correct, and the modeling efforts require additional correction factors that account for this simplification. The goal of this work is to study two cases where the plastic anisotropy at the crack tip is predominant and influences the magnitude crack-tip parameters, which in turn determine the amount of crack advance under applied loading. At the microstructural level, the small crack issue it is a long-standing problem in the fatigue community. Most of the small crack models consider that the plastic deformation at the crack tip is isotropic. The proposed approached for analyzing small crack growth is to perform finite element simulation of small cracks growing in a material that is assigned single crystal plastic properties. The nature of the plastic deformation of the material at the crack tip in the intra-granular regions could be accurately described and used for modeling small crack growth. By employing finite element analyses for stationary and growing cracks, the main characteristics of the plastic deformation at the crack tip, such as plastic zone sizes and shapes, crack-tip opening displacements, crack-tip opening stresses, are quantified and crack growth rates are determined. Ultimately, by using this crystal plasticity model calibrated for different microstructures, important time and financial resources for real experiments for the study of small cracks can be spared by employing finite element simulations. At macroscale, it is widely known that the manufacturing processes for aluminum alloys results in highly anisotropic microstructures, known as textures. The plastic behavior of these types of materials is far from isotropic and even the use of classical anisotropic yield criteria, such as that on Hill (Hill, 1950), is far from producing accurate results for describing the plastic deformation. Two of these anisotropic yield functions are implemented into finite element code ANSYS and stationary cracks are studied in a wide variety of textures. Significant variations of the plastic deformation at the crack due to the anisotropy are revealed.

A computer-based parametric study of the effect of reinforcement architectures on fracture response of aluminum compact-tension (CT) specimens was performed using the finite element code ABAQUS. A three-dimensional crack propagation procedure based on the crack tip opening angle (CTOA) was developed using Python. Eleven different reinforcement architectures consisting of rectangular and triangular cross-section reinforcements were evaluated. Reinforced specimens produced between 13 and 28 percent higher fracture load than achieved with the non-reinforced case. Reinforcements with blunt leading edges (rectangular reinforcements) exhibited superior performance relative to the triangular reinforcements with sharp leading edges. Relative to the rectangular reinforcements, the most important architectural feature was reinforcement thickness. At failure, the reinforcements carried between 58 and 85 percent of the load applied to the specimen, suggesting that there is considerable load transfer between the base material and the reinforcement. The amount of load transfer is linked to strains experienced by the reinforcement ahead of the crack tip. / Master of Science

The Two-Parameter-Fracture-Criterion (TPFC) was validated using an elastic-plastic two-dimensional (2D) finite-element code, ZIP2D, with the plane-strain-core concept. Fracture simulations were performed on three crack configurations: (1) middle-crack-tension, M(T), (2) single-edge-crack-tension, SE(T), and (3) single-edge crack-bend, SE(B), specimens. They were made of 2014-T6 (TL) aluminum alloy. Fracture test data from Thomas Orange work (NASA) were only available on M(T) specimens (one-half width, w = 1.5 to 6 in.) and they were all tested at cryogenic (-320oF) temperature. All crack configurations were analysed over a very wide range of widths (w = 0.75 to 24 in.) and crack-length-to-width ratios ranged from 0.2 to 0.8. The TPFC was shown to fit the simulated fracture data fairly well (within 6.5%) for all crack configurations for net-section stresses less than the material proportional limit. For M(T) specimens, a simple approximation was shown to work well for net-section stresses greater than the proportional limit. Further study is needed for net-section stresses greater than the proportional limit for the SE(T) and SE(B) specimens.

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L’objectif de cette étude est de caractériser expérimentalement la propagation de fissures de fatigue affectée par l’hydrogène (Hydrogen-Affected Fatigue Crack Growth, HAFCG) dans diverses conditions et de clarifier le mécanisme impliqué en se concentrant sur la plasticité en pointe de fissures. Pour cet objectif, dans une première étape, l’influence de l’hydrogène sur la déformation plastique a été étudiée à l’aide d’essais de traction effectués sur un fer commercialement pur, le fer Armco, sous hydrogène gazeux. Les résultats ont montré que l’effet de l’hydrogène sur la propagation des fissures après apparition de la striction est plus important que celui sur la déformation plastique uniforme. Le HAFCG a ensuite été étudié au moyen d’essais de fissuration pour diverses valeurs de l’amplitude de facteur d’intensité de contrainte ΔK, de pression d’hydrogène (PH2 = 3,5 et 35 MPa) et de fréquence de chargement (f = 0,02 - 20 Hz). Il a été révélé que les vitesses de propagation dans un régime à ΔK élevé étaient fortement augmentées par l'hydrogène, jusqu'à 50 fois plus élevé que celles dans l'air. Le mode de rupture est une rupture intergranulaire fragile dans un régime de propagation à faible ΔK, alors qu’on observe une rupture transgranulaire de type quasi-clivage dans un régime à ΔK élevé. La valeur de ΔKtr (valeur de ΔK déclenchant l'augmentation de la vitesse de fissuration) diminue en augmentant la pression PH2. En outre, la vitesse augmente en diminuant la fréquence f. Une fois que la fréquence devient inférieure à une valeur critique, la vitesse de fissuration diminue considérablement jusqu'au même niveau que celle sous azote. La plasticité en pointe de fissure a été analysée à plusieurs échelles par microscopie optique, par mesure de déplacement hors plan et par microscopie électronique à balayage par transmission de la structure de dislocation située immédiatement sous la surface de rupture (FIB/STEM). Aucune modification claire de la zone plastique monotone en pointe de fissure sous hydrogène n’a été observée, alors qu’une réduction drastique de la plasticité cyclique associée à l'augmentation de la vitesse a été identifiée. Sur la base des observations expérimentales, des modèles de mécanisme de fissuration intergranulaire induit par l'hydrogène impliquant la coalescence des micro-vides le long de joints de grain et de mécanisme de fissuration transgranulaire induit par l'hydrogène impliquant un clivage cyclique dû à la réduction de la plasticité en pointe de fissure ont été proposés. Trois critères caractéristiques de fissuration assistée par hydrogène (ΔKtr, gradient d'hydrogène (PH2 × f)1/2 et limite supérieure de vitesse de fissuration) ont été établis. Ces critères devraient être utiles pour améliorer la conception en fatigue et la fiabilité des équipements exposés à l'hydrogène gazeux. / The objective of this study is to experimentally characterize Hydrogen-Affected Fatigue Crack Growth (HAFCG) behavior under various conditions and clarify the mechanism by focusing on crack tip plasticity. For this objective, as a first step, the influence of hydrogen on plastic deformation has been investigated by means of tensile tests in a commercially pure iron, Armco iron, under gaseous hydrogen. The results of the tests pointed out that the hydrogen effect on crack propagation is more important than that on uniform plastic deformation. Then, the HAFCG was investigated by means of FCG tests under various conditions of crack tip stress intensity ΔK, hydrogen gas pressure (PH2 = 3.5 and 35 MPa) and loading frequency (f = 0.02 – 20 Hz). It has been revealed that the FCGRs in a high ΔK regime were highly enhanced by hydrogen up to 50 times higher than the one in air. The fracture mode was a brittle intergranular fracture in a low ΔK regime, while it is a brittle transgranular quasi-cleavage one in a high ΔK regime. The value of ΔKtr (value of ΔK triggering the FCGR enhancement) decreases by increasing the pressure PH2. Besides, the FCGR enhancement increases by decreasing the frequency f. Once f becomes lower than a critical value, the HAFCG rate significantly decreases down to the same level as in nitrogen., The crack tip plasticity was analyzed in a multiscale approach by means of optical microscopy, out-of-plane displacement measurement, and scanning transmission electron microscopy of dislocation structure immediately beneath the fracture surface (FIB/STEM). As a result, no clear modification of monotonic crack tip plasticity by hydrogen was observed, while a drastic reduction of cyclic crack tip plasticity associated with the FCGR enhancement was identified. Based on the experimental evidences, models of the hydrogen-induced intergranular FCG mechanism involving microvoid coalescence along grain boundary and the hydrogen-induced transgranular FCG mechanism involving cyclic cleavage due to crack tip plasticity reduction have been proposed. Three characteristic criteria of HAFCG (ΔKtr, hydrogen gradient (PH2 × f)1/2 and upper limit of FCGR) have been established. These criteria are expected to be useful for improving fatigue design and reliability of hydrogen-related equipment.

The high stiffness to weight ratio and fatigue resistance make carbon fibre composites suitable for both military and large civil aircraft. The limited ability of current numerical methods to capture the complex growth of damage in laminated composites leads to a conservative design approach applied in today??s composite aircraft structures. The aim of the presented research was to develop an improved methodology for the failure prediction of laminated composites containing delaminations located between arbitrary layers in the laminate, and to extend the investigations to composite structures subjected to barely visible impact damage (BVID). The advantages of fracture mechanics-based methodologies to predict interlaminar failure in composite structures were identified, from which the crack tip element (CTE) approach and the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) were selected for assessment. Extensive validation of these fracture mechanics methods is presented on a number of composite structures ranging from coupons to large stiffened panels. It was shown that the VCCT was relatively insensitive to the crack front mesh size, whilst predictions using the CTE methodology were significantly influenced by the element size. Based on the obtained results modelling guidelines for the VCCT and CTE were established. Significant contribution of this research to the field of the analysis of composite structures was the development of a novel test method for the evaluation of embedded single and multi-level delaminations. The test procedure of the single delamination specimen was proposed as an analogous test to conventional compression experiments. The transverse test overcame the inherent problems of in-plane compression testing and produced less scatter of experimental measurements. Quantitative analysis of numerical results employing the validated finite element modelling approaches showed that the failure load and location were in agreement with experiments. Furthermore, new modelling techniques for composite structures containing BVID proposed in this research produced good correlation with test data from the compression after impact (CAI) test. The study of BVID provided a significant contribution toward the knowledge of the applicability of implicit FE solvers to predict failure of CAI specimens as well as the criticality of centrally impacted specimens.