5.1 This test method may be used for guidance for material development to improve toughness, material comparison, quality assessment, and characterization.
5.2 The fracture toughness value provides information on the initiation of fracture in graphite containing a straight-through notch; the information on stress intensity factor beyond fracture toughness as a function of crack extension provides information on the crack propagation resistance once a fracture crack has been initiated to propagate through the test specimen.
1.1 This test method covers and provides a measure of the resistance of a graphite to crack extension at ambient temperature and atmosphere expressed in terms of stress-intensity factor, K, and strain energy release rate, G. These crack growth resistance properties are determined using beam test specimens with a straight-through sharp machined V-notch.
1.2 This test method determines the stress intensity factor, K, from applied force and gross specimen deflection measured away from the crack tip. The stress intensity factor calculated at the maximum applied load is denoted as fracture toughness, KIc, and is known as the critical stress intensity factor. If the resolution of the deflection gauge is sensitive to fracture behavior in the test specimen and can provide a measure of the specimen compliance, strain energy release rate, G, can be determined as a function of crack extension.
1.3 This test method is applicable to a variety of grades of graphite which exhibit different types of resistance to crack growth, such as growth at constant stress intensity (strain energy release rate), or growth with increasing stress intensity (strain energy release rate), or growth with decreasing stress intensity (strain energy release rate). It is generally recognized that because of the inhomogeneous microstructure of graphite, the general behavior will exhibit a mixture of all three during the test. The crack resistance behavior exhibited in the test is usually referred to as an “R-curve.”
Note 1: One difference between the procedure in this test method and test methods such as Test Method E399, which measure fracture toughness, KIc, by one set of specific operational procedures, is that Test Method E399 focuses on the start of crack extension from a fatigue precrack for metallic materials. This test method for graphite makes use of a machined notch with sharp cracking at the root of the notch because of the nature of graphite. Therefore, fracture toughness values determined with this method may not be interchanged with KIc as defined in Test Method