FULL PMMA KINETIC LAW OF FRACTURE: FROM QUASI-STATIC TO DYNAMIC REGIME

This study uses digital image correlation for the extraction of the stress intensity factor of PMMA in quasi-
static and dynamic regime. The area quantification induced by the cracking of PMMA is a major focus of
this work. Created surface resulting from crack propagation was measured over the entire length of test
pieces. At approximately 0.6 c R , the amount of fracture surface created is higher than twice the projected
fracture surface on the average fracture plane, close to the “mirror” zone. Kinetic laws representing K ID and
G ID according to the crack speed are thus compared with those from the literature by considering dynamical
effects induced by rapid crack propagation. The dynamic fracture energy must be considered as a function
of created surface since the microcrack branching velocity has been reached.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT