Digital Repository, ICF12, Ottawa 2009

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Mechanical eect of capillary forces in the crack tip of a DCDC specimen
M. Ciccotti, G. Pallares, L. Ponson, A. Grimaldi, M. George

Last modified: 2013-05-06

Abstract


DCDC is widely used to study sub-critical crack propagation in
brittle materials due to elevated crack propagation stability. This quality has
made this test suitable for in-situ AFM observations of the neighbourhood of
the crack tip at low propagation velocities. In a recent work we reported direct
evidence of the presence of a submetric liquid condensate at the crack tip of
a fused silica glass. The AFM phase imaging technique allows measuring the
condensation length as a function of the applied stress intensity factor and
relative humidity. In order to relate this length to a critical condensation distance
between the opposite crack surfaces, a detailed knowledge of the crack
opening is required. We realized an experimental investigation of the crack
opening prole by reection interferometry and compared the results with a
2D nite element simulation of a cracked DCDC specimen including the mechanical
eect induced by the liquid condensation.

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