IAC-2012 Naples, Italy

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF DIC IN FATIGUE AND FRACTURE TOUGHNESS TESTING

Mr. Fawad Tariq, Mr. Muhammad Zeeshan Siddiqui, Ms. Nausheen Naz

Mr. Muhammad Fahad Ahmed, Mr. Waqas Hussain

Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, Pakistan

The present work demonstrates the practical application of digital image correlation (DIC)

methodology in fatigue and fracture toughness testing. The experimental work is focused on

determination of important fracture mechanics parameters from surface and crack tip displacements

by DIC. MatLab-based codes have been developed to measure the crack length and crack mouth

opening displacement (CMOD) from surface displacement data and further evaluate the fatigue

crack opening load and stress intensity factors (SIF) of compact tension (CT) specimen during

fatigue and fracture toughness testing. AA2024-T6 aluminum alloy is used as the test specimen

because of its wide application in aerospace industry. Results from DIC are validated by comparison

with back-face strain gauge technique, visual measurements by travelling microscope and Finite

Element Analysis (FEA). It is shown that the results obtained by DIC are in very close agreement

with the results obtained through conventional methods, FEA results and theoretical formulas. This

approach offers the benefit of estimating all the parameters required for plotting da/dN vs. ΔK curve

and K vs. a curve of any metallic material by capturing digital images and extracting surface and

crack tip displacement fields by a simple algorithm. The proposed technique can be easily applied to

existing laboratory setup. The technique is simple and requires only commonly available digital

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cameras. The accuracy of the results can be improved considerably by employing high resolution

cameras.

Keywords: Digital image correlation, full-field displacement, fatigue crack growth rate, stress

intensity factor, fracture toughness, crack length

I. INTRODUCTION

Study of fracture mechanics has received more and more attention in various engineering fields

because of the fact that the cracks, discontinuities or flaws are inevitably present in a structure or

created during service. These microcracks can cause fatal damaging effect to the components

containing them. Presently, aerospace structures are designed using damage tolerant approach

(DTA) which necessitates an accurate prediction of crack growth rates. It is therefore become

mandatory to conduct fatigue and fracture mechanics investigation. The primary purpose of any

fracture mechanics investigation is to determine critical loads responsible for initiation and growth

of cracks and associated stress intensities. The key parameter is the stress intensity factor (SIF) that

quantifies augmentation of stresses in front of the crack tip and the one that governs fracture

response. From fracture mechanics experimentation, allowable stress levels and inspection

requirements can be quantitatively established to design against the occurrence of fractures in

structures. In addition, fracture mechanics can be used to analyze the growth of micro-level cracks to

critical size by fatigue loading and to evaluate the fitness-for-use, or remaining service life of

existing structures.

The accurate determination of fracture mechanics parameters still presents several challenges. This

frequently involves experimental investigation of crack opening load (COL), crack length, SIF,

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fracture toughness, etc. using expensive equipment and lengthy computation. Evaluative research of

fatigue crack growth rates (FCGR) and fracture toughness (FT) demands precise and continuous

crack length measurement either directly or by indirect means [1-3]. SIFs are then estimated from

the measured crack length using standard analytical formula. Optical, compliance (Elber clip gages,

back-face strain gages, etc.) and potential drop (AC, DC and reversing DC) methods are generally

employed to directly measure crack length [4-10]. Alternatively, several indirect measurement

methods (for e.g. photoelasticity [11]; caustics [12]; eddy current [13], and Moire interferometry

[14]) have also been utilized by laboratories for measuring near crack tip stress field, which is

subsequently used for determining crack extension, crack closure level, SIF, etc.. Although, all these

techniques serve as useful tools for fracture parameter analysis but still they are too demanding. All

methods have their own merits and limitations; depending upon the specimen material, size,

geometry and test temperature. It is not appropriate here to discuss and compare available

techniques. Readers are suggested to review literature in Ref. [4, 15] for comprehensive details of

experimental techniques currently under practice for fracture parameters determination. In addition,

situation may arise when parameters are required to determine at high temperatures or aggressive

environments which might limit the adaptability of measurement sensors. All these difficulties have

motivated the development of technique that allows for the direct measurement of these parameters

from the near-crack tip surface displacement fields utilizing simple apparatus and suitable algorithm.

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a novel optical surface displacement measurement technique

which can be readily adopted for direct acquisition of fracture parameters. The technique was

formerly proposed and developed in 1980s by the researchers at the University of South Carolina

[16, 17], which has now attracted attention of the experimental mechanics community for measuring

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the surface displacement with subpixel resolution. The DIC approach works by matching or

comparing the images taken before loading and after un-loading of a specimen.

The use of non-contact DIC technique for determining surface displacements and strains during

mechanical testing of metallic and non-metallic materials have been investigated and studied by

several researchers [16-18]. In the last few years, significant improvement and progress has been

made in DIC methodology. In most studies, it has been shown that the results obtained from this

technique are in good agreement with the results obtained from other conventional techniques.

Consequently, DIC has gained wide popularity among experimentalist. However, the suitability and

adoptability of DIC methodology for evaluating fracture and FCGR parameters in Linear Elastic

Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) has given less attention. Limited number of articles have found in

literature in which the investigators have successfully applied DIC for extracting fracture mechanics

parameters like crack length, fatigue crack closure, SIF, etc. [19-29]. It is noted that most of the

researchers have focused on estimation of one or two fracture parameters by DIC. Therefore, in the

present study the ultimate goal of authors would be to determine key fracture parameters usually

required for predicting FCGR and fracture toughness of a given material with reasonable accuracy,

less computation and without utilizing any expensive sensor.

In this work, a simple technique involving conventional digital camera and MatLab-based algorithm,

is proposed for evaluating all major fracture parameters and will be shown to give reliable results.

FCGR testing under constant amplitude Mode I loading (as per ASTM standard E647-99) and plain

strain fracture toughness testing (as per ASTM E1820-06) are conducted on standard compact

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tension (CT) specimen made of an aerospace-grade AA 2024-T6 aluminum alloy. Emphasis in this

study is on determination of crack length, crack tip position, SIF, plastic zone size, T-stress, CMOD

and fracture toughness K1c by capturing displacement fields ahead of the crack tip throughout the

load/unload cycle using DIC. The measurement displacements ahead of the crack tip was post-

processed in MatLab and ultimately used for plotting crack growth rate curve (da/dN vs. ΔK) and K

vs. Δa curve (for linear elastic condition). The results obtained from DIC are compared with those

obtained by the back-face strain gauge (BFS) method, optical travelling microscopy and well-

established theoretical formulae. In addition, finite element modeling and simulations have also been

conducted in commercial FE code ANSYS 12.1 (APDL) to rationalize and validate the above results

and to verify the accuracy of proposed method.

II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

Experiments were conducted on aluminum alloy AA2024-T6 plate because of its extensive use in

aerospace and space vehicles. The chemical composition and mechanical properties of AA2024-T6

used in this work are given in Tables 1 and 2 respectively.

Cu Si Zn Mg Mn Fe

Cr Al

3.80 0.35 0.041 0.65 0.54 0.35

0.035 Bal.

Table 1: Chemical composition (in wt.%) of AA2024- T6

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Hardness Yield Tensile Elongation

Young’s Poisson’s

Strength Strength at fracture

Modulus Ratio

(HV) (MPa) (MPa) (%) (GPa)

140 345 427 8-9 72.5

0.33

Table 2: Mechanical properties of AA2024-T6 used in this work

Compact tension (CT) specimens in L-T orientation were made for FCGR and plain strain fracture

toughness testing according to the dimensions given in ASTM standard E-647-05 and E-1820-06

respectively. Specimen geometry and dimensions are shown in Fig.1. Surface of all the specimens

were ground and polished up to 1200 grit size using conventional metallographic specimen

preparation method to facilitate crack monitoring and creating speckle pattern for imaging. One side

of the test specimen was gently sprayed with a black and white paint to create a fine random speckle

pattern to facilitate surface displacement measurements using DIC. Other side of the specimen was

left polished for crack length monitoring by travelling microscope (x10 magnification).

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Fig.1: Dimensions of compact tension specimen used in this work as per ASTM standard E-1820

Fatigue crack growth test was conducted at constant amplitude sinusoidal loading using 250kN

servo-hydraulic machine. Maximum fatigue load was 10kN, frequency 2.5 Hz was given and the

load ratio R was kept 0.1. Stress intensity range (ΔK) was kept above the threshold stress intensity

(ΔKth) to accelerate crack initiation. The axial load was measured using S-type load cell. For strain

measurement 350Ω strain gage bonded at the backside of the specimen. During fatigue test, the load

and back-face strain (BFS) data was acquired by National Instruments DAQ System with LabView

software v.10.

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Fig.2: Experimental setup for fatigue and fracture toughness test using DIC method

Once the fatigue crack was initiated from the machined notch and identified to about 2 mm, the DIC

system was setup and measurements were started. A tripod mounted Nikon D90 SLR camera with a

maximum resolution of 12 megapixels was used for image capturing throughout the fatigue cycles.

The images were later resized to 1072 x 72 pixel resolution to reduce the computation cost and

memory load. The region of interest was framed using a 105mm AFS Micro Nikkor lens. The field

of view was set such that there was no need to translate the camera to follow the crack propagation.

Specimen surface was illuminated with dual halogen lamps. Picture of test setup is shown in Fig 2.

Fatigue cycles were stopped at maximum load after each 1000 cycles for image capturing. The test

continued till the crack length of about 22 mm was achieved. The acquired images were processed to

obtain the full-field displacement and strain field using commercially available correlation software

Vic-2D by Correlated Solutions Ltd. Data was imported in MatLab for post-processing. The

computation involved determination of crack length (a), SIF (K) and T-stress (T) from the

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displacement field ahead of the crack tip. SIF and T-stress (second non-singular term in William’s

series) were calculated by substituting experimentally determined displacement fields into expanded

William’s series for linear elastic stresses around a crack tip [30] given by Eq. 1.

∞ 𝑛
𝑟2 𝑛 𝑛𝜃 𝑛 (𝑛 − 4)𝜃
𝑢𝐼 =∑ 𝑎𝑛 {[𝑘 + + (−1)𝑛 ] 𝑐𝑜𝑠 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠 }
2𝜇 2 2 2 2
𝑛=1
Mode I ∞ 𝑛
𝑟2 𝑛 𝑛𝜃 𝑛 (𝑛 − 4)𝜃
𝑣𝐼 =∑ 𝑎𝑛 {[𝑘 − − (−1)𝑛 ] 𝑠𝑖𝑛 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛 }
{ 2𝜇 2 2 2 2
𝑛=1

[1]

where u and v are horizontal (x-direction) and vertical (y-direction) displacements in mode I, μ is the

shear modulus and ĸ is Kolosov constant ĸ = 3-ν/1+ν for plane stress and ĸ = 3-4ν for plane strain

conditions, where ν is the Poisson’s ratio. a and b are constants and r and θ are polar coordinates

from the crack tip (Fig.3).

Fig.3: Stress state ahead of the crack tip

For COL measurement the CT specimen was given a couple of load cycles at a low frequency of 0.1

Hz to allow a large number of data points to be available. Crack opening SIF (Kop) was derived from

COL. These low frequency cycles were captured in AVI format. An indigenously developed DIC

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code was used to process these AVI videos for determining the deformation between user-defined

markers.

Stress intensity factor (K), T-stress [31] and plastic zone size (rp) was theoretically calculated

according to eq. 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The value of crack length (a) in eq. 2 and 3 was that

measured through travelling microscope.

∆𝑃 (2+𝛼)
∆𝐾 = 𝐵√𝑊 3 (0.886 + 4.64α − 13.32α2 + 14.72α3 − 5.6α4 )
(1−𝛼)2

[2]

𝑎 𝑎2 𝑎3 𝑎4
𝑇 = 𝜎 × {6.063 − 78.987 × 𝑊 + 380.46 × + 661.79 × + 428.45 × }
𝑊 𝑊 𝑊

[3]

where,

𝑃
𝜎=
𝑊×𝐵

1 𝐾max 2
𝑟p = ( ) (For plane stress condition) [4]
2𝜋 𝜎Y

In parallel to the experiments, the finite element method (ANSYS 12.1 APDL) was used to find the

SIF, T-stress and plastic zone size. Although the specimen was under plain strain condition, but the

plane stress with thickness setting was used which takes into account the thickness of the specimen

as well. The half CT specimen 2D geometry of exactly the same dimensions was modelled and BC

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symmetry was applied (Fig. 4). Crack of different lengths were simulated. PLANE82 (8-node

quadrilateral) element was used for meshing. The crack tip was very fine meshed to assured stress

singularity. SIF at the crack tip was computed using the KCAL command. T-stress was calculated

by subtracting σxx from σyy at θ=0 and r=0.

Fig.4: 2D half CT specimen FE model, meshed with PLANE82 (8-node quadrilateral) elements

The data obtained from theoretical formulas, DIC and FEA results were ultimately used to plot

da/dN vs. ΔK curve. The load value at which the crack tip is fully opened is considered to be the

effective range controlling crack growth. For calculation of the ΔKeff, the COL was determined from

load-displacement trace plotted using displacement extracted from near-crack tip using DIC. Crack

growth rate (da/dN) was also expressed as a function of ΔKeff taking into account the crack closure

phenomenon. The DIC results were also compared with the results obtained from theoretical

formulas and FEA results.

Plain strain fracture toughness test was conducted according to ASTM standard E 1820-06. Once the

crack of desired length was observed the specimen was monotonically loaded under Mode I

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(tension) up to fracture at the load rate of about 200 N/s. Load and crack opening displacement was

recorded for calculations of PQ. During the test the same DIC system was employed as in fatigue

test. However, in case of fracture toughness test, video was made for crack length measurement by

DIC. KQ was calculated from PQ by taking 95% secant and after running all validity checks given in

ASTM E 1820 the KQ was declared KIC. Data acquired by digital camera was processed and crack

tip position was determined for accurate crack length measurement. Graph was plotted between load

(P) and crack length (a). Load vs. crack length was then used to plot KI vs. Δa graph.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

III.1 Fatigue Crack Growth Rate

III.I.I Crack Opening Load Measurement

Since the discovery of crack closure effect by Elber in 1970 a lot of attention has been given to

measurement of crack closure level (also interchangeably used with crack opening load - COL) [32].

It is well known that fatigue crack leaves behind a wake of plastically deformed material that gives

rise to crack closure. Crack closure reduces the effective stress intensity factor range (ΔKeff) at the

crack tip, thereby decreasing crack propagation rates. For this reason, crack closure is vital factor

that should be evaluated for reliable prediction of crack growth rates accurately. The task of

measuring COL is not easy and this frequently involves use of BFS, Elber gage, replica technique,

etc. However, many times these techniques are impracticable. In order to overcome the drawbacks

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of conventional techniques, DIC approach is recently proposed. Here DIC technique is used to

experimentally determine the surface crack tip opening load by measuring displacement field near

crack tip. The non-contact nature of this technique allows measurement of local as well as average

crack tip opening loads easily by tracking the displacement across the crack faces.

Figure 5 shows various displacement gages (virtual extensometers) placed on both sides of the crack

faces along the crack line to measure crack opening displacement. Displacement gage location

behind the crack tip is very important for determination of actual Pop therefore should be selected

with extreme care. When crack opens, the distance between the two subset altered and the crack

opening displacement is measured as the difference between the two subsets. The subset size was

equal to 30 pixels.

Fig.5: Displacement gages (virtual extensometers) placed on both side of the crack faces along the

crack line for crack-opening load measurement.

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Figure 6 shows the normalized load vs. opening displacement curves at two distances (8 mm and 12

mm) ahead of the notch (for 16 mm crack length) plotted from the data obtained by DIC after

reducing the noise by employing Gaussian filter. The data was not directly interpretable because

large scatter was observed in the raw data due to presence of noise in the avi image sequence. As the

imaging system used for image capturing was a digital SLR, image capturing in video mode was of

poor quality resulting in noisy data. Other sources of noise could be minor out-of-plane motions of

the specimen cause blurring of image.

Frequency was reduced to 0.1 Hz while video recording during a fatigue loading cycle at a particular

crack length. As the frequency is very low no significant crack growth is expected to take place

during the measurement cycles. After post-processing of the crack opening displacement curve, it

seems logical and meaningful. In this way crack-opening was evaluated at different crack lengths.

The point where the curve deviates (slope changes) indicates the fatigue crack-opening/closing

process. The point at which the crack flanks separate upon opening is termed the crack-opening

load; likewise, the crack closure load is the point at which the crack flanks make contact during

unloading. The opening of crack is a continuous process (just like unzipping) and hence it is not easy

to determine a single crack opening load.

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Fig. 6: Normalized load vs. opening displacement curves obtained by DIC at 8 mm and 12 mm

ahead of the machined notch tip for 16 mm crack length.

It can be seen in Fig. 6 that initially the crack is closed; it does not immediately open above the Pmin.

With increasing load the cracks faces peels, partially opens and at certain load the crack is fully

open. This point of fully open load is usually referred as Pop. Upon further loading the specimen up

to Pmax, linear relationship was again established. Similar trend was observed in all load-

displacement curves for each crack length. Although crack gradually opens from the crack mouth to

the crack tip, a single value of COL must be identified to calculate ΔKeff. Since the crack cannot

grow until the crack is fully open therefore the value of the load where crack faces are fully opened

(separated) is generally taken as the Pop for ΔKeff estimation. It is generally believed that the surface

COL measured at crack tip overestimates; COL is lower inside the specimen due to constraint

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effects. The inferred Pop was then used to calculate Kop for calculating ΔKeff (i.e. Kmax - Kop). In Fig.

6 it was also observed that the Pop (between 0.4 and 0.5 of the Pmax) was different from crack closure

load Pcl (between 0.3 and 0.4 of the Pmax). However, the different is very small; mostly the difference

is <10% so the Pop is taken equal to Pcl. The Pop was found to be about 3.5 kN. Effective stress

intensity range was utilized for plotting effective FCGR curve. The results are qualitatively in

agreement with the results obtained by DIC in literature [28, 33, and 34].

Fig. 7: Normalized load vs. strain trace plotted by using BFS data for crack-opening load

measurement (at 13 mm crack length)

It was found that the remotely mounted BFS gage is not effective to reveal crack opening

phenomenon in case of small cracks because of the large width of the sample. Strain gage is

sensitive to only surface and sub-surface strains, but in this work the sample remaining ligament (W-

a) is large. The large distance between the crack tip and back face of specimen where the strain gage

was mounted rendered BFS technique unsuccessful. Beside this, available strain gages are generally

not designed for cyclic loading. Debonding and erroneous reading was often noticed after more than

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50000 cycles. However, when the crack length increased from 10 mm then the BFS data was

functional in crack-opening load evaluation. Figure 7 showed the normalized load vs. strain graph

(compliance curve) at the crack length of about 13 mm. Crack-opening in between 0.1-0.2 of Pmax

was noticed from Fig. 7. The value of Pop, as determined by BFS, was about 1.88 kN which was

noticeably less than the DIC value. The reason for this low value is that the BFS gage was remotely

mounted far away from the crack tip so it reflects the global opening load in the bulk of the sample

and underestimate the opening load, whereas DIC gives the local surface opening level because it

capture surface displacement from the vicinity of the crack tip. DIC measurements are surface, as

well as near-crack tip measurement therefore affected by the surface closure level. It clearly showed

that the local surface displacement measurement near-crack tip by DIC approach is more reliable

tool for crack opening or closure level evaluation at all crack lengths.

III.I.II. Crack length measurement

Lack of accuracy in crack length measurement is the major source of error in FCGR experiment. In

the present case, the crack length was measured by travelling microscope and DIC method. Different

methods have been adopted by researchers for estimation of exact crack tip location [35-37]. Steep

gradient exists in the vertical displacement field adjacent to the crack. This fact was utilized for

identifying the crack from displacement field data. The vertical displacement gradients were filtered

for noise and then converted to an image. Sobel edge filter was then applied on this image to detect

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the horizontal (crack) edges as shown in Fig. 8. From this image, the crack tip was identified as the

first active (red) pixel in the crack edge. Crack tip position and length was estimated from all the

images taken at Pmax. Image quality plays a crucial role in locating crack tip; noisy or blurred image

makes crack tip detection very difficult or sometimes impossible. Moreover, the error in

determination of crack tip position could lead to incorrect results.

Fig. 8: Sobel edge detection method for locating crack tip for precise crack length measurement

Fig. 9: Plot of crack length vs. no. of cycles obtained by travelling microscope and DIC using sobel

edge detection method

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Figure 9 shows that the crack length (a) increases exponentially with increasing number of cycles

(N) which is a known phenomenon. The curve is divided into three regions depending on the growth

rate. Stage I is characterized by the slow crack growth rate. Once the crack has grown through

several grains, its associated plastic zone covers multiple grains, and it is said to be in stage II crack

growth. The crack is stable in stage II and grows perpendicular to the direction of loading. The slope

of stage II is the crack growth rate. In stage III the crack becomes unstable, propagate faster and the

material is near to fracture up on reaching its fracture toughness KIC.

The results from both DIC and travelling microscope show similar trend. It can be seen in Fig. 9 that

the DIC (using sobel edge detection method) yields smooth results as compared to optical

measurements. In case of optical measurement, raw data has a stepped appearance due to low

resolution of manual reading and some filtering is required to smooth the data. Further, traveling

microscope measures crack length on surface; but actually the crack is deeper inside the surface. As

DIC works by capturing full-field displacement around the crack tip so it is more appropriate for

predicting actual crack length. Final crack length obtained from optical measurement was 22.1 mm

whereas DIC gave 23 mm. Moreover, DIC procedure eliminates the need for the visual identification

of the crack tip, which is prone to human errors.

III.I.III. SIF, T-stress and plastic zone size measurement

Stress intensity factor (SIF) at Pmax was determined by extracting the u and v displacements from

local displacement field around the already determined crack tip using Vic-2D. Each image was

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compared against the initial reference image at Pmin. All images were processed in the same way and

the measured displacements (both u and v) were then substituted into eq. 1 to estimate the Kmax in a

least squares sense. While calculating the displacements, the effect of rigid body rotation (A) and

rigid body translation (B) was also taken into account and subtracted. Figure 10 shows the SIF Kmax

as a function of crack length (a/W) obtained from DIC. Once all the Kmax values were calculated the

ΔK was plotted with da/dN on y-axis, as shown in Fig. 11.

𝑑𝑎
= 𝐶 (Δ𝐾)m [5]
𝑑𝑁

where C and m are constants and their value depends upon material and loading conditions. The

value of ΔK increases with increasing crack length and after transient stage the stead-state da/dN

was achieved. Similarly, ΔK was also determined from theoretical formula (eq. 2) using crack length

(a) obtained from travelling microscope.

Fig. 10: Stress intensity factor (Kmax) with respect to crack length (a/W)

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The curves obtained by DIC and manual calculations are almost similar; in fact, it was observed that

the DIC gives more reliable results with less scatter. In contrast, large scatter was observed in the

manually calculated values which need extensive smoothing. In addition to theoretical calculations,

SIF was also evaluated by FEA and the results are plotted in Fig. 10 for comparison and validation.

Results from DIC and FE computation also demonstrated the same trend and agreed well with each

other. The log (da/dN) vs. log (ΔK) was used to estimate the FCGR in steady-state stage II by fitting

linear curve and taking slope of the Paris regime. The FCGR of AA2024-T6 by DIC was found to

2.33x10-7 m/cycle and by theoretical formula about 2.63x10-7 m/cycle. From FEA solution, the

FCGR was found to be 2.51x10-7 m/cycle. Both theoretical calculations and FEA yields higher crack

growth rate as compared to DIC. In our opinion, the reason for lower FCGR value by DIC is that the

DIC method directly extracts surface displacement fields from near-crack tip for K-calculations

whereas theoretical formula and FEA relies on empirical relationships which could be varied even

by slightly changing the specimen geometry and loading conditions.

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Fig. 11: Graph showing da/dN vs. ΔK curve obtained from different methods

Fig.12: Plot of da/dN vs. ΔKeff taking into account the affect of crack-opening load

Figure 12 represents the effective FCGR curve taking into account the affect of COL. Effective

FCGR was estimated to be about 2.69x10-7 m/cycle by linear curve fitting method. The theoretical

and FEA results were in good agreement. Similar results have been published by earlier researchers

in literature [23, 26].

The second term in the William stress field equation is called T-stress. T-stress is actually the stress

acting in the direction of crack propagation (x-axis) and defines the constraint around the crack tip.

The T-stress value strongly depends on the specimen geometry, crack length as well as type of

loading. The magnitude and sign of T-stress significantly affect the extent and shape of crack tip

plasticity [34]. T-stress can also modify crack paths, e.g. straight cracks with negative value stay

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stable under mode I loading conditions, while positive T-stress deviates the crack off the initial crack

plane [34]. The T-stress results are plotted with respect to crack length in Fig. 13.

Fig.13: T-stress as a function of crack length measured by theoretical formula, DIC and FEA

In case of DIC, the value of T-stress was unexpectedly found negative for all crack lengths.

Moreover T-stress value fluctuates up to 0.45 a/W after which it abruptly increases on further

increase in crack length. This is logically true because the crack followed a straight path and the

growth was very much stable. Negative T-stress reduces the level of crack tip stress triaxiality and

leads to the loss of crack tip constraint [34]. Contrary to DIC, theoretical relationship and FEA

predicts positive T-stress values; means high crack tip constraint (i.e. limited plastic defomration).

The discrepancy in the theoretical calculations, FEA solution and DIC results is clearly visible in

Fig. 13. It is nevertheless instructive to compare values of T-stress obtained from DIC procedure to

theoretical calculations based on load and geometry. It should be noted that it is not necessary that

the T-stress agree well with the theoretical values because of reasons discussed in literature [38].

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One possible reason is that the affect of high order terms in William’s series was neglected while

estimating T-stress by DIC.

During the fatigue crack propagation plastic zone is formed in which local yielding has occurred. As

the fatigue crack move on through the existing plastic zone, second zone is created leaving behind

the first plastic zone. This process repeats with progress of fatigue crack. The plastic zone size

increases with increasing ΔK. Size of plastic zone (rp) was also estimated from DIC, theoretical

formula (eq.) and FEA as shown in Fig. 14.

Fig.14: Plastic zone size calculated theoretically using eq. (4) and FEA solution

Both horizontal (u) and vertical (v) displacement was extracted from the images and converted into

strain (εx and εy) by differentiation. Strain was then transformed into stresses to calculate the Von

Mises stress which could give an estimation of rp. However, because of the noisy images, butterfly-

like plastic zone was not visible in the graph and the rp measurement was almost impossible. The

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DIC results are therefore not included here. In case of FEA, rp was estimated by plotting Von Mises

stress (Fig. 15). It was noticed in Fig. 14 that fairly similar trend was obtained from FEA and

theoretical formula up to 0.5 a/W, after which the rp value from FEA sharply increased. Somewhat

similar trend in rp with increasing crack length (or ΔK) was also stated by other researchers [34].

The results strongly suggest that the DIC is a novel experimental method ideally suited for full field

quantitative fatigue parameters measurement.

Fig. 15: Von Mises stress plot used for estimating plastic zone size.

III.II Fracture Toughness

Figure 16 shows the curve plotted between the load (P) and crack mouth opening displacement

(CMOD or COD) using data obtained through DIC method. The curve showed that the material was

brittle and therefore linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) parameter KQ was calculated by using

PQ (from 95% secant line) in the standard formula.Real-time imaging of the complete fracture

toughness tests was acquired by digital camera up to specimen fracture.

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The image sequence captured in avi format was converted to PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

format for displacement measurements in Vic2D. Crack length measurement was done by

thresholding the gradient of crack opening displacement (COD) vs position curve. The COD was

measured using a virtual COD gauge in Vic2D along the crack edge.

Fig.16: Load vs. crack opening displacement graph plotted by means of conventional technique and

used for KQ estimation

The load vs. crack length was plotted as shown in Fig. 17. It was observed that the crack length

increases linearly with increase in load up to 4 mm after which the instability occurs and sample

fractured rapidly. Candidate or apparent fracture toughness was found to be 44 MPa√m. After

checking all the variables against validity criteria devised by ASTM, it was found that the KQ was

equal to KIC. The KIC of AA2024-T6 is usually >37 MPa√m in L-T direction.

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Fig.17: Load vs. crack extension plotted by DIC method

Using the DIC crack length data, the value of K was also evaluated at regular intervals of crack

extension (Δa). Finally, a graph was plotted which shows the increase in K as a function of Δa as

seen in Fig. 18.

Fig. 18: Plot of K vs. Δa estimated from DIC

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The observed trend was quite logical therefore the results suggested that the DIC technique is

feasible for monitoring crack extension during fracture toughness testing.

IV. CONCLUSION

In this study the capability of optical digital image correlation method has been assessed and proved

to be practically useful for determination of major fracture mechanics parameters using full field

displacements captured from near-crack tip during real fatigue and fracture toughness testing on AA

2024-T6 CT specimen. According to the work done, the following conclusions can be drawn:

Crack opening load was estimated at different locations near crack tip by DIC and yields

encouraging result. The trends are interpretable in terms of physically meaningful changes occurring

during loading and unloading of fatigue crack. Partial opening to fully open load and crack blunting

in front of the crack tip was indicative in the data after post-processing.

Back-face strain gage was found ineffective in detecting crack opening load at small crack length for

large size specimen.

Crack tip position, crack length and stress intensity factor calculated from DIC technique were in

close agreement with the values numerically determined from FEA and theoretical formulas.

The da/dN vs. ΔK curve was successfully plotted by DIC and found in good accord with the curve

plotted from the experimentally inferred values by travelling microscope.

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Promising results were observed for fracture toughness test by DIC. Crack extension during fracture

toughness test was successfully measured with reasonable accuracy and K vs. Δa curve was plotted

by DIC.

The accuracy of solutions is primarily decided by the resolution of the digital camera. The camera

used in this work was ordinary camcorder. It is believed that the with the use of modern high

resolution CCD camera and suitable post-processing algorithm the DIC technique offers a simple,

robust and cost-effective alternate of traditional displacement measurement sensors

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors are grateful to Mr. Ahmed Bilal (Chairman, SUPARCO) for approval and provision of

facilities. Authors also wish to thank Dr. Sajid Mirza, and Dr. Rashid Ahmed Baloch for their

valuable suggestions and support throughout this work.

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