Abstract
Material ductile fracture toughness can be described by J-integral versus crack extension relationship (J-R curve). As a conventional J-R curve measurement method, unloading compliance (UC) becomes impractical in elevated temperature testing due to relaxation of the material and a friction induced back-up shape of the J-R curve. In addition, the UC method may underpredict the crack extension for standard disk-shaped compact (DC(T)) specimens. In order to address these issues, the normalization method and direct current potential drop (DCPD) technique were applied for determining J-R curves at 24簞C and 500簞C for 0.18T DC(T) specimens made from type 316L stainless steel. For comparison purchase, the UC method was also applied in 24簞C tests. The normalization method was able to yield valid J-R curves in all tests. The J-R curves from the DCPD technique need adjustment to account for the potential drop induced by plastic deformation, crack blunting, etc. and after applying a newly-developed DCPD adjustment procedure, the post-adjusted DCPD J-R curves essentially matched J-R curves from the normalization method. In contrast, the UC method underpredicted the crack extension in all tests resulting in substantial deviation in the derived J-R curves manifested by high Jq values than the normalization or DCPD method. Only for tests where the UC method underpredicted the crack extension by a very small value, J-R curves determined by the UC method were similar to those determined by the normalization or DCPD method.
