Abstract:
The ability to measure plane strain fracture toughness on small specimens, such as biomaterials and
developmental alloys, and on materials that do not lend themselves to fatigue pre-cracking is becoming
increasingly important, especially with the profusion of "advanced" materials now being developed.
The short rod and short bar chevron notched specimens address this. This paper looks at the correlation
between valid KIc data and short rod fracture toughness (both KIv and KIvm)for a series of metal matrix
composites. It is shown that the relationship between these values form part of a family of curves that
exist for monolithic alloys. The relationship appears to be independent of the use of maximum or
critical load values in the calculation of short rod fracture toughness.
