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Imaging of the Microstructural Failure Mechanism in the Human Hip

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Understanding fast macroscale fracture from microcrack post mortem patterns.

Claudia Guerra¹, Julien Scheibert, Daniel Bonamy

¹Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Saclay Institute of Matter and Radiation, Service de Physique et Chimie des Surfaces et Interfaces, Group Complex Systems and Fracture, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|December 29, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Microcracking in brittle materials accelerates, not hinders, crack propagation. This study reveals individual microcracks move slowly but collectively boost macroscale fracture velocity.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Solid Mechanics
Fracture Mechanics

Background:

Dynamic crack propagation causes catastrophic solid failures.
Fast crack growth in brittle materials involves localized microcracking near the crack tip.
Ultrafast microcracking dynamics are experimentally inaccessible, limiting understanding to macroscale averages.

Purpose of the Study:

To reconstruct the spatiotemporal microcracking dynamics in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with high resolution.
To investigate the role of microcracking in the macroscale fracture dynamics of brittle materials.

Main Methods:

Post mortem analysis of fracture surfaces in PMMA.
Reconstruction of microcrack nucleation, growth, and coalescence dynamics.
Micrometer and nanosecond resolution imaging and analysis.

Main Results:

Individual microcracks propagate at a consistent, load-independent velocity.
Microcracks collectively accelerate, rather than impede, macroscale crack propagation.
An acceleration factor, selected on geometric grounds, governs the collective effect.

Conclusions:

Microcracking significantly influences macroscale fracture dynamics.
Damage-related internal variables play a crucial role in selecting fracture behavior.
The common belief that microcracking increases fracture energy is challenged.