Brittle fracture analysis of the offset-crack DCDC specimen.

Applications of fracture mechanics in the strength analysis of ceramic materials have been lately studied by many researchers. Various test specimens have been proposed in order to investigate the fracture resistance of cracked bodies under mixed mode conditions. Double Cleavage Drilled Compression (DCDC) specimen, with a hole offset from the centerline is a configuration that is frequently used in subcritical crack growth studies of ceramics and glasses. This specimen exhibits a strong crack path stability that is due to the strongly negative T-stress term. In this paper the maximum tensile stress (MTS) criterion is employed for investigating theoretically the initiation of brittle fracture in the DCDC specimen under mixed mode conditions. It is shown that the T-stress has a significant influence on the predicted fracture load and the crack initiation angle. The theoretical results suggest that brittle fracture in the DCDC specimen is controlled by a combination of the singular stresses (characterized by K_I and K_II) and the non-singular stress term, T-stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]