A recoverable plate impact testing technology has been developed for studying
fracture mechanisms of mode II crack. With this technology, a single duration
stress pulse with submicrosecond duration and high loading rates, up to
MPa ms,
can be produced. Dynamic failure tests of Hard-C
steel
were carried out under asymmetrical impacting conditions with short stress-pulse
loading. Experimental results show that the nucleation and growth of several
microcracks ahead of the crack tip, and the interactions between them, induce
unsteady crack growth. Failure mode transitions during crack growth, both from
mode I crack to mode II and from brittle to ductile fracture, were observed. Based on
experimental observations, a discontinuous crack growth model was established.
Analysis of the crack growth mechanisms using our model shows that the shear crack
extension is unsteady when the extending speed is between the Rayleigh wave speed
and the shear
wave speed
.
However, when the crack advancing speed is beyond
,
the crack grows at a steady intersonic speed approaching
. It
also shows that the transient mechanisms, such as nucleation, growth, interaction and
coalescence among microcracks, make the main crack speed jump from subsonic to
intersonic and the steady growth of all the subcracks causes the main crack to grow
at a stable intersonic speed.