DEM investigation on fracture mechanism of the CCNSCB specimen under intermediate dynamic loading

The cracked chevron notched semi-circular bending (CCNSCB) method falls into a significant testing category of chevron notched specimens for measuring the mode I fracture toughness, of which the progressive fracture mechanism deserves to be further assessed under intermediate dynamic loading rate (IDLR). In this study, the discrete element method (DEM) is adopted to depict the three-dimensional fracture processes of the CCNSCB specimens subjected to different IDLRs considering different supporting spans. The results demonstrate that the crack front of the CCNSCB specimen with any loading condition is prominently curved, which violates the straight-through crack propagation assumption and may induce some errors in the fracture toughness measurements. For each IDLR, the peak force of the CCNSCB specimen evidently increases with decreased supporting span, and the effect of loading rate on this parameter is more prominent for a smaller supporting span. For a relatively large span, the crack grows restrictively in the notched ligament, which conforms to the ideal assumption of the fracture process and contributes to an accurate measurement of the mode I fracture toughness. Thus, a large supporting span is suggested for the semi-circular bend tests. Additionally, the critical crack length and peak force are found dependent on the loading rate, and they are larger for the higher loading rate. Thus, the critical crack length determined under quasi-static conditions is not strictly suitable for the specimens under different IDLRs, especially for the much higher IDLR. This study calls for more attention on how to accurately determine the fracture toughness via chevron notched samples.