Constraint corrected fracture mechanics in structural integrity assessment

Specimen size, crack depth and loading conditions may affect the materials fracture toughness. In order to safeguard against these geometry effects, fracture toughness testing standards prescribe the use of highly constrained deep cracked bend specimens having a sufficient size to guarantee conservative fracture toughness values. One of the more advanced testing standards, for brittle fracture, is the Master Curve standard ASTM E1921, which is based on technology developed at VTT Industrial Systems. When applied to a structure with low constraint geometry, the standard fracture toughness estimates may lead to strongly over-conservative estimate of structural performance. In some cases this may lead to unnecessary repairs or even to an early "retirement" of the structure. In the case of brittle fracture, essentially three different methods to quantify constraint have been proposed, J-small scale yielding correction (SSYC), Q-parameter and the Tstress