Optical interferometric study on deformation and fracture based on physical mesomechanics

International audienceThis paper discusses an optical band pattern that we recently discovered in an optical interferometric tensile analysis. The most important feature of this band pattern is that it indicates whether the sample is close to failure and where the failure will occur. Previous investigations indicate that this band pattern represents stress concentration and is somehow related to fracture mechanism. The purpose of this paper is to analyze various characteristics of this band pattern in light of physical mesomechanics, and discuss its relationship to fracture mechanism. It will be shown that the formation of this band pattern is essentially related to material fracture and that the related observations are well explained by the mesomechanical picture of fracture mechanism