Determination of the fracture toughness in thin-walled aluminum shells

Determination of the fracture toughness in thin-walled aluminum shells

In this paper a simple tensile test has been proposed to determine the fracture toughness for Aluminium thin-walled shells. In this regard, large specimens with central cracks have been designed and tested. The results show that the fracture toughness of the thin-walled shells can be measured by this method. To simplifity the test method and decrease the cost of the tests, some simple and smaller test specimens with double-notched cracks have been proposed. After testing of the small specimens and data analysis, finally a simple method have been developed to measure the stress intensity factor of the thin walled shells using the results of small specimens. Results show that by performing simple te