THE IMPLICATIONS OF IMPOSING THE ANDERSON AND DODDS SIZE REQUIREMENT IN FRACTURE-TOUGHNESS TESTING PROCEDURES

Anderson and Dodds have recently introduced a test specimen size requi rement in the transition regime which they suggest must be satisfied f or the cleavage fracture resistance to be size independent. This paper assesses the implications of imposing the size requirement in fractur e toughness testing standards. It is shown that imposing the size requ irement can lead to a size dependence in fracture toughness data. This observation raises the general question of whether even existing size requirements for the lower shelf and upper shelf regimes are capable of giving size independent data.