Essential work of fracture: Simulating the toughness response of deeply double-edge notched specimens

The essential work of fracture technique although straightforward, is time and material demanding. A non-linear logarithmic function was proposed for the simulation of the force-elongation behaviour of the deeply double edge- notched specimens used in the experimental procedure for the essential work of fracture technique. A variety of blends of polyolefin based matrices wi th different rubber types, and also kaolin particles were used to validate the proposed function. The empirical function used for the simulation gave satisfactory results over a range of crack sizes.