C. Morhain et Ji. Velasco, Determination of J-R curve of polypropylene copolymers using the normalization method, J MATER SCI, 36(6), 2001, pp. 1487-1499
In this paper the applicability of the load normalization method to determi
ne J-R curves of polypropylene copolymers (PP) is analyzed. This method all
ows the determination of resistance curves ideally from a single fracture t
est, and it is based on the load separation principle, which assumes that l
oad can be separated in two multiplicative functions, the geometry function
, G(a/W), and the deformation function, H(nu (pl)/W), which depend of the c
rack depth and the plastic displacement, respectively. The load separation
validity has been checked for two different PP copolymers (block and random
copolymers) and the load normalization method has been applied in order to
determine and analyze the resistance curves, which have been compared, as
a reference, with those obtained by the multiple specimen method. The appli
cability of the load normalization method to PP copolymers is analyzed by i
ntroducing some variations in the general procedure: Firstly, the deformati
on function is determined using either a power law fit or the so-called LMN
function. With the power law, two different fitting methods have been test
ed: the usual "6 + 1" method and a "6 + 6" method proposed here for giving
more weight to the final point of the curve. Secondly, the influence of the
material crack tip blunting has been analyzed quantifying it through diffe
rent values of the constriction factor (m) in the general expression of the
blunting line. Finally, the effect of the separable blunting region extens
ion on the J-R curve has been also analyzed by establishing different separ
able blunting zones. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.