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Determination of the Fracture Toughness of Glasses via Scratch Tests with a Vickers Indenter

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Abstract

Fracture toughness is an important index in safety evaluation for materials and structures. Its convenient and accurate characterization has attracted extensive attention. For small specimens, traditional testing methods of fracture toughness are not suitable due to limitations in sample size and shape. In this work, a new formula is proposed to determine the fracture toughness of glasses using scratch tests with a Vickers indenter based on dimensional analysis and finite element analysis. Fracture toughness of glasses could be calculated with elastic modulus, crack depth of scratched materials and normal force applied during the scratch tests. The effects of plastic deformation and interfacial friction between the Vickers indenter and scratched materials are considered, and the crack shape is consistent with experimental observations. The proposed formula is verified by comparing the fracture toughness of soda-lime and borosilicate glasses obtained from scratch tests with those obtained via indentation tests. This work provides an alternative method to determine the fracture toughness of glass materials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12072324 and U1804254) and Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province for Excellent Young Scholars (212300410087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanics and Safety Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Haitao Liu, Jianwei Zhang & Minghao Zhao

  2. School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Jianwei Zhang & Minghao Zhao

  3. Henan Key Engineering Laboratory for Anti-fatigue Manufacturing Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Minghao Zhao

  4. School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, 6845, Western Australia, Australia

    Chunsheng Lu

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  1. Haitao Liu
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Correspondence to Jianwei Zhang or Minghao Zhao.

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Liu, H., Zhang, J., Zhao, M. et al. Determination of the Fracture Toughness of Glasses via Scratch Tests with a Vickers Indenter. Acta Mech. Solida Sin. 35, 129–138 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10338-021-00264-6

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