Quasistatic cracking of polymers with residual stresses

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Abstract
Residual stresses are often introduced during manufacturing processes of polymeric components whose structural capabilities must be adequately evaluated in design of engineering components against brittle fracture. As the applications of these materials expand, the need to understand their behavior with residual stresses becomes more necessary. This paper presents a compliance method of analysis which enables the measurement of fracture toughness of thermoplastics with residual stresses and illustrates the effect of residual stresses on quasistatic cracking of these materials. Polymethylmethacrylate was chosen as a typical material for the investigation. Theoretical analysis has shown that effective fracture toughness and residual strain energy can be readily evaluated with the compliance approach. Experiments were carried out to mechanically simulate a set of known residual stresses in polymethylmethacrylate specimens. Results measured experimentally compared well with those derived analytically.

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