Fracture Toughness Testing

Element delivers a wide range of fracture toughness and fracture mechanics testing services to help you estimate the life of your components, reduce costly repairs, improve designs, and prolong a component’s life expectancy.

Fracture toughness testing is a mechanical test method used to determine the energy needed to initiate and cause failure within a material. It can also be used in conjunction with fatigue testing, corrosion testing, and elevated temperatures to determine the useful life of the material under different conditions. 

Our fracture toughness testing services

Using advanced techniques and equipment, our experts provide valuable insight into material performance, helping you make critical determinations about the safety, fitness, and longevity of metallic, non-metallic, and advanced materials. As a single-source provider of fracture mechanics and mechanical testing, we can assist in creating a testing program that gives you confidence in your products and materials. 

Our services include characterizing fracture toughness through single point critical values (CTOD, J integral, and K) as well as tearing resistance diagrams (J-R and CTOD-R curves), following the international standards including BS 8571, ISO 12135, ASTM E1820, ASTM E1921.

Specimen geometries 

Element is well equipped to perform fracture toughness testing and analysis on a vast range of specimen size and crack geometries, including but not limited to: 

• Compact Tension (CT)
• Middle Tension (MT)
• Single-Edge Notched Tension (SENT)
• Single-Edge Notched Bend (SENB or three-point bend)
• Extended Compact Tension (ECT)
• Centre Cracked Tension (CCT)
• Surface Cracked Tension (SCT)
• Composite Materials under modes I, II and III loading

Materials class and fracture mechanics test capabilities 

Our fracture mechanics experts test high-strength ferrous, nonferrous, polymer, and composite materials using advanced computer-controlled servo-hydraulic test frames. Coupled with decades of experience and many successful applications, our advanced equipment control, processes, and data acquisition methods allow us to guide you on even the most complex test results. 

There is also the possibility to create a custom fracture testing analysis and accommodate any request for non-standard fracture mechanics testing protocol for your specific application or environment.

The Element advantage

Our Engaged Experts provide valuable insight into material performance, helping manufacturers make critical determinations about the safety, fitness, and longevity of metallic, nonmetallic, and advanced materials. As a single-source provider of mechanical testing services, we can assist in creating a testing program that gives you confidence in your products and materials.

We perform fracture analysis for a wide range of industries, from Transportation, Aerospace, and Defense suppliers to Oil and Gas, Power Generation, and Infrastructure.

For more information about fracture toughness testing, or to receive a quote, contact an expert today.