Fracture Toughness & Fracture Mechanics 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 geometries, including but not limited to:

Compact Tension (CT)
Middle Tension (MT)
Single-Edge Notched Tension (SENT)
Single-Edge Notched Bend (SENB)
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.

fracture toughness testing

Fracture Toughness Specimens and Test Methods

Manufactured materials are not immune to experiencing cracks, flaws or defects. Our materials testing experts measure the fracture toughness of both nonferrous and high-strength ferrous materials to provide manufacturers with valuable insight into the allowable stress levels and overall durability of their product.

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More fracture mechanics testing services:

Fatigue testing
Corrosion fatigue testing
Tensile Testing
Charpy/Izod Impact Testing
Bend Testing
Shear Testing
SENT testing
SENB testing
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
Torque Testing
Ring flattening/ Flat ring testing
Nick break testing
Fillet fracture testing
Drop weight testing
Hardness testing
Compact tension (CT) testing
Centre cracked tension (CCT) testing
Surface cracked tension (SCT) testing

Fracture Toughness Testing

CTOD Testing

Crack Tip Opening Displacement, or CTOD, is a measure of the crack length or physical opening of the fatigue crack tip at the point of failure. CTOD testing measures the toughness of materials that tear before failure and provides a single value at the first sign of instability. CTOD testing typically results in one of three types of failure:

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CTOD testing typically results in one of three types of failure:

The sample fails in a brittle manner in the elastic region or shortly after the onset of deformation.
The sample fails in a brittle manner after stable tearing has started and the load is still increasing at the time of fracture.
Near failure where the sample can no longer hold the load applied and unstable tearing occurs.

Fracture Toughness Testing

Testing K1C Value

The KIC test (sometimes referred to as KIC, or K1C) is used to determine the brittle fracture toughness of metallic materials. Most often associated with ASTM E399, the Linear-Elastic Plane Strain Fracture Toughness test, or KIc value, is performed across a range of temperatures to determine design, life calculations and crack growth, or remaining life calculations. A valid KIC test ensures that the specimen fractures under nominally linear elastic conditions.

Key facts:

Mechanical Testing Aerospace Product Lifecycle

Fracture Toughness testing

Testing J1C and JR Values

J-based fracture toughness testing measures the energy released during crack extension. This method is used to evaluate materials with high toughness and low strength measurements. Much like CTOD testing, JIC or JR testing measures the instability of a material before failure, but with more focus on ductile tearing.

fracture toughness testing

T-notch Testing

Choosing the appropriate fracture toughness test method and standard is dependent on the behavior of material being evaluated. Metallic materials, like aluminum, present linear-elastic behavior. Whereas plastics, polymers and other non-metallic materials exhibit elastic-plastic behavior.

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Established industry standards recommend one of three modes of load application to accomplish crack growth or material failure.

Mode 1: load applied in the direction of crack plane
Mode 2: load applied along the length of the crack plane
Mode 3: load applied across the width of crack plane

Fracture Toughness Testing

Standards We Test To

American Petroleum Institute

API 1104, API RP 2Z

American Society for Testing & Methods

ASTM B645, ASTM B646, ASTM B909, ASTM D5045, ASTM D5528, ASTM D6671, ASTM D7905, ASTM E370, ASTM E399, ASTM E561, ASTM E1290, ASTM E1304, ASTM E1820, ASTM E1922

British Standards

BS 7448, BS 8571

Det Norske Veritas

DNV-OS-F101, DNV-RP-F108

International Standards Organization

ISO 12135, ISO 12737, ISO 15653

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Our deliverable is certainty - high quality data, test reports and certificates that you can absolutely rely on when making decisions about your materials and compliance. Engage with an expert today.

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