Sub-minute In Situ Fracture Test in a Laboratory CT Scanner

The present study aims at demonstrating the feasibility of performing a fracture test in less than 1 min in a laboratory CT scanner despite the severe time constraints of tomography acquisition. After introducing the basic concepts of projection-based digital volume correlation, the specific implementation of this methodology to a wedge splitting test on a refractory material is presented. The kinematics of the test is described over a mesh tailored to the sample geometry, and the elastic behavior of the sample is exploited through finite element computations to provide sensitivity fields of experimental boundary conditions to allow for their “measurements.” Enhancing the simulation to account for crack advance with extended finite element analyses allows the sensitivity of the procedure to the crack position to be assessed. A confidence interval for the refractory toughness is finally obtained.