Investigation by Digital Image Correlation of Mixed Mode I and II Fracture Behavior of Metallic IASCB Specimens with Additive Manufactured Crack-Like Notch

This work investigates the fracture behavior of maraging steel specimens manufactured by the selective laser sintering (SLS) technology, in which a crack-like notch (sharp notch) was directly produced during the additive manufacturing (AM) process. For the evaluation of the fracture toughness, the inclined asymmetrical semi-circular specimen subjected to three points loading (IASCB) was used, allowing to cover a wide variety of Mode I and II combinations. The effectiveness of manufacturing crack-like notches via the SLS technique in metals was evaluated by comparing the obtained experimental results with the ones obtained with pre-cracks induced by fatigue loading. The investigation was carried out by using the digital image correlation (DIC) technique, that allowed the evaluation of the full displacement fields around the crack tip. The displacement field was then used to compute the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for various combinations of Mode I and II, via a fitting technique which relies on the Williams’ model for the displacement. The SIFs obtained in this way were compared to the results obtained with the conventional critical load method. The results showed that the discrepancy between the two methods reduces by ranging from Mode I to Mode II loading condition. Finally, the experimental SIFs obtained by the two methods were described by the mixed mode local stress criterium.