Issue 30

T. Voiconi et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 30(2014) 101-108; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.30.14 101 Focussed on: Fracture and Structural Integrity related Issues The notch effect on fracture of polyurethane materials T. Voiconi, R. Negru, E. Linul, L. Marsavina, H. Filipescu University Politehnica Timisoara, Romania liviu.marsavina@upt.ro A BSTRACT . This paper investigates the fracture properties and notch effect of PUR materials with four different densities. The asymmetric semi-circular bend specimen was adapted to perform mixed mode fracture toughness tests. This semi-circular specimen with radius R, which contains an edge crack of length a oriented normal to the specimen edge, loaded with a three point bending fixture, was proved to give wide range of mixed modes from pure mode I to pure mode II, only by changing the position of one support. Different types of notched specimens were considered for notch effect investigations and the Theory of Critical Distances was applied. It could be seen that the critical distances are influenced by the cellular structure of investigated materials. K EYWORDS . Polyurethane materials; Notch effect; Fracture toughness; Theory of critical distances. I NTRODUCTION olyurethane (PUR) materials are polymers composed of a chain of organic units joined by urethane links. Low density polyurethanes (30 - 200 kg/m 3 ), having closed cell foam structure, are used to manufacture flexible, high- resilience seating; rigid foam insulation panels; microcellular foam seals and gaskets, high durable elastomeric wheels and tires, automotive suspension bushings, [1]. While for higher density polyurethanes (> 200 kg/m 3 ), with a porous solid structure, the main applications are fixtures and gauges, master and copy models, draw die moulds, hard parts for electronic instruments. The properties of these materials are influenced by the properties of solid material, by the cellular structure topology and the relative density, [2, 3]. Cellular and porous materials crush in compression, while in tension fail by propagating of single crack. Most of the rigid polymeric foams have a linear – elastic behavior in tension up to fracture, and a brittle failure, [4]. Components made of cellular or porous materials may have micro-structural defects like cracks, filled cells or missing walls holes induced by manufacturing process, [5]. On the other hand macro-structural notches or holes may be introduced in design of components. The influence of notches on the strength of the structures is an important issue, which should be considered on the design stage. Up to now there are only few studies investigating notch effect on foam and porous materials mainly regarding metallic foams [6 - 8] and polymeric foams [6, 9]. The notch effect was experimentally investigated [6, 9], but also computational studies [7, 8] were performed. The Theory of Critical Distances (TCD) was proved to be an useful engineering tool to predict the failure of notched components for different types of materials [10 - 12]. This paper proposes the use of TCD approach to quantify the notch effect in cellular and porous materials. A correlation of characteristic length and inherent stress to microstructure dimensions and ultimate tensile stress of the material is proposed, which could be used in design to quantify the notch effect of cellular and porous materials. P