Stress Intensity Factor K I and T-Stress Determination in HDPE Material

Abstract

For the characterization of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes according to the operating conditions, the Nol ring test is an adequate method to rapidly and inexpensively determine the mechanical properties with good effectiveness. In this work, Nol ring tests will be carried out on HDPE material with different crack depth ratios. Based on these results, the brittle fracture of HDPE will be studied and a new experimental technique for measuring stress intensity factor (SIF) and T-stress under mode I conditions is developed. The formulation of the normal strains, close to the crack tip, is given using the first five terms of the generalized Westergaard formulation. Then, in a second step, these formulations are applied to analytically determine the optimum locations for the rectangular rosette to eliminate the errors due to higher order terms of the asymptotic expansion.