Assessment of fracture toughness of cemented carbides by using a shallow notch produced by ultrashort pulsed laser ablation, and a comparative study with tests employing precracked specimens

The use of fracture mechanics for rationalizing the fracture behavior of cemented carbides is valid, as far as sharp cracks, free of residual stresses and subjected to a well-defined stress state are used for assessing fracture toughness. However, machining a very sharp notch on the surface of hardm...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Ortiz Membrado, Laia|||0000-0001-9646-3226, Jiménez Piqué, Emilio|||0000-0002-6950-611X, Moreno Pedraz, Pablo, Llanes Pitarch, Luis Miguel|||0000-0003-1054-1073
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2022
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositório:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/379416
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/379416
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2022.105949
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Fracture mechanics
Fracture toughness
Ultrashort pulsed laser ablation
Surface “through-thickness” micronotches
Cemented carbides
Mecànica de fractura
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria dels materials
Descrição
Resumo:The use of fracture mechanics for rationalizing the fracture behavior of cemented carbides is valid, as far as sharp cracks, free of residual stresses and subjected to a well-defined stress state are used for assessing fracture toughness. However, machining a very sharp notch on the surface of hardmetals for fracture toughness testing has been a critical issue during many years. Within this context, introduction of surface “through-thickness” micronotches (SEµVNB) by means of ultrashort pulsed laser ablation (UPLA) is here proposed, implemented and analyzed as an innovative precracking-like route within flexural testing procedures for appropiated evaluation of fracture toughness of cemented carbides. UPLA parameters used for introducing the micronotch are optimized in terms of induced damage ahead of the notch tip. For comparison purposes, fracture toughness is also determined by means of flexural testing of previously cracked single-edge notch beams (SENB-Cracked) as well as specimens with V-notch tips sharpened through diamond polishing using a razor blade, and Palmqvist indentation microfracture method. The satisfactory agreement found between values measured using UPLA-micronotched and SENB-Cracked (reference) specimens allows to conclude that flexural testing of SEµVNB samples is a valid methodology for reliable determination of fracture toughness of hardmetals. This is feasible because of the extremely short time of laser-matter interaction. It yields small and somehow controlled damage in front of the notch tip as a result of shock wave propagation during ablation, which translates into effective precracking of SEµVNB specimens. Previous article in issue