Measurement of Fracture Parameters for a Mixed-Mode Crack Driven by Stress Waves using Image Correlation Technique and High-Speed Digital Photography Measurement of Fracture Parameters for a Mixed-Mode Crack Driven by Stress Waves using Image Correlation Technique and High-Speed Digital Photography M. S. Kirugulige* and H. V. Tippur † *The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 142 Goodyear Blvd, Akron, OH 44305, USA † Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA ABSTRACT: Measurement of fracture parameters for a rapidly growing crack in syntactic foam sheets using image correlation technique and high-speed photography is presented. The perfor- mance of a rotating mirror-type multi-channel high-speed digital camera to measure transient deformations is assessed by conducting benchmark tests on image intensity variability, rigid trans- lation and rigid rotation. Edge-cracked foam samples are subjected to eccentric impact loading relative to the initial crack plane to produce mixed-mode loading conditions in a three-point bend configuration. High-speed photography is used to record decorated random speckles in the vicinity of the crack tip at a rate of 200 000 frames per second. Two sets of images are recorded, the first set before impact and the second after impact. Using image correlation methodology, crack-tip displacement field histories and dominant strains from the time of impact up to complete fracture are mapped. Over-deterministic least-squares analyses of crack-tip radial and tangential displace- ments are used to obtain mixed-mode fracture parameters. The measurements are compared with complementary finite element results. The fracture parameters determined from radial displace- ments seem more robust even when fewer number of higher order terms in the crack-tip asymptotic expansion are used. KEY WORDS: DIC, dynamic crack growth, high-speed imaging, mixed-mode SIF, optical metrology, stress wave loading Introduction The mixed-mode dynamic fracture behaviour of syntactic foams is examined in this study. Syntactic foams are lightweight structural materials manufac- tured by dispersing prefabricated hollow micro- balloons in a matrix. These materials also display superior thermal, dielectric, fire-resistant, hygro- scopic properties and sometimes radar or sonar transparency. They can also be tailored to suit a particular application by selecting microballoons made of glass, carbon or polymer to be used with different matrix materials (metal, polymer or cera- mic). Although syntactic foams were initially devel- oped for deep-sea applications, in recent years they have found a variety of applications such as buoy- ancy modules for boat hulls, parts of helicopters and airplanes, structural components of antenna assem- blies, thermal insulators in oil and gas industries, core materials in impact-resistant sandwich struc- tures, to name a few. The ability to absorb impact energy and vibrations makes them ideal candidates for packaging applications and protective enclosures. Although more suitable for compression-dominated applications, structural components made of syntac- tic foams often undergo a combined loading includ- ing shock, resulting in tensile or shear failures. Hence studying the mixed-mode fracture response under stress wave-dominant conditions is critical for this material. Choices in terms of experimental techniques for measuring real-time surface deformations/stresses in a dynamic failure event such as fracture initiation and propagation are somewhat limited. Dynamic photoelasticity [1–3], coherent gradient sensing [4–7] and moiré interferometry [8] have emerged over the years as full-field techniques suitable for investigating highly transient events such as crack initiation and propagation in solids. Interferometric techniques, however, involve elaborate surface preparation [transferring of gratings in case of moiré interferom- etry and preparing a specularly reflective surface in 108 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 case of coherent gradient sensing (CGS), birefringent coatings in reflection photoelasticity, etc.]. For cel- lular materials (syntactic foams, polymer metal foams, cellulosic materials, etc.) such surface prepa- rations are challenging and in some cases may not be feasible. In those instances, digital image correlation could be a useful tool because of its relative simplic- ity. It involves a rather simple surface preparation method of decorating the surface with random spec- kles using alternate mists of black and white paint. Recent advances in image processing and ubiquitous computational capabilities have made it possible to apply this technique to a variety of engineering applications including mixed-mode crack growth studies under static loading conditions [9, 10]. With the advent of high-speed digital cameras in recent years, recording rates as high as several million frames per second at a relatively high spatial resolu- tion have become possible. This has made image correlation techniques feasible for estimating surface displacements and strains to assess fracture/damage parameters. In this study, the digital image correla- tion technique is extended for the first time to mixed-mode dynamic fracture studies for estimating stress intensity factors (SIF) of stationary and propa- gating cracks in edge-cracked syntactic foam sheets subjected to stress wave loading. A rotating mirror- type high-speed digital camera is used to record random speckles in the vicinity of the crack tip. The entire crack-tip deformation and dominant strain history from the time of impact to complete fracture is mapped. Over-deterministic least-squares analyses of crack-tip displacement fields are performed to obtain dynamic SIF histories for both pre- and post- crack initiation periods. The SIF histories obtained from the image correlation method are compared with those obtained from finite element computa- tions. The Approach In this study, random speckle patterns on the speci- men surface were monitored during a dynamic mixed-mode fracture event. Two sets of these pat- terns, the first set before and the second set after deformation, were acquired, digitised and stored. Then a sub-image in an undeformed image was chosen and its location in the corresponding deformed image was sought (see Figure 1). Once the location was identified, the local displacements were quantified. In this study, a three-step approach was used in a MATLABTM [11] environment to estimate in-plane surface displacements and strains. In the following only a brief description of all the steps involved is provided, and details can be found in Ref. [12, 13]. In the first step, a 2D cross-correlation coefficient was computed to obtain initial estimates of full-field planar displacements. The peak of the correlation function was detected to sub-pixel accuracy (1/16th of a pixel) using bicubic interpolation. This process was repeated for the entire image to get full-field in-plane displacements. Further details about this method can be found in Ref. [14]. In the second step, an iterative technique based on nonlinear least- squares minimisation was implemented to estimate displacements and their gradients by using displace- ments obtained in the first step as initial guess values. The Newton–Raphson method, which uses line search and the BFGS (Broyden, Fletcher, Goldfarb and Shanno) algorithm to update an inverse Hessian matrix, was employed. Such an approach was dem- onstrated first by Sutton et al. [15] to measure dis- placements from speckle images. The displacement gradients obtained during the second step represent average values for each subset and tend to be noisy. Therefore, it was necessary to use smoothing algo- rithms in order to get a continuous displacement field (u,v) and then to extract strain values. It should be noted here that crack-opening displacements are discontinuous across the crack. Generic smoothing methods smooth displacements across the crack faces and hence interpretation of deformations near the crack tip tends to be inaccurate. Therefore a smoothing method which allows discontinuity of crack-opening displacements across the crack faces was introduced. A regularised restoration filter [16] with a second-order fit was employed for this Figure 1: Undeformed and deformed sub-images chosen from images before and after deformation respectively � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 109 M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur : Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack purpose. Details are again avoided here for brevity and can be found in Ref. [12]. Experimental Setup A schematic of the experimental setup used in this study is shown in Figure 2. The setup included an Instron-Dynatup 9250-HV (Instron, Norwood, MA, USA) drop tower for impact loading the specimen and a Cordin 550 ultrahigh-speed digital camera (Cordin Scientific Imaging, Salt Lake City, UT, USA) for recording images in real time. The drop tower had an instrumented tup for recording the impact force history and a pair of anvils for recording support reaction histories separately. The setup also had a delay/pulse generator to produce a trigger pulse when the impactor tup contacted the specimen. As all images were recorded during the dynamic event, lasting over a hundred microseconds, the setup used two high-energy flash lamps, triggered by the camera, to illuminate the specimen. The setup also utilised two computers, one to record the tup force and anvil reaction histories (5 MHz acquisition rate) and the other to record the images. Camera Performance Evaluation High-speed digital recording devices are broadly classified into two types based on the sensors they use. They are Complementary Metal Oxide Semi- conductor (CMOS) and Charged Coupled Device (CCD) sensor-based digital cameras. The former can record images at moderate rates (typically less than 10 000 frames per second at full resolution), whereas the latter can reach rates of 100 million frames per second. These ultrahigh-speed CCD cameras contain multiple sensors triggered electronically to achieve higher framing rates. They can be further classified into two types based on how the individual CCD sensors receive light from an objective lens. The first type uses stationary optical elements (beam splitters, lenses, etc.) with photomultiplier tubes (PMT) to amplify the light signal. In the second, however, a high-speed rotating mirror is used to distribute light to individual sensors by sweeping the image over them. It should be noted here that both the above types of CCD cameras introduce geometrical distor- tions/misalignments between successive images. The accuracy and repeatability of displacements mea- sured from these using the image correlation ap- proach outlined earlier are directly affected by optical misalignments. In the intensified CCD-type camera with PMT devices, image distortions arise because of two reasons: (i) different optical paths in the image formation process and (ii) random noise involved in multiplying photons by image intensifiers and fibre optic bundles. In the rotating mirror-type camera system, the distortions are limited to different optical paths for individual CCD sensors. In view of this, and despite relatively lower recording rates compared with the former type, good accuracy and repeatability are possible. Details about distortions in high-speed cameras and their corrections as related to image correlation are discussed in Ref. [17]. The high-speed camera system adopted in this study uses a combination of CCD-based imaging technology and high-speed rotating mirror optical system. It is capable of imaging rates of up to 2 million frames per second at a resolution of 1000 · 1000 pixels per image. It has 32 independent CCD image sensors positioned radially around a rotating mirror which sweeps light over these sensors (Figure 3). Each Figure 2: Schematic of the dynamic experimental setup 110 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack : M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur sensor is illuminated by a separate optical relay. Thus small misalignments and light intensity and optical focus variations between images are unavoidable. Hence, meaningful results pertaining to small defor- mations cannot be obtained by correlating images from two successive/different CCD sensors. However, the above artefacts are negligible, if not entirely ab- sent, between two images if they are captured by a same CCD sensor at two different time instants. This enables digital image correlation method for quanti- fying surface deformations. Accordingly, the follow- ing approach was adopted in this study. Prior to impact-loading the specimen, a set of 32 images of surface speckles were recorded at the desired framing rate (200,000 frames per second in this study). While keeping all the camera settings (CCD gain, flash lamp duration, framing rate, trigger delay, etc.) same, the next set of images, this time triggered by the impact event, was captured. Thereby each image in the deformed set had a corresponding image in the undeformed set. That is, if an image in the deformed set was recorded for example by sensor no. 10, then the image recorded by the same sensor (no. 10) in the undeformed set was chosen for per- forming image correlation operations. By adopting this method, the optical path was maintained the same for the two images under consideration and the only source of error now was the CCD noise (in the range of 4 to 6 grey levels in an 8-bit (256 grey levels) intensity image to be discussed next). It is worth noting that in order to get meaningful results it is essential that extraneous camera move- ments do not occur while recording a set of images and during the time interval between the two sets of images. This was achieved rather easily by triggering the camera electronically and anchoring the camera mechanically. In view of the above-mentioned distortions/mis- alignments, it was important to assess the camera performance to measure transient deformations in a dynamic test. Therefore a few benchmark tests – image intensity variability test, translation and rotation tests – were first conducted. Image intensity variability test In this study, 8-bit (0 to 255 levels) grey-scale images were captured and analysed to estimate CCD noise levels. The noise in an acquired image was dependent on the value of CCD gain that can be pre-set on a 0–1000 scale. For all the experiments reported in this paper, the gain was set in the range of 500 to 550. A value of more than 700 was the upper limit as it resulted in saturation of a few pixels in the acquired images and hence was avoided. For evaluation pur- poses, two sets of 32 images were acquired at framing rates of 200 000 and 50 000 frames per second in total darkness (with the lens cover to prevent light transmission into the camera cavity). All the images in these two sets had their pixels representing the grey-scale values in the range 0 to 8. Hence, the lower 3 bits in an 8-bit image represents CCD noise and the intensity represented by the remaining 5 bits can be faithfully measured. Figure 4 shows mean and stan- dard deviations of intensity values of all pixels (1 million pixels in a 1000 · 1000 pixel image) of the images captured in darkness. It can be seen from this figure that all the images have their mean intensity values in the range 6 to 8 with a very narrow spread (standard deviation in the range 2 to 4). As mentioned earlier, in the current study, tran- sient deformations were estimated by performing image correlation between two images acquired from the same CCD sensor, one before and another after impact. Therefore it is important to know intensity variations between the two images taken by the same CCD sensor at different instants of time. To this end, five sets of 32 images of a stationary sample, Figure 3: Optical schematic of cordin-550 camera: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 are mirrors; R1 and R2 are relay lenses; r1, r2, …, r32 are relay lenses for CCDs; c1, c2, …, c32 are CCD sensors � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 111 M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur : Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack decorated with a random speckle pattern, were ac- quired at 200 000 frames per second. The grey-scale values at a few randomly chosen pixels were stored (same set of pixels were chosen from all the images). The intensity value at a particular pixel from all the five images acquired by the same CCD sensor was examined. This is listed in Table 1 for all the 32 CCD sensors. As expected, a significant difference in intensity value at a pixel exists between images ac- quired by different CCD sensors. More importantly, however, a very small variation exists in the grey- scale value at that pixel for images acquired by the same CCD sensor. The standard deviations are in the range of 2 to 6 grey levels for most sensors (appar- ently this is in the same range as the mean values observed for the images recorded in total darkness; see Figure 4). This demonstrates that between an undeformed and a deformed image recorded during an actual experiment, there would be no light intensity variation apart from random CCD noise. This is a subtle point but an important aspect of the high-speed camera system used here which makes it possible to perform image correlation between two Camera number 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 G ra y sc a le v a lu e 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Experiment 1 (mean) Experiment 2 (mean) Experiment 1 (std) Experiment 2 (std) Figure 4: Mean and standard deviations of intensity values of images recorded in total darkness. Images were recorded at 50 000 frames per second in experiment 1 and at 200 000 frames per second in experiment 2 Table 1: Grey-scale values at a particular pixel in five repeated sets of images of speckle pattern acquired at 200 000 frames per second Camera no. Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Mean SD 0 121 116 123 120 122 120.4 2.70 1 106 102 104 108 102 104.4 2.61 2 119 120 125 116 120 120 3.24 3 93 95 111 109 102 102 8.06 4 122 125 126 116 120 121.8 4.02 5 97 102 106 105 105 103 3.67 6 106 97 108 112 103 105.2 5.63 7 79 80 74 82 74 77.8 3.63 8 84 81 84 89 84 84.4 2.88 9 123 118 128 129 129 125.4 4.83 10 111 105 110 114 116 111.2 4.21 11 118 112 111 110 117 113.6 3.65 12 82 88 76 82 82 82 4.24 13 117 115 115 114 117 115.6 1.34 14 88 98 93 87 93 91.8 4.44 15 94 96 93 92 91 93.2 1.92 16 77 73 73 77 72 74.4 2.41 17 63 60 59 65 63 62 2.45 18 97 93 92 93 98 94.6 2.70 19 76 66 71 72 72 71.4 3.58 20 69 70 60 71 67 67.4 4.39 21 87 86 93 95 85 89.2 4.49 22 114 109 113 115 110 112.2 2.59 23 82 80 79 82 76 79.8 2.49 24 92 89 93 96 84 90.8 4.55 25 124 119 120 130 122 123 4.36 26 122 120 126 117 123 121.6 3.36 27 78 83 86 79 78 80.8 3.56 28 76 74 73 77 70 74 2.74 29 95 93 92 91 96 93.4 2.07 30 73 71 70 71 69 70.8 1.48 31 95 91 95 96 88 93 3.39 Note the consistency in grey-scale values of a camera no. (each row). Between different camera numbers, however, grey-scale variations are anticipated. 112 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack : M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur images acquired from the same CCD sensor and estimate displacements. In Figure 5, a typical histogram of an image (camera no. 09) is shown to demonstrate the quality of speckles based on the CCD gain settings used during experiments. As discussed earlier in this section, lighting and CCD gains were so adjusted that the intensity levels were in the mid-range of grey scales between 0 and 255. An approximately normal distri- bution of intensity in the histogram plot shows the quality of random speckles in these images. (The smaller peak in the histogram near zero grey level is due to the crack where the pixels were relatively dark.) Translation test In these experiments, a specimen [decorated with a random black/white (b/w) speckle pattern] was mounted on a 3D-translation stage. A series of known displacements were imposed in the X- and Y-direc- tions separately and images captured. The mean and standard deviations of the displacement fields were computed and compared with the applied values. Moreover, an out-of-plane (Z-direction) displacement of 30 lm1 was applied to the sample and a set of images were captured. Specific details about this test as well as the discussion of the results are reported in Ref. [12] and are avoided here for brevity. The results obtained experimentally match very well with the imposed values. It is instructive to study in-plane strain fields esti- mated from the measured displacements in these translation tests. To this end, the displacement field was smoothed by the restoration method [12] and strains were obtained by numerical differentiation. The mean and standard deviations of exx and eyy strains thus obtained are presented for the two tests in Table 2. These tests correspond to the X- and Y- translations of 60 ± 2 and 300 ± 2 lm. The applied displacement being a rigid translation, ideally zero strains are expected for all the images. However, numerical differentiation of noisy displacement data produces non-zero strains. The mean values of strains thus obtained are in the range of approximately 0 to ±300 le in both the experiments. The standard devi- ations of strains are in the range 0 to 300 le for various individual cameras. Interestingly, the mean and standard deviations remain unaffected by the amount of imposed translation. The implication of these in an actual experiment is that a relatively large rigid-body motion can be accommodated without sacrificing accuracy in the measured displacements and strains. Rotation test The objectives of the rotation test were: (a) to esti- mate the accuracy with which a pure rotation can be measured using this camera system; (b) to compare the performance of different individual cameras when they were used to measure the same applied rotation; and (c) to examine whether the applied rigid rotation produces any spurious strains. In the rotation test, a specimen decorated with random b/w speckle pattern was mounted on a rotation stage. Two sets of 32 images were recorded at 200 000 frames per second, one set before and another after imposing a rotation of 0.32 ± 0.02�. The full-field displacements between these two sets of images were computed. The sub-image size used in the analysis was 30 · 30 pixels so that displacements were avail- able after computations on a 32 · 32 (¼1024) grid of points. These displacements were smoothed by the restoration method explained in Ref. [12]. The cross derivatives ¶u/¶Y and ¶v/¶X were computed by numerical differentiation of displacement compo- nents and rotation xXY was then computed as, xXY ¼ 1 2 @u @Y � @v @X � � : (1) Figure 6 shows a plot of full-field xXY from a pair of images. The estimated values are close to the applied 0 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10 000 12 000 14 000 50 100 150 Gray level 200 250 Figure 5: Histogram depicting pixel-level intensities (grey levels) of a decorated black/white speckle image acquired by a 1000 · 1000 CCD sensor. The vertical axis denotes the number of pixels 1 This is typically the amount of out-of-plane displacement that occurs in the vicinity of a crack tip in an experiment conducted in this work. For example, in Ref. [14] one can see roughly 7–9 fringes near the crack tip over a distance of �10 mm. Since these fringes represent surface slopes and the resolution of the CGS set-up is �0.015�/fringe, one can estimate the out-of-plane displacement around the crack tip to be �23 lm. � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 113 M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur : Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack value of rotation everywhere in the image except near the boundaries, particularly the corners. The deviations at the boundaries are expected because errors in derivatives of displacements (strains and rotations) get magnified near the boundaries because of the so-called edge effects. Then, the mean and standard deviations of xXY were computed for each image (while computing these quantities for a 32 · 32 matrix, three rows and three columns of data points were excluded near the edge of the image because of the presence of errors at these points). Figure 7 shows the mean and standard deviations of rotations and strains from this test. It can be seen from Figure 7A,C that an applied rotation of 0.0056 ± 0.00035 rad is measured by all individual cameras within an error band of �0.0005 rad (�10% Table 2: Mean and standard deviations of in-plane strain fields estimated from measured displacements in translation tests Camera no. Xtrans ¼ 60 ± 2 lm, Ytrans ¼ 60 ± 2 lm Xtrans ¼ 300 ± 2 lm, Ytrans ¼ 300 ± 2 lm exx (le) eyy (le) exx(le) eyy(le) Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD 0 )21 203 260 217 1 209 2 229 1 )65 89 191 259 )35 241 15 245 2 )200 93 125 200 1 249 79 254 3 )210 140 30 209 14 341 106 231 4 )119 70 154 185 2 250 )10 241 5 )84 103 54 102 )52 168 11 336 6 )68 147 68 125 )179 159 52 254 7 )130 186 27 134 )66 196 85 278 8 0 95 100 157 )20 211 79 196 9 )44 118 72 154 11 220 117 206 10 )28 112 107 159 )1 215 45 237 11 )2 121 52 204 )2 219 84 214 12 )15 128 125 203 )42 201 )5 215 13 )8 141 37 285 )14 193 79 196 14 11 135 73 211 )51 236 4 202 15 11 85 15 315 )17 217 102 59 16 )7 103 169 308 )76 247 51 92 17 )15 113 4 319 )8 239 17 169 18 56 165 60 259 7 222 88 244 19 )8 126 192 215 )3 242 )33 243 20 32 117 89 242 )70 215 22 249 21 15 105 189 148 )17 288 55 235 22 28 150 196 167 )40 246 )34 248 23 5 162 176 142 )25 211 62 254 24 )171 108 42 217 15 224 137 312 25 )153 100 42 167 43 231 )5 287 26 )94 133 26 218 )59 230 4 188 27 )161 124 )24 197 )19 219 23 321 28 )134 92 162 127 11 237 93 249 29 )175 84 133 211 )16 203 )69 167 30 )93 149 )17 192 )16 195 72 220 31 )10 124 255 214 )3 201 54 222 x 10 –3 –4.8 –5.2 –5.6 ω xy ( ra d ia n s) y (mm) x (mm) –6 –6.4 30 3020 20 1010 0 0 Figure 6: Estimated in-plane rotation xXY from a pair of the images recorded by camera no. 1 114 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack : M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur error). A rigid rotation imposed to the sample should not produce any strains. Consequently, zero strains are expected from this test. The mean values of strain fields obtained are within 120 le and standard deviations are up to 300 le. Mixed-Mode Dynamic Fracture Experiment Sample preparation Edge-cracked syntactic foam samples were prepared for conducting mixed-mode dynamic fracture experiments. These samples were processed by mix- ing 25% (by volume) of hollow microballoons in a low-viscosity epoxy matrix. Room temperature cur- ing [prepared by mixing a bisphenol-A resin and an amine based hardener [supplied by Buehler Corp. as ‘Epo-Thin’ (Buehler, Lake Bluff, IL, USA)] in the ratio 100 : 38] was used for sample preparation. The microballoons used in this study were commercially available hollow glass spheres (supplied by 3M Corp.) of mean diameter of �60 lm and wall thickness �600 nm. The elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the cured material (measured ultrasonically) were 3.02 ± 0.1 GPa and 0.34 ± 0.01 respectively [18]. Before casting the epoxy resin-hardener mixture, a sharp razor blade was inserted into the mould. After the sample was cured and removed from the mould, an edge ‘crack’ was left behind in the specimen [19]. Finally, the specimen was machined into a beam of height 50 mm with a crack of 10 mm length (a/W ¼ 0.2) as shown in Figure 8A. Subsequently, a random speckle pattern was created on the specimen surface by spraying with black and white paints. Experimental procedure As the fracture event to be captured is stress wave- dominated, the total duration of recording is rela- tively short and hence the high-speed camera was synchronised with impact. The sequence of events in a typical experiment was as follows: the specimen was initially rested on two instrumented supports/ anvils. The camera was focused on a 31 · 31 mm2 region of the sample in the vicinity of the crack tip (see Figure 8A). A set of 32 pictures of the stationary sample were recorded at 200 000 frames per second and stored. Then an impactor was launched (velocity M e a n ( ra d ia n s) 0.00560 0.00565 0.00570 0.00575 0.00580 S ta n d a rd d e vi a tio n ( ra d ia n s) 0.00000 0.00002 0.00004 0.00006 0.00008 0.00010 0.00012 S tr a in ( με ) –200 –100 0 100 200 εxx εyy Camera number 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Camera number 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Camera number 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Camera number 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 S ta n d a rd d e vi a tio n ( με ) 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 ωXY ωXY (A) (B) (C) (D) εxx εyy Figure 7: Results from rotation test (applied rotation ¼ 0.0056 ± 0.00035 rad). (A) Mean and (C) standard deviation of rotation field estimated from image correlation. (B) Mean (D) standard deviation of in-plane strains estimated (ideally these strains need to be zeros) � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 115 M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur : Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack of 4.0 m s)1) towards the sample. As soon as the impactor contacted an adhesively backed copper tape affixed to the top of the specimen, a trigger signal was generated by a pulse/delay generator and was fed into the camera. The camera then sent a separate trigger signal to a pair of high-intensity flash lamps situated symmetrically with respect to the optical axis of the camera. A time delay was pre-set in the camera to capture images 85 ls after the initial impact/contact. This time delay provided sufficient time for the high-intensity flash lamps to ramp up to their full intensity levels and provide constant intensity illumination during the recording period. As the measurable deformations around the crack tip during the first 85 ls were relatively small, there was no significant loss of information because of this delay. A total of 32 images were recorded with 5 ls intervals between images, for a total duration of 160 ls. Once the experiment was complete, the re- corded images were stored in the computer. Just be- fore the impact occurred, the velocity of the tup was recorded [by the Instron Dynatup drop-tower system (Instron, Norwood, MA, USA)]. Tup force and support reaction histories were also recorded. These are shown in Figure 8B. In this plot, the multiple contacts be- tween the tup and specimen can be inferred from multiple peaks. The crack initiation in this experi- ment occurred at about 175 ls and the crack traversed across the specimen width in the next 60–70 ls. Therefore, only the first peak of the impact force history is of relevance here. As the left support was closer to the impact point compared with the right, impact force record starts earlier for the former. Moreover, it should be noted that anvils register noticeable impact force after 220 ls by which time the crack propagates through half the sample width. Thus, reactions from the two anvils play no role in the fracture of the sample up to this point. Accordingly, the sample was subsequently modelled as a free–free beam in finite element simulations. Finite element simulations Elasto-dynamic finite element simulations of the current problem were carried out up to crack initia- tion under plane stress conditions. The finite element mesh used is shown in Figure 8C along with the force boundary conditions at the impact point. Experi- mentally determined material properties (elastic modulus ¼ 3.1 GPa, Poisson’s ratio 0.34 and mass density ¼ 870 kg m)3) were used as inputs for the analysis. The numerical model was loaded using the force history recorded by the instrumented tup. [Before applying force boundary conditions, the tup force history was interpolated and smoothed for the following two reasons: (i) the time step of the tup force history measurement was larger than the one used in simulations and (ii) the force history recorded (A) (C) (B) Figure 8: (A) Specimen configuration for mixed-mode dynamic fracture experiment; (B) impactor force and support reaction histories recorded by Instron-Dynatup 9250 HV drop tower and (C) finite element mesh used for elasto-dynamic simulations 116 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack : M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur by the tup had experimental noise. Therefore smoothed cubic splines were fitted to the data before applying to the model.] The implicit time integration scheme of the Newmark b method (integration parameters b ¼ 0.25 and c ¼ 0.5 and 0.5% damping) was adopted. The details of finite element analysis can be found elsewhere [19]. The simulation results were used to obtain instantaneous SIFs up to crack initiation. The mode I and mode II SIF were calcu- lated by regression analyses of crack-opening and sliding displacements respectively. Results From each experiment 64 images were available, 32 from the undeformed set and 32 from the deformed set, each having a resolution of 1000 · 1000 pixels. Figure 9 shows four selected speckle images from the deformed set of 32 images. The time instant at which the images were recorded after impact is indicated below each image and the instantaneous crack tip is denoted by an arrow. The crack length history is plotted in Figure 10. The crack initiates at about 175 ls. Upon initiation, it rapidly accelerates and subsequently reaches a nearly steady velocity of �270 m s)1. The magnification used in this experi- ment was such that the size of one pixel was equiv- alent to 31 lm on the specimen surface. A sub-image size of 26 · 26 pixels was chosen for image correla- tion purpose. The in-plane displacements were estimated for all the 32 image-pairs and were resolved to an accuracy of 2–6% of a pixel (or 0.6–1.8 lm). The crack-opening displacement, v, and sliding displace- t = 215 ms t = 240 ms t = 170 ms t = 190 ms Figure 9: Acquired speckle images of 31 · 31 mm2 region near a mixed-mode crack at various times instants. Current crack tip location is shown by an arrow Time (ms) 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 C ra ck le n g th ( m m ) 5 10 15 20 25 30 Slope (c) ~ 270 m s–1 Figure 10: Crack growth history in syntactic foam sample under mixed-mode dynamic loading � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 117 M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur : Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack ment, u, for two sample images (one before crack initiation and the other after) are shown in Figure 11. Figure 11A,C shows v- and u- displacements at 150 ls and Figure 11B,D shows the same displacement components, respectively, at 220 ls after impact. A significant amount of rigid-body displacement can be seen in the u-field in the direction of impact (Figure 11C,D). Extraction of SIFs Both crack-opening and sliding displacement fields were used to extract dynamic SIFs in the current study. The asymptotic expressions for a dynamically loaded stationary crack are given by [20], ux ¼ XN n¼1 ðKIÞn 2l rn=2ffiffiffiffiffiffi 2p p j cos n 2 h � n 2 cos n 2 � 2 � � h n þ n 2 þð�1Þn n o cos n 2 h o þ XN n¼1 ðKIIÞn 2l rn=2ffiffiffiffiffiffi 2p p j sin n 2 h � n 2 sin n 2 � 2 � � h n þ n 2 �ð�1Þn n o sin n 2 h o ; (2) uy ¼ XN n¼1 ðKIÞn 2l rn=2ffiffiffiffiffiffi 2p p j sin n 2 h þ n 2 sin n 2 � 2 � � h n � n 2 þð�1Þn n o sin n 2 h o þ XN n¼1 ðKIIÞn 2l rn=2ffiffiffiffiffiffi 2p p �j cos n 2 h � n 2 cos n 2 � 2 � � h n þ n 2 �ð�1Þn n o cos n 2 h o ; (3) In the above equations, ux ( ” u) and uy ( ” v) are crack-sliding and opening displacements, (r,h) are crack-tip polar coordinates, j is (3)m)/(1+m) for plane stress where l and m are shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio respectively. The coefficients (KI)n and (KII)n of the leading terms (n ¼ 1) are the mode I and mode II dynamic SIF respectively. Equations (2) and (3) implicitly assume that inertial effects enter the coefficients while retaining the functional form of the quasi-static crack-tip equa- tions. However, once the crack is initiated, the asymptotic expressions for sliding and opening displacements for a steadily propagating crack (assuming transient effects are negligible) are used [21]: Figure 11: Crack-opening and sliding displacements (in lm) for pre- and post-crack initiation time instants: (A) v-displacement (uY) and (C) u-displacement (uX) before crack initiation (at t ¼ 150 ls); (B) v-displacement (uY) and (D) u-displacement (uX) after crack initiation (t ¼ 220 ls). Crack initiation time �175 ls. (A large rigid body displacement can be seen in (C) and (D); uX and uY denote displacements relative to the reference grid.) 118 � 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd j Strain (2009) 45, 108–122 Measuring a Mixed-Mode Crack : M. S. Kirugulige and H. V. Tippur ux ¼ XN n¼1 ðKIÞnBIðCÞ 2l ffiffiffi 2 p r ðn þ 1Þ r n=2 1 cos n 2 h1 � hðnÞr n=2 2 cos n 2 h2 n o þ XN n¼1 ðKIIÞnBIIðCÞ 2l ffiffiffi 2 p r ðn þ 1Þ r n=2 1 sin n 2 h1 � hð�nÞr n=2 2 sin n 2 h2 n o ; (4) uy ¼ XN n¼1 ðKIÞnBIðCÞ 2l ffiffiffi 2 p r ðn þ 1Þ �b1r n=2 1 sin n 2 h1 þ hðnÞ b2 r n=2 2 sin n 2 h2 � � þ XN n¼1 ðKIIÞnBIIðCÞ 2l ffiffiffi 2 p r ðn þ 1Þ b1r n=2 1 cos n 2 h1 þ hð�nÞ b2 r n=2 2 cos n 2 h2 � � ; (5) where rm ¼ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi X2þb2mY2 q ; hm ¼tan�1 bmY X � � m¼1;2 b1 ¼ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1� c CL � �2s ; b2 ¼ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1� c CS � �2s CL ¼ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðjþ1Þl ðj�1Þq s ; CS ¼ ffiffiffi l q r ; j¼ 3�m 1þm for plane stress hðnÞ¼ 2b1b2 1þb22 for odd n 1þb22 2 for even n 8< : and hð�nÞ¼hðnþ1Þ BIðcÞ¼ ð1þb22Þ D ; BIIðcÞ¼ 2b2 D ; D¼4b1b2�ð1þb 2 2Þ 2 : (6) Here (x,y) and (r,h) are the Cartesian and polar coor- dinates instantaneously aligned with the current crack tip, respectively (see, Figure 11B), c is crack speed, CL and CS are dilatational and shear wave speeds in the material, and l and m are shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio respectively. Again, coefficients (KI)n and (KII)n of the leading terms are the mode I and mode II dynamic SIFs respectively. For a mode I problem, uy( ” v) is the dominant in-plane displacement and is generally used for extracting mode I SIF history. However, in a mixed- mode problem, both ux and uy displacements are present. The crack-opening displacements (uy) can be viewed as those with mode I-rich information whereas crack sliding displacements (ux) with mode II-rich information. Thus, uy can be used to extract KI and ux to extract KII accurately. Alternatively, either radial (ur) or tangential (uh) displacements (computed by transforming ux and uy data) can be used to extract both KI and KII more accurately instead of using ux and uy individually. This has been vividly demon- strated by Yoneyama et al. [22] in a recent article. Accordingly, in this study both radial and tangential displacement components ur and uh were used to extract both KI and KII histories. For extracting SIF from displacement data, the current crack-tip location was identified and the Cartesian and polar coordinate systems (x)y and r)h) were established. A set of data points (usually 100 to 120) were collected in the region around the crack tip in the domain 0.3