Measuring Nanoscale Stress Intensity Factors with an Atomic Force Microscope

Kun Han (1) , Matteo Ciccotti (2) , Stéphane Roux (1)

1 LMT - Laboratoire de Mécanique et Technologie
2 LCVN - Laboratoire des colloïdes, verres et nanomatériaux

Atomic Force Microscope images of a crack intersecting the free surface of a glass specimen are taken at different stages of subcritical propagation. From the analysis of image pairs, it is shown that a novel Integrated Digital Image Correlation technique allows to measure stress intensity factors in a quantitative fashion. Image sizes as small as 200 nm can be exploited and the surface displacement fields do not show significant deviations from linear elastic solutions down to a 10 nm distance from the crack tip. Moreover, this analysis gives access to the out-of-plane displacement of the free surface at the crack tip.

Mots clés: Atomic Force Microscopy; Digital Image Correlation; Stress Intensity Factor; Fracture; Glass

Domaines: Mécanique des solides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des solides [physics.class-ph]

Kun Han, Matteo Ciccotti, Stéphane Roux. Measuring Nanoscale Stress Intensity Factors with an Atomic Force Microscope. 2010. ⟨hal-00454092⟩