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. 2024 Nov 26;16(23):3304.
doi: 10.3390/polym16233304.

Damage Investigation in PMMA Polymer: Experimental and Phase-Field Approaches

Lotfi Ben Said  1 , Hamdi Hentati  2   3 , Mondher Wali  3   4 , Badreddine Ayadi  1 , Muapper Alhadri  1
Affiliations

Damage Investigation in PMMA Polymer: Experimental and Phase-Field Approaches

Lotfi Ben Said et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

The prediction of crack patterns is one of the main tasks in the field of fracture mechanics in order to prevent the total damage of various materials, particularly Methyl Methacrylate Polymer (PMMA). The few data in the literature underscores the need for additional experiments on PMMA to analyze the performance of the phase-field approach to predict crack trajectories. The main purpose of this study is to verify the accuracy of the phase-field approach with a staggered scheme, based on spectral decomposition, for predicting crack propagation in PMMA specimens by comparing it with the experimental results presented in this work. Based on the tensile test and SEM analysis, this material exhibits brittle behavior. The numerical approach considers cracks as diffuse damage rather than sharp discontinuities, enabling a more accurate representation of brittle fracture processes. Experimental determination of material properties is used in the development of the numerical model. The main aim of these experiments is to explore how variations in load and specific geometries influence fracture initiation and crack trajectory. Consequently, these experiments will establish a dataset to further validate numerical advancements.

Keywords: brittle fracture; experimental analysis; phase-field approach; polymer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Standard PMMA sample and experimental tensile test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mechanical tests for notched samples: (a) tensile test; (b) three-point bending test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Tensile curve of PMMA; (b) SEM image of fractured PMMA.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Three-point bending test of the notched specimen with a hole.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Specimen geometry; (b) tensile test with a = 8 mm; (c) Tensile test with a = 4 mm.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Notched specimen with a hole: (a) specimen geometry; (b) tensile test with b = 10 mm; (c) tensile test with b = 4 mm.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Schematic illustration of discontinuity discrete crack zone Γ; (b) approximation of the diffusive damage field by the phase-field.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Force–displacement curves for notched specimens with a hole submitted to a three-point bending loading.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Force–displacement curves for notched specimens with a hole.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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