Toughening materials: enhancing resistance to fracture

Ritchie, Robert O.

doi:10.1098/rsta.2020.0437

Toughening materials: enhancing resistance to fracture

Journal Article · Mon Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A, Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0437· OSTI ID:1839259

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Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

It has been said that ‘God invented plasticity, but the Devil invented fracture!’ Both mechanisms represent the two prime modes of structural failure, respectively, plastic collapse and the rupture/breaking of a component, but the concept of developing materials with enhanced resistance to fracture can be difficult. This is because fracture resistance invariably involves a compromise—between strength and ductility, between strength and toughness—fundamentally leading to a ‘conflict’ between nano-/micro-structural damage and the mechanisms of toughening. Here, we examine the two major classes of such toughening: (i) intrinsic toughening, which occurs ahead of a crack tip and is motivated by plasticity—this is the principal mode of fracture resistance in ductile materials, and (ii) extrinsic toughening, which occurs at, or in the wake of, a crack tip and is associated with crack-tip shielding—this is generally the sole mode of fracture resistance in brittle materials. We briefly examine how these distinct mechanistic processes have been used to toughen synthetic materials—intrinsically in gradient materials and in multiple principal-element metallic alloys with the example of metallic glasses and high-entropy alloys, and extrinsically in ceramics with the example of ceramic-matrix composites—in comparison to Nature which has been especially adept in creating biological/natural materials which are toughened by one or both mechanistic classes, despite often consisting of constituents with meagre mechanical properties. The success of Nature has been driven by its ability to cultivate the development of materials with multiple length-scale hierarchical structures that display ingenious gradients and structural adaptability, a philosophy which we need to emulate and more importantly learn to synthesize to make structural materials of the future with unprecedented combinations of mechanical properties.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1839259

Journal Information:: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A, Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Journal Name: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A, Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences Journal Issue: 2203 Vol. 379; ISSN 1364-503X

Publisher:: The Royal Society PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
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Toughening materials: enhancing resistance to fracture

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