HR-EBSD analysis of in situ stable crack growth at the micron scale

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel HR-EBSD-based method to analyze local fracture resistance and crack growth at the microscale, providing detailed insights into the elastic energy release during crack propagation in crystalline materials.

Contribution

It develops a new approach to decompose the J-integral into stress intensity factors directly from experimental elastic deformation measurements.

Findings

Successfully applied to silicon wafer crack propagation

Enabled detailed stress intensity factor evaluation

Enhanced understanding of microscale fracture mechanics

Abstract

Understanding the local fracture resistance of microstructural features. such as brittle inclusions, coatings, and interfaces at the microscale under complex loading conditions is critical for microstructure-informed design of materials. In this study, a novel approach has been formulated to decompose the J-integral evaluation of the elastic energy release rate to the three-dimensional stress intensity factors directly from experimental measurements of the elastic deformation gradient tensors of the crack field by in situ high (angular) resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD). An exemplar study is presented of a quasi-static crack, inclined to the observed surface, propagating on low index {hkl} planes in a (001) single crystal silicon wafer.