Crack opening displacements of Vickers indentation cracks

Vickers indentation cracks are an appropriate tool to determine the crack-tip toughness K-10 and, possibly, the bridging relation of ceramics with an R-curve behaviour from the total crack opening displacements. Two contributions to the total crack opening displacement field are addressed. First, the residual stresses occurring in the uncracked body are considered and then, the contact stresses generated by preventing crack face penetration are computed. The COD solution resulting from the superposition of residual and contact displacements is given and an analytical expression is provided. Near-tip displacements are represented by the first terms of series expansions. As an example of application, an evaluation of the actual stress intensity factor is presented for a window glass I h after Vickers indentation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.