Comparison of Chevron-Notched Specimen Types for Fracture Toughness Testing of Aluminum

Abstract There is increasing interest in the use of chevron-notched specimens for the measurement of plane-strain fracture toughness. Attention has been focussed on the short rod/bar specimens, for which several different geometries have been proposed. This paper describes a series of tests on 6061-T651 aluminum alloy aimed at providing a comparison of five short rod/bar specimen types with three different thicknesses. Also included are data from standard compact-tension specimens.