Investigation on the mechanical properties and fracture toughness of graphite

In the present study, mechanical properties and fracture toughness of graphite as a brittle material were investigated. At first, some specimens were examined in two perpendicular directions to derive Young's modulus and ultimate tensile strength. Then, graphite fracture toughness tests were conducted using some three‐point bending specimens with a sharp machined V‐notch by two different methods. The first method is based on the applied force at the moment of fracture, and the second one uses energy released during the test. Moreover, a technique was adopted to reduce differences between the two methods. It was observed that considering the effect of dehydration of the specimens, the fracture toughness was reduced by about 8%. Finally, crack growth simulation of the experiment was performed and indicated that finite element analysis predicts about 25% lower crack length values when critical energy release rate is utilized as a crack growth criterion instead of fracture toughness. In other words, the required input displacement for crack growth would be overestimated by using the critical energy release rate criterion.