The impact endurance of polycrystalline graphite

Repeated impact tests have been carried out on a wide range of polycrystalline graphites. Two modes of test were employed using centrally impacted rods and discs with the rods supported horizontally at their ends and the discs supported around the circumference. The resulting impact endurance curves for all the different graphites under repeated impacts of constant energy were found to have a substantially common shape in both the disc and the rod tests. The absolute levels of the endurance curves differ considerably and correlate well with other mechanical properties of graphites, in particular the strain energy density at failure in bend. Measurement of impact forces on the single impact failure of graphite rods supports this correlation by showing that the dynamic stresses generated at failure in a single impact are the same as the corresponding static 3-point bend strengths in the same test mode. Measurement of impact forces at energies less than those required to cause failure in a single impact show that the fraction of energy absorbed as specimen strain energy is dependent on specimen size and shape but is not very sensitive to impact energy. A fracture mechanics model based on incremental crack growth and previously used to interpret stress-cycling fatigue data for graphite is proposed to describe also the endurance of polycrystalline graphite under repeated impacts. The model describes available experimental data obtained under both impact and fatigue conditions. On this model, the difference between the two cyclic stressing modes is the rate of crack growth per stress cycle, this being greater under repeated impacts than under fatigue cycles of the same stress amplitude. © 1983.