Pl ast er of Paris as a model mat er i al f or br i t t l e
porous sol i ds G. V E K I N I S * , M. F. A S H B Y , P. W. R. B E A U M O N T Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK Pl ast er of Paris is a br i t t l e, p o r o u s sol i d, easy t o shape, w h i c h has pot ent i al as a model mat er i al for t he s t u d y of br i t t l e, por ous , sol i ds s uc h as cer ami cs, r ocks and cement . Thi s paper descr i bes t he mec hani c al pr oper t i es of pl ast er of Pari s - mo d u l u s , st r engt h, f r act ur e t o u g h n e s s , etc. - as a f u n c t i o n of por osi t y. The mat er i al is t hen used t o s t u d y t he i ni t i at i on and p r o p a g a t i o n of cr acks in c o mp r e s s i o n , as a f u n c t i o n of por osi t y, st r ess st at e and st r ess c o n c e n t r a t i o n . 1. I n t r o d u c t i o n Plaster of Paris (hydrat ed calcium sulphate) is a brittle solid with fracture properties which resemble those of cement, sandstone, and ot her porous ceramics. It can be shaped easily, and used as a model material to st udy the behaviour, under load, of porous solids cont ai ni ng macroscopic cracks, holes and reinforce- ment. The first part of this paper reports a st udy of the properties of plaster of Paris - the modul us, tensile and compressive strengths, modul us of rupture, and fracture toughness as a function of the density (or porosity) of the plaster. The second part describes an example of an applica- tion: the mechani sms of failure at a cylindrical hole or spherical pore under simple and multiaxial compres- sion. Stress is concent rat ed at a macroscopic hole in an elastic solid. In uniaxial compression, tension ap- pears at one pair of poles of the pore; but in most biaxial compression states all principal stresses at and near the pore are zero or compressive. Despite this, fracture occurs at the pore surface in a porous or mi cro-cracked mat eri al like plaster, causing i nward spalling of mat eri al from the pore surface. The prob- lem is known in the mi ni ng industry, when geostatic loads cause i nward spalling of boreholes, and it is probabl y the mechani sm by which fracture starts in porous ceramics under compressive stress states. We have used plaster of Paris samples to investigate the i ni t i at i on and progress of cracking from holes and pores, under a variety of stress states. The results are related to observations and models for compressive failure of brittle solids [1-16]. When plaster of Paris is mixed with water the reverse reaction takes place: water is reabsorbed with the format i on of gypsum. The reaction is exothermic and results in a coherent mass of interlocking needle- shaped gypsum crystals. The chemistry of the reaction requires onl y 18.6 wt % water for rehydrat i on, but in practice much more is used to give the fluidity needed for casting. The excess water evaporates leaving con- siderable porosity. The true density of the hemihy- drate is about 2750 kg m- 3 and t hat of the di hydrat e about 2320 kg m- 3, so a cont ract i on on setting would be expected; but the arrangement of the crystals is such t hat setting results in a slight expansion (about 0.5%). The mechanical properties of plaster depend on powder-t o-wat er ratio, curing time, t emperat ure and pressure, and on post-cure heat treatment. All were investigated [16] and a st andard procedure was ad- opted. The CaSO4" 89 starting powder (British Drug House) was mixed with distilled water, in the ratio 100 : 62.5, removing all air t rapped in the suspen- sion, and was cast into split rectangular (approximate size 10 mm x 10 mm x 100 mm) or cylindrical (ap- proxi mat e size 10mm di amet er x 80 mm height) moul ds and allowed to cure for at least 7 days at 20 ~ Specimens of higher density t han t hat of the as-cast specimens were obt ai ned by forcing water out of the moul d under pressure, i mmedi at el y after casting. The samples cont ai n small spherical pores (Fig. 1), prob- ably due to t rapped water duri ng casting, which de- crease in size with increasing bulk density of the material (Fig. 2). 2. P l a s t e r o f Par i s: t h e m a t e r i a l Plaster of Paris is calcium sul phat e hemi hydrat e, CaSO4- 89 It is made by heat i ng gypsum between 120 and 160 ~ CaSO4" 2 H2 0 ~ CaSO4. 89 + 1 89 (1) 3. T h e m e c h a n i c a l p r o p e r t i e s o f p l a s t e r o f Pa r i s 3. 1. Plain speci mens A number of mechanical properties were measured as a function of density. The properties included Young' s * Present address: "Demokritos" National Centre for Scientific Research, Institute of Materials Science, 153 10 Ag Paraskevi Attikis, Athens, Greece. 0022-2461 9 1993 Chapman & Hall 3221 20 15 o_ g w 5 0 i I q 0 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 O.B Relative density 10.0 7.5 s.0 o _g go 2.5 Figure 3 Young' s modulus in uniaxial compression and modulus of rupture in four-point bending as a function of relative density. Figure 1 The structure of the plaster: (a) 50% relative density and (b) 70% relative density specimens. 300 200 o " o '~ 100 o 0 0.4 0.8 0.5 0.6 0.7 Relative density Figure 2 Macropore diameter as a function of relative density of hydrated plaster of Paris. modulus (by four-point bending, Ebend, and under uniaxial compression, Ecomp), the modulus of rupture under three- and four-point bending (MOR3 and MOR4), the fracture toughness, Kit, by four-point straight-edge-notched beam (SENB), the uniaxial ten- sile strength, cyt, and the uniaxial compressive strength, ac. In addition, the compressive strengths under biaxial and hydrostatic conditions were also measured. The results for the as-cast material are summarized in Table I, which also lists data from earlier published studies. Young's modulus, E, was determined from the load- ing curves in bending and uniaxial compression, as described below. 3222 Four-point bend tests were used to measure the modulus of rupture (Table I). The beam specimens (10 mm x 10 mmx 90 mm) were lightly ground using 1000 grade SiC paper prior to testing in order to remove an outer skin which has a different morpho- logy from the bulk of the specimens. Modulus of rupture values were calculated using the well-known equation PAsd MOR4 - (2) 81 where P is the fracture load (N), As is the difference between major and minor spans, I is the second mo- ment of area of specimen (bda/12, where b is the width of specimen), and d is the height of specimen. ' All the specimens displayed purely elastic behaviour up to fast fracture. The variation of modulus and MOR4 with relative density and associated pore size is shown in Fig. 3. Young's modulus for four-point bending (Table I) was calculated using the elastic beam theory as dP AS 3 gbend - - dx 4bd 3 (3) The fracture toughness measurements were carried out on rectangular edge-notch beam specimens with the same dimensions as those used for the bending tests. The fracture toughness, Klc (Table I), was cal- culated from the analysis of Strawley and Gross [19] P As 3"C~ 1/2 KIc = b/d d 2(1 - a) 3/2 (4) where ~ is a numerical constant, of order unity, which depends on the ratio of notch depth, a, to specimen height, d. The variation of K~c with relative density and associated pore size is shown in Fig. 4. Tensile tests proved difficult: the problem is that of achieving alignment. Special rubberized split grips were designed which provided effective gripping of the cylindrical specimens without high hoop stresses [16]. Only results of specimens that fractured within the TABLE I Properties of plaster of Paris (as cast, 62.5% water) Present study Previous work [t7, 183 Physical properties 1060 50 Mechanical properties Theoretical density (kg m- 3) Density (kg m -3) Total porosity content (%) Mean diameter of spherical macropores (lain) Mean grain size (Ixm) Young's modulus (bending) (GPa) Young's modulus (uniaxial compression) (GPa) Modulus of rupture (four-point bending) (MPa) Weibull modulus Fracture toughness (SENB), (MPa m ~/2) Uniaxial compressive strength (MPa) Hydrostatic compressive strength (MPa) Uniaxial tensile strength (MPa) 2350 1170 _ 30 51+_2 212 +_ 18 3x15 4.5 +_ 0.1 4.6 +_ 0.3 5.8 _+ 0.6 6.2 0.14 _+ 0.015 14.6 -t-_ 0.9 19.2 _+ 1.4 3.2 _+ 0.6 12.8 0.20 r 0.15 g IE ~, o:o g '.'- 0.05 0 F r a c t u r e t ough?r "ce' ~ 0 0 9 <> 0 I 0 i i I 0.4 0.5 0.6 0,7 Relative density 8 n ~ Hydrostatic 7 c o m p r e s s i o n Fracture i n i t i o t i o 6 _ / 9 ~ U n ( o x i o l U n i o x i a l 5~ ~ / M-~mpr~! Te / compressi on ~- Fracture 3 initiation 2 Figure 4 Fracture toughness, Kl~, and the tensile fracture strength as a function of the relative density. gauge length were accepted. The tensile st rengt h of the as-cast mat eri al is given in Tabl e I. The vari at i on of ch with relative densi t y and associated por e size is also shown in Fig. 4. Compr essi on specimens were pr epar ed by gri ndi ng the ends parallel t o bet t er t han 5 Ixm c m- ~ and per- pendi cul ar with respect to the sides t o bet t er t han 0.2 ~ . To avoi d damage to the ends of the specimen and reduce friction bet ween anvils and specimen surface, paper shims were used in all tests. A typical compres- sion curve is shown in Fig. 5 (lower curve). The initia- tion stress for compressi ve fract ure and t he ul t i mat e compressi on st rengt h are shown in Fig. 6 (lower pai r of curves). Equi-biaxial experi ment s were carri ed out bot h in a n I n s t r o n a n d i n t he S E M c o mp r e s s i o n ri g, u s i n g we dge gr i ps [ 16] . Hy d r o s t a t i c t es t s wer e c a r r i e d o u t o n s h o r t c y l i n d e r s (10 mm d i a me t e r x 10 mm he i ght ) e n c l o s e d i n a l at ex r u b b e r s h e a t h a n d p r e s s u r i z e d i n di s t i l l e d wa t e r i n a P T F E c a p s u l e i n a h i g h - p r e s s u r e vessel ( Fi g. 7); t he a r r a n g e me n t c a n be u s e d u p t o Displacement Figure 5 Load contraction curve for a specimen tested in uniaxial compression (lower curve) and in hydrostatic compression (upper curve). 4 3 -- Hydrostatic compression gz u~ g ' 0 ,= 4 3 Z compression ~ "~o J~ 0 l l 0.4 0.5 0.6 Relative density Figure 6 Fracture initiation stress (first / [ ] [ 3 {3 [3 / Ultimate hydrostatic / compressive stress / / / / / / / ~ 0 0 / 0 1 1 0 D/ /'~;, Fracture i . / / / $ initiation stress _~o . . . . . . . . . . =/ / / O o /r / / Unioxiol ~ ~ o c o m p r e s s i v e strength / / o / / \ / n / , o ~- z ~ "- Fracture ~Uniaxiol i . . I / i o initiation stress I 0'.7 0.8 non-linearity of the stress-strain curve) and ultimate strength, as a function of relative density, for uniaxial compression (lower curves) and for hydrostatic compression (upper curves). 3223 / Specirnen~ Wot er - E.:-;: :. Pr e s s u r e cell / I ~ - ' ~ ' .i.g s !!i:!ji . , / Figure 7 The PTFE cell used in the hydrostatic compression ex- periments. pressures of 1 GPa. All the specimens displayed an elastic response up to the point at which fracture initiated, detected by small steps in the loading curve. A typical pressure volume curve is shown schemati- cally in Fig. 5 (upper curve). The hydrost at i c collapse pressure is plotted against density in Fig. 6 (upper curves). Specimens removed from the cell after testing had been compact ed to about three-quarters of their original volume, and were very weak, crumbling easily to a coarse powder. Specimens were removed from the pressure vessel af t er various pressures to examine the progressive collapse of the contained porosity. Damage starts at the surfaces of the pores. Collapse proceeds by fractur- ing of large segments immediately adjacent to the pores which fall inwards, filling the pore. The final stages of collapse are characterized by a general change of pore shape, with general crushing of the surroundi ng material combi ned with large-scale frac- turing. It appears t hat pore collapse takes place prior to any bulk fracturing of t he material and proceeds extensively before large-scale fracture of specimens. 3. 2. Sp e c i me n s c o n t a i n i n g c y l i n d r i c a l hol es Uniaxial and biaxial tests were carried out on cubes (approximate size 4.5 mm x 4.5 mm 4.5 mm) of fully cured plaster of Paris with various densities. A single cylindrical hole of diameter 0.5 mm was i nt roduced by drilling at low speed. The specimens were prepared and tested as before, under uniaxial and biaxial stress states. The observations of pore collapse were made using an in si t u SEM compression rig. The stress for initiation of hole collapse and t hat for bulk fracture initiation in simple compression were measured for a range of densities. The results are summarized in Fig. 8. The sequence of events taking place duri ng uniaxial compressive failure of a cubic specimen cont ai ni ng a drilled hole is illustrated in the micrographs of Fig. 9. The compression direction is 3224 2 0 [ S t r a i n s , . ~15[ ~/~-"~'~. / 10 ~ BUlk f r Q c t u r ~ ' ~ . ~ . . . f ~ . o oE S I ~ St r e s s e s _ ~ f - - ' - ~ " ~ " ~ , ,L._ 0.5 0.6 0.7 Reletive density 0.z c: ul 0.1 _~ E o 0 0.8 Figure 8 Fracture initiation and hole collapse initiation stress and strain as a function of relative density. vertical. Some bulk fracture of the specimen precedes hole collapse in simple compression. The hole t hen collapses by the fracture of arc-shaped segments ar ound the walls of the hole, particularly at areas of highest compressive stress concent rat i on at the equa- tor of the hole. The collapse and fracture process is discontinuous. The l oad needed to continue the col- lapse process decreases with increasing strain (as in Fig. 5), al t hough the overall specimen collapse is stable up to large strains. Even a small degree of lateral const rai nt (i.e. biaxial load) results in the simultaneous initiation of bulk fracture and hole collapse. When the degree of con- straint approached equi-biaxial loading, hole collapse preceded the initiation of bulk fracture (Fig. 10). As before, the collapse of the hole involves the inward fracturing of arc-shaped segments from the walls. The collapsed areas become more uniformly distributed around the wall of the hole as an equibiaxial stress state is approached. Hole collapse reaches an advanced state before significant overall specimen collapse. The collapse process is discontinuous, but significantly more stable t han in the uniaxial case, i.e, the l oad required to sustain the collapse process re- mai ned const ant or decreased very slowly with in- creasing strain (as in Fig. 5). 4 . D i s c u s s i o n Models for the compressive cracking of brittle solids [2, 14, 15] suppose t hat cracks initiate at flaws (the flaws might be spherical pores or sharp cracks). The models lead to an expression for the stresses for crack initiation; it is a relationship between the axial stress, 0.1, and the radial stress, o3 = (~2, (c~1 > ~3), which can be written as O ' 1 = C l 0 " 3 - - C o ( 5 ) where the constants cl and Co depend on the nat ure of the flaws. When cracks nucleate from spherical holes, the const ant cl is predicted to be about 3.1-3.4 [15]. When, instead, they nucleate from cracks [2, 14] it depends on the coefficient of friction, ~t, between the sliding crack faces and ranges from 1-3.5 as ~t ranges from 0-0.7. (Experimental results on crack initiation in Westerly granite, quot ed in [20], suggest a value of Figure 10 Progressive failure of CaS04 with a hole under con- strained uniaxial compression; cr2/~1 ~ 0.2. Figure 9 Progressive failure of CaS04 with a hole under uniaxial compression. cl of approximately 2.8 for both pores and cracks for this material.) The constant c o depends on the fracture toughness, K~, and the flaw size, 2a. For pores, Co ~- 1. 6K~c / ( ~aLo) 1/2, where 2a is the diameter of the pore divided by the pore radius). For sharp cracks, c o = 3.1 Ki c / ( r c a) 1/2, where 2a is the length of the in- clined crack. Both the form of Equation 5 and the co = 3. 1Kl o/ ( r ~a) 1/2, where 2a is the length of the in- clined crack. Bot h the form of equation 5 and the constants are almost identical for bot h extreme types of flaw; it may therefore be considered as a general criterion for damage initiation in compression [21]. Final fracture involves crack-crack interaction. It is treated in earlier publications [14, 15, 21]. For uniaxial compression cy3 = 0 and Equation 5 simplifies to (5" 1 -- or o- 1 - - - - 1. 6Kl c / ( ~apLo) 1/2 (holes) (6a) - - 3. 1Kl c / ( r c ac ) 1/2 (cracks) (6b) where ap and ac are the dimensions of the pores and cracks, respectively. A plot of uniaxial fracture initia- tion stress (as determined by the first non-linearity of the l oad-di spl acement curve) versus Kmc/ ( rca) 1/2 should be linear through the origin and yield a "best- fit" value for Lo. The plot (Fig. 11) shows that the fracture initiation model fits the observations well with a calculated (best-fit) value for Lo = 1.5. When hydrostatic stress is applied to a porous body, shear stresses appear at and near the pores (Fig. 12). The local stress state can be described by a radial stress, ~,, and two equal tangential stresses, 3225 0 0 , $ - - - - -10 g - 2 0 ._o = - 30 - 4 0 0 , < , c 10 20 30 K I C/ ( r oe) 1/2 ( MPo) Figure 11 Uni axi al fract ure i ni t i at i on stress of pl ast er of Paris: compar i s on wi t h model s [15, 21]. -G Q _ -I0 -20 -3o '=" - 4 0 9 g- r/q = 1,1 -50 2 c - - 6 0 I 50 40 3'0 2'0 I b 0 (l-f) c o Figure 13 The hydr ost at i c stress for fract ure i ni t i at i on pl ot t ed agai nst (1 - f ) c o , fol l owi ng Equat i on 11. The line cor r esponds t o an i ni t i at i on dept h r/a = 1.1. / \ \ / / / b \ i P o r e / I I " - " _ ~ / l " o ' ~ I \ / \ F l a w /.~,.. . . , . ~\ ,--, ", / N / \ / ( o ) - # P 1 - f r = Q t" - Cr (b) Figure 12 (a) Stresses ar ound a spheri cal por e subj ect ed to hydr o- st at i c pressure, p, and (b) t hei r var i at i on wi t h di st ance from a pore, r ( Equat i ons 7 and 8). ~o, where [223 b 3 ( r 3 - - a 3) (3" r - - p r3 ( b 3 _ a3 ) ( 7 ) (3 0 b 3 ( a 3 + 2 r 3) - p 2 r 3 ( b 3 - a 3) ( 8 ) 3 2 2 6 Far f r om the por e all stress component s appr oach the hydr ost at i c stress level, - p , but , whereas the radi al component , %, decreases f r om 0 at the por e surface to -- - p at r = b, the t angent i al component s increase f r om a mi ni mum val ue = - 3 / 2 p / ( 1 - f ) (where f = a3/ b 3 is the vol ume fract i on of pores in the mat er - ial) at the por e surface, to the value - p at r = b, as shown in Fig. 12. Appl yi ng the fract ure nucl eat i on Equat i on 5 to the case of hydr ost at i c compr essi on of por ous brittle ma- terials, we find (because % is less compressi ve t han q0) ~0 = c l o t - Co (9) where cl -~ 3.1 and Co ~- 1. 6Kl c / Oz apLo) 1/2 as before for holes. Subst i t ut i ng for or and c~0 we obt ai n b 3 (a 3 + 2 r 3) b 3( r 3 - a 3) - P i n 2 r 3 (b 3 _ a 3) + c l p i , r 3 ( b 3 _ a 3 ) - Co (10) using f = a3/ b 3 and solving for Pi, (the hydr ost at i c stress for fract ure initiation) we finally find 2r3/ a3(1 - f ) c o Pi, = l + 2 c l - 2 ( c t - 1 ) r 3 / a 3 (11) The equat i on shows t hat fract ure i ni t i at i on is easiest at the surface of the hol e (r = a), and becomes rapi dl y mor e difficult as r increases. The i ni t i at i on pressure, Pi. , becomes infinite at r/ a = [(1 + 2 c l ) / ( 2 c l - 2)] 1/3 ( -~ 1.2 for cl -~ 3.1), beyond which poi nt no fract ure woul d be expect ed to initiate. I n or der to compar e the hydr ost at i c compr essi on model i nt roduced above (Equat i on 10) with the results obt ai ned in this wor k the hydr ost at i c fract ure initia- t i on stress, pl , , has been pl ot t ed versus (1 - f ) K ~ c in Fig. 13. I t is clear t hat the results can be descri bed quite well by a linear rel at i on t hr ough the ori gi n as suggest ed by the model . Fr om this gr aph the "best -fi t " value of r/ a is -~ 1.1 which lies within the "critical" r / a value predi ct ed by the model and wi t h the val ue of L0 found for the uni axi al compr essi on case above. Thus fract ure i ni t i at i on in this mat er i al occurs very close t o the por e surface as predi ct ed by the model . Finally, the overal l behavi our of the pl ast er of Pari s is summar i zed by the surfaces of Fig. 14, which show the combi nat i on of stresses requi red to cause crack 10 0 - 2 0 9 ~" - 4 0 - 6 0 T e n s i o n Compression I I - 6 0 / / / / / o- ~ 50oA / - ~ 6 0 ~ / . . . . ..) " 10 0 l o ~ - - 2o u ~ - 4o - 6 0 - 8 0 ' ' ' 2 ' - 8 0 - 8 0 - 40 - 0 10 - 8 0 - 60 (G) Ax i a l st r ess ( MPa) (b) T e n s i o n I / / / / ,'/~ / / . . . . . . >// / / ~ - ~ ' 5 0 o / o / / / / / J - I 7 0 % Compressi on I i I i I - 40 - 20 Ax i a l st r ess (MPa) I 0 10 Figure 14 (a) Fr act ur e i ni t i at i on, and (b) final col l apse surfaces for pl ast er of Paris, for t hr ee relative densities. initiation, at (a), and final failure, at (b), for t hree relative densities. 5. Conclusion Pl ast er of Paris can be used as a model mat eri al to st udy fract ure phenomena in brittle por ous solids. To do this, the propert i es of the pl ast er are needed: t hey are det ermi ned and listed in this paper. The mat eri al is t hen used to st udy spalling at holes, in multiaxial stress states. The ease of fabri cat i on and mani pul at i on make pl ast er an at t ract i ve model mat eri al for such studies. Acknowl edgement s We t hank the technical staff of t he Mat eri al s Gr oup, Ri chard Brand, Bri an Butler, Alan Hear er , Si mon Marshal l and Oscar Skulskyj, who pr ovi ded invalu- able technical support . The research was made pos- sible t hr ough the financial suppor t of the Uni t ed States Air For ce Office of Scientific Research under grant number AFOSR-87-0307. References 1. A. A. GRI FFI THS, in "Pr oceedi ngs of t he 1st I nt er nat i onal Congr ess on Appl i ed Mechani cs", Delft (Delft Uni versi t y Press, 1924) p. 55. 2. S. NEMAT- NASSER and H. HORI I , J. Geophys. Res. 87 (1982) 6805. 3. D. GRI GGS and H. HANDI N, (eds), "Rock Def or mat i on", (Geol ogi cal Society of Ameri ca, Wa ve d Press, Bal t i more, 1960) Ch. 13. 4. !dem, Geol. Soc. Amer. Mem. 79 (1960) 347. 5. F. A. Mc CLI NTOCK and J. B. WALSH, in "Pr oceedi ngs of t he 4t h US Congr ess on Appl i ed Mechani cs" (ASTM, Int er- science, 1962) p. 1015. 6. S. A. F. MURRELL, in "Rock Mechani cs", edi t ed by C. Fai r hur st , Pr oceedi ngs of t he 5th Sympos i um on Rock Mechani cs ( Per gamon Press, Oxford, 1963) p. 563. 7. Idem, Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 10 (1965) 231. 8. S . A. F . MURRELL and P. J. DI GBY, ibid. 19 (1970) 309. 9. Idem, ibid. 19 (1970) 499. 10. J . C. J AEGER and N. G. W. COOK, " Fundament al s of Rock Mechani cs" ( Met huen, London, 1969). I1. S. KOBAYASHI , J. Soc. Mater. ScL Jpn 20 (1971) 164. 12. J. B. NEWMAN, in "Devel opment s In Concr et e Techno- logy-I", edi t ed by F. D. Lydon (Appl i ed Science, 1979). 13. Idem, Appl. Sci. 5 (1978) 151. 14. M. F . ASHBY and S. D. HALLAM, Acta Metall. 34 (1986) 497. 15. C. G. SAMMI S and M. F. ASHBY, ibid. 34 (1986) 511. 16. G. VEKI NI S, M. F. ASHBY and P. W. R. 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Fluid Mixing II: A Symposium Organised by the Yorkshire Branch and the Fluid Mixing Processes Subject Group of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and Held at Bradford University, 3-5 April 1984