EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON FRACTURE BEHAVIOR OF FUNCTIONALLY GRADED MATERIALS

Functionally gradedmaterials (FGMs) as a new kind of engineering materials has beendeveloped and used in various fields. The fracture of FGMs is anopen problem in materials science and solid mechanics. Althoughextensive researches on this topic have been made by theoreticaland numerical methods, there are only a few experimental works ininvestigating the fracture of FGMs, of which most are focused onmacro-toughness of FGMs but micro-mechanics of fracture. In thispaper, a brief introduction of experimental methods is presented.Recent advances of relative experimental works and results arereviewed and discussed. Finally, the drawbacks of the recentexperimental works are pointed out, and keystones of the furtherexperimental works are advanced.