The fracture behaviour of notched specimens of polymethylmethacrylate

The fracture behaviour of notched specimens of polymethylmethacrylate has been examined for a wide range of geometries in Charpy impact tests, and in tensile and slow bend fracture tests. It was found that the failure of the very sharply notched specimens was consistent with linear elastic fracture mechanics and defined a constant fracture toughness KIC for a constant notch tip radius, whereas the blunt notched specimens failed at a constant critical stress at the root of the notch.