Effect of load level on cracking of L-shaped soda-lime glass specimens

Abstract Soda-lime glass is a brittle and transparent material that is known for its rapid and sudden fracture behavior. Since the use of soda-lime glass in protective structures is increasing, a more comprehensive understanding of this challenging fracture behavior is needed. The aim of this work is to investigate how the load level affects the crack propagation and to generate an experimental database for L-shaped soda-lime glass specimens with curved crack paths. We designed a repeatable testing procedure which reveals the crack propagation behavior of the specimen and allows for extraction of valuable experimental data. A total of 20 experiments were conducted on L-shaped soda-lime glass specimens subjected to a controlled displacement. High-speed cameras were used to monitor the crack propagation and the high-speed footage was post-processed using an in-house procedure to extract the crack path and speed data. We found a positive correlation between the measured initial crack speed and the load level at fracture. The crack propagation path followed four distinct stages and was also affected by the load level at fracture. With this experimental database, we have provided important insight into how the load level affects the crack propagation in soda-lime glass.