Elastic plastic fracture mechanics investigation of toughness of wet colloidal particulate materials: Influence of saturation

•Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics toughness of wet particulate materials.•Toughness (JIC) of micron sized particulate materials increases with saturation.•Plastic deformation constitutes more than 99% of energy dissipated in fracture.•The elastic part of the fracture toughness (KIC) also increases with saturation.•KIC contributes less than 1% of the total energy of fracture.