Fracture Mechanics: Current Status, Future Prospects

Fracture Mechanics: Current Status, Future Prospects presents the remarkable increase in the number of tools available for engineers to deal with cracked structures in a quantitative manner. This book discusses the acceptance of the stress intensity factor as a distinguishing similitude parameter that properly accounts for the applied mechanics near crack tips in several cases of practical interest. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the competing micromechanics of fracture, including cleavage, rupture, ductile fracture, and intergranular creep fracture. This text then reviews the characterization of crack tip stress fields by the stress intensity factor. Other chapters consider the analysis of fatigue cracking in a large generator rotor. This book discusses as well the use of Green's functions in the determination of stress intensity factors. The final chapter deals with the size effect with regard to extension of sharp cracks in technological materials. This book is a valuable resource for environmental and mechanical engineers.