Proceedings of the 4th Advanced Seminar on Fracture Mechanics, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy, October 24-28, 1983

A Practical Approach to Fracture Mechanics provides a concise overview on the fundamental concepts of fracture mechanics, discussing linear elastic fracture mechanics, fracture toughness, ductile fracture, slow crack propagation, structural integrity, and more. The book outlines analytical and experimental methods for determining the fracture resistance of mechanical and structural components, also demonstrating the use of fracture mechanics in failure analysis, reinforcement of cracked structures, and remaining life estimation. The characteristics of crack propagation induced by fatigue, stress-corrosion, creep, and absorbed hydrogen are also discussed. The book concludes with a chapter on the structural integrity analysis of cracked components alongside a real integrity assessment. This book will be especially useful for students in mechanical, civil, industrial, metallurgical, aeronautical and chemical engineering, and for professional engineers looking for a refresher on core principles. - Concisely outlines the underlying fundamentals of fracture mechanics, making physical concepts clear and simple and providing easily-understood applied examples - Includes solved problems of the most common calculations, along with step-by-step procedures to perform widely-used methods in fracture mechanics - Demonstrates how to determine stress intensity factors and fracture toughness, estimate crack growth rate, calculate failure load, and other methods and techniques

- self-contained and well illustrated - complete and comprehensive derivation of mechanical/mathematical results with enphasis on issues of practical importance - combines classical subjects of fracture mechanics with modern topics such as microheterogeneous materials, piezoelectric materials, thin films, damage - mechanically and mathematically clear and complete derivations of results

Fracture in structural materials remains a vital consideration in engineering systems, affecting the reliability of machines throughout their lives. Impressive advances in both the theoretical understanding of fracture mechanisms and practical developments that offer possibilities of control have re-shaped the subject over the past four decades. The contributors to this volume, including some of the most prominent researchers in the field, give their long-range perspectives of the research on the fracture of solids and its achievements. The subjects covered in this volume include: statistics of brittle fracture, transition of fracture from brittle to ductile, mechanics and mechanisms of ductile separation of heterogenous solids, the crack tip environment in ductile fracture, and mechanisms and mechanics of fatigue. Materials considered range from the usual structural solids to composites. The chapters include both theoretical points of view and discussions of key experiments. Contributors include: from MIT, A.S. Argon, D.M. Parks; from Cambridge, M.F. Ashby; from U.C. Santa Barbara, A.G. Evans, R. McMeeking; from Glasgow, J. Hancock; from Harvard, J.W. Hutchinson, J.R. Rice; from Sheffield, K.J. Miller; from Brown, A. Needleman; from the Ecole des Mines, A. Pineau; from U.C. Berkeley, R. O. Ritchie; and from Copenhagen, V. Tvergaard.