The Impact of Fracture Mechanics on Engineering Practice

Fracture mechanics is a design philosophy which has evolved over the three decades since World War II and is beginning to find use in standard design. This concept for fracture-safe design recognizes the general existence of flaws in engineering materials and provides an analytical basis for prediction of the mechanical behavior of a structure constructed of a flaw-bearing material.This article reviews the basic concepts of fracture mechanics. The material parameters, such as plane-strain fracture toughness K Ic are derived and the experimental technique for obtaining K Ic is presented.The impact of fracture mechanics on engineering practice, i.e. material selection and fabrication, mechanical and structural design, and nondestructive testing is also examined.