Course Description

Concept of elastic stress intensity factor, Griffith energy balance, determination of the elastic field at a sharp crack tip via eigenfunction expansion methods, J integrals analysis, experimental determination of fracture toughness, fatigue crack growth, elastic-plastic crack tip fields. Emphasis on modern numerical methods for determination of stress intensity factors, critical crack sizes and fatigue crack propagation rate predictions.

Course Objectives

Students will:

1.) Develop basic fundamental understanding of the effects of crack-like defects on the performance of aerospace, civil, and mechanical engineering structures.

2.) Learn to select appropriate materials for engineering structures to insure damage tolerance.

3.) Learn to employ modern numerical methods to determine critical crack sizes and fatigue crack propagation rates in engineering structures.

4.) Gain an appreciation of the status of academic research in field of fracture mechanics.

Last updated: August 9, 2005