Fracture Mechanics

1. Most of the design approaches deals with the yield strength of a material in which the
applied stress is compared with the yield stress strength of the material. If the applied stress
is lower than the yield strength, the material is consider as safe far for engineering
application , but the fracture approach has three parameters. 1. Applied stress 2. Flaw/crack
size 3. Fracture toughness.

The fracture approach has one additional parameter which is the flaw size and in this approach the
yield strength is replaced by fracture toughness. The energy approach was given by Griffth and it
states that a crack will grow in size when the energy/stress applied is sufficient to overcome the
resistance of a material. The resistance offered by the material includes the surface energy, plastic
work and other types of energy dissipation associated with crack load. Griffth first purposes its
energy approach to relate a constant known as Gc, which is the critical energy release rate with the
propagation of the crack. According to Griffth, the ERR ‘Cr’ for an elliptical crack is given by G=
 f 2 a c
where ‘a’ is half their crack size. The energy approach states the fracture will take place
E
when Cr≥Gc
ERR is defined as rate of change of amount of energy releases per unit crack area.
d
ERR=- (Potential Energy)
dA

Projected area of the crack is given by 2aβ

Crack surface = 2 crack projected area

π  f2ac
Critical energy release rate Gc=
E

Where, 𝜎 is fracture stress

ac is the critical length of crack

2. Stress intensity approach