Fracture Mechanics

Lecture-I
 Common causes of failure
• Yielding
• Deflection beyond a certain stage
• Buckling
• Fatigue
• Fracture
• Creep
• Environmental degradation
• Resonance
• Impact
• Wear
 Historical Aspects
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
• Wohler (1860)
• Tresca (1864) and Mises (1913)
• Griffith (1920)
• George Irwin (1948)
• Wells (1961)
• Rice (1968)
 Types of fracture
• Brittle fracture:

Intergranular Transdgranular

• Ductile fracture
Modes of Fracture Failure
Mode I (Opening mode)

Mode II (Sliding mode)

Mode III (Tearing mode)

Parameters to measure the potency of
a crack
• Energy release rate (G) [Applied to brittle or
less ductile materials]
• Stress intensity factor (K) [Developed for
brittle or less ductile materials]
• J-Integral (J) [Developed to deal with ductile
materials]
 Energy Release Rate
Advantages:
• The advantage of this approach is that there is
no need to account for the large stresses that
are developed in the vicinity of a crack-tip.
• The energy method conveniently any analysis
close to the crack-tip.
 Considered Energy
• Strain Energy
• Surface Energy
Griffith’s Analysis
 Energy release rate
• The energy release rate is defined as energy
release per unit increase in area during crack
growth.
• Energy release rate is denote by the symbol
‘G’ after Griffith.
• The energy requirement for a crack to grow
per unit area extension is called crack
resistance (R).
 Mathematical formulation
The following happens (in general case) when an
crack advances:
• Strain energy in the component decreases or
increases.
• Stiffness of the component decreases.
• The point of the component, at which external
loads are applied, may or may not move. Work is
being done on the component by these forces if
the points move.
• Energy is consumed to create two new surfaces.
Approaches for simplification of the equation:
•Change in compliance
•Change in internal energy
Change in compliance
Constant Load
Fixed Grip
General Case
Change in the strain energy approach

For constant displacement(fixed grip) case

For constant load case

Energy Release Rate of DCB Specimen
For crack length a, the displacement u,

Compliance,

Energy release rate,

Determine the energy release rate for
an edge crack loaded as shown in Fig.
Determine the energy release rate, using elementary
beam analysis, for the configurations given in
Fig.(h<<a).
Anelastic Deformation at Crack-tip
 Crack Resistance
• For a crack to grow, the crack resistance (R) is
the energy required by the crack per unit
increase in area
• It characterizes the material behavior.
R-Curve for brittle cracks
R-curve of ductile materials
Critical Energy Release Rate
Representative plane strain G1c of
some common materials