Fracture Mechanics

Last Updated: October 4, 2018

Definition - What does Fracture Mechanics mean?

Fracture mechanics is a specialized study of solid mechanics that includes the analytical study of cracks in materials. Those in the fracture mechanics field attempt to characterize and classify a material's resistance, and the results of, fractures. By experimenting and studying applied stress, crack length, and specimen geometry engineers in this field gain a fuller understanding of the strength of a material.

Trenchlesspedia explains Fracture Mechanics

The biggest difficulty in fracture mechanics is that the presence of cracks can make even the most careful fracture mechanic analysis insufficient. When a crack or other deformity reaches a critical point it can have catastrophic effect on the entirety of the structure.

Fracture mechanics attempts to understand the remaining life as a function of crack size, crack size that can be tolerated, and time for a crack to grow from initial crack size to critical size.

Share this: