Engineering Applications
The following information is needed for a fracture mechanics prediction of failure:
- Applied load
- Residual stress
- Size and shape of the part
- Size, shape, location, and orientation of the crack
Usually not all of this information is available and conservative assumptions have to be made.
Occasionally post-mortem fracture-mechanics analyses are carried out. In the absence of an extreme overload, the causes are either insufficient toughness (KIc) or an excessively large crack that was not detected during routine inspection.
Read more about this topic: Fracture Mechanics
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