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Elastic-Plastic and Quasi-Brittle Fracture

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Handbook of Mechanics of Materials

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Abstract

This chapter presents a simple Elastic-Plastic and Quasi-Brittle Fracture Approach that can be used by graduate students and design engineers in their structural integrity analyses to determine safe design loads or to predict critical failure loads. The simple model can also be used to extrapolate the tensile strength and fracture toughness KIC of various metals and composites from elastic-plastic fracture results of small test samples, which otherwise would require impractically large specimens for the fracture toughness measurements and well-polished specimens for the strength measurements. Elastic-plastic fracture of metals and quasi-brittle fracture of coarse-structured brittle composites such as concrete and rock can also be fairly accurately predicted by the predictive model if both strength and toughness are known. The model is derived by a simple modification of the stress intensity factor commonly used in Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). Experimental results of AISI-1040 like carbon steel and Aluminum Alloy 6061 and concrete are used to verify the new approach. The new design model can be applied to different fracture situations from strength-controlled failure to LEFM KIC-controlled fracture and the elastic-plastic and quasi-brittle fracture region (or non-LEFM fracture) between the two distinct strength and toughness territories. The model also explains the limitations of LEFM imposed by the stringent requirements for the fracture toughness KIC measurements and the reason why Elastic and Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM) is necessary to most structural integrity analyses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Xiaozhi Hu

  2. School College of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Li Liang

Authors
  1. Xiaozhi Hu
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  2. Li Liang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaozhi Hu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Strength of Materials, University of Stuttgart Institute for Materials Testing, Stuttgart, Germany

    Siegfried Schmauder

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University Department of Civil Engineering, Taipei, T´ai-pei, Taiwan

    Chuin-Shan Chen

  3. BEC 254, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

    Krishan K. Chawla

  4. Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Nikhilesh Chawla

  5. Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University Engineering Mechanics, Hangzhou, China

    Weiqiu Chen

  6. Katayanagi Advanced Research Laboratorie, Tokyo University of Technology Katayanagi Advanced Research Laboratorie, Tokyo, Japan

    Yutaka Kagawa

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Hu, X., Liang, L. (2018). Elastic-Plastic and Quasi-Brittle Fracture. In: Schmauder, S., Chen, CS., Chawla, K., Chawla, N., Chen, W., Kagawa, Y. (eds) Handbook of Mechanics of Materials. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6855-3_38-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6855-3_38-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6855-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6855-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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