An oversight in the rules governing reproduction toxicity by legislators for the chemical sector

Abstract

This chapter discusses the fracture mechanics in Norway. There has been large progress in the knowledge of fracture mechanics in Norway during the past decade, and fracture mechanics is at present widely used in engineering applications as well as in research. The two major centers where fracture research is performed are the Norwegian Institute of Technology, NTH, Trondheim, and Det norske Veritas, DnV, Oslo. In addition, some of the largest companies like Statoil, Norsk Hydro, and ÄSV have built laboratories and established professional groups where fracture mechanics related problems are solved. In addition, extensive studies are performed in topics related to the fatigue threshold, from an engineering point of view and from a microstructural point of view. The research in fracture mechanics at DnV is mainly of an applied manner and related to the determination of the overall safety against failure of structures. The research work includes projects in the following main areas: (1) unstable fracture, (2) fatigue, and (3) probabilistic fracture mechanics. In terms of fatigue, a large part of the research concerns the properties of welded joints in offshore structures, where the study covers topics, such as, the influence of geometry, for example, plate thickness and misfit or eccentricity. The probabilistic approach is at present primarily used in sensitivity studies to determine which parameters are the most important relative to the probability of failure of unstable fracture as well as fatigue.