Comments on W.S. Lei’s discussion of “An engineering methodology for constraint corrections of elastic–plastic fracture toughness – Part II: Effects of specimen geometry and plastic strain on cleavage fracture predictions” by C. Ruggieri, R.G. Savioli and R.H. Dodds

Abstract

In recent communication to this journal, Lei (2015) raised several questions on previous work by Ruggieri et al. (2015) which extended a modified Weibull stress (σ̃w) model incorporating the influence of plastic strain on cleavage fracture to correct effects of constraint loss in fracture specimens with a diverse range of specimen geometry. This brief note provides further arguments in support of the modified Weibull stress methodology. This short presentation also shows that Lei’s conclusions are not necessarily substantial as they follow from incorrect interpretation of the Weibull stress framework.