Abstract
Catastrophic fracture failure of engineering structures is caused by cracks that extend beyond a safe size. Cracks, present to some extent in all structures, either as a result of manufacturing fabrication defects or localized damage in service, may grow by mechanisms such as fatigue, stress-corrosion or creep. The crack growth leads to a decrease in the structural strength. Thus, when the service loading cannot be sustained by the current residual strength, fracture occur leading to the failure of the structure. The analysis of cracks within structures is an important application if the damage tolerance and durability of structures and components are to be predicted. Often cracks cannot be avoided in structures; however the fatigue life of the structure depends on the location and size of these cracks. In order to predict the fatigue life for any component, a fatigue life and crack growth study needs to be performed.
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