Foreword

Abstract

On 28 May 1964, a one-day Discussion Meeting, organized by the Royal Society, was held at Burlington House to discuss failure of heavy-section steel structures. The papers were presented by eminent workers in the field both from this country and America. The meeting reviewed the present state of knowledge in the subject, made available data from the most up-to-date studies, and outlined the way in which the work will be extended during the next few years. The papers and the discussion are recorded in this number of the Proceedings . The first two papers form the introduction to the meeting: R. Week outlines the basic mechanisms of failure and possible remedies and A. H. Cottrell, F. R. S., deals with the geometrical and physical conditions for unstable cracking. The next four papers, by B. A. Bilby & K. W. Swinden, A. A. Wells, E. Smith, and F. A. McClintock deal with the theoretical aspects of brittle fracture. They should be read in conjunction with the opening contribution to the discussion by G. R. Irwin. The last four papers are concerned with experimental work on stress concentrations and other effects. P. L. Pratt & T. A. C. Stock give an account of some experimental measurements of the distribution of strain around running cracks. D. E. W. Stone & C. E. Turner describe instrumented tests on pieces in notch tension, bending and impact notch bending. Work that may lead to an assessment of failure mechanisms in steel pressure vessels is reported by R. W. Nichols and finally N. P. Allen, F. R. S., C. C. Earley & J. H. Rendall report on metallurgical and size effects in notched-bend tests. The other paper presented by N. P. Allen, reporting work by E. D. Hondros on the reduction of surface energies by phosphorus and the relevance of the results to brittle fracture, is to be published separately in the Proceedings .