The Cottrell Legacy: Metamorphosis of ICF into the World Academy of Structural Integrity 2011–2021

Abstract

This paper is designed to address aspects of the immense contribution and enduring legacy of Sir Alan Cottrell FRS FREng FICF (1919-2012) - especially in the context of the creation and development of ICF - at the Memorial International Cottrell Symposium. One theme of this paper builds on the ICF0 paper of Cottrell in 1959, Cottrell's Opening Address at ICF2 in 1969 and Cottrell's ICF4 contribution Fracture and Society in 1977. A second theme of this paper is the BCS model of fracture and other models of fracture devised by Cottrell in the context of Cottrell's seminal 20th century contributions to the very creation of our disciplines of Structural Integrity and Materials Science: including archival research on the early work of Cottrell 1939-1941 on welding and cracking of low alloy steels at Birmingham. In particular, with the analytical BCS Model, Cottrell anticipated the numerical Cohesive Zone Models by at least two decades. This paper also addresses possible ways forward in this challenging 21st century for ICF-WASI following ICF13 in Beijing guided by the legacy of Cottrell's and Yokobori's ideas, inspiration and principles in establishing ICF during 1959-1969. At ICF13 the formal launch is arranged for the metamorphosis of ICF into The World Academy of Structural Integrity. This is an ICF brand-development project explored at Sendai with Yokobori in 2010 and then initiated in 2011 at an ICF Interquadrennial Conference with ASTM in Anaheim, USA. This is much more than simply a name change but a comprehensive evolution in substance which like the original ten year creation process of ICF 1959-1969 is designed as a ten-year process 2011-2021. During the ICF13 Cottrell Forum in Beijing (as at the Sendai Interquadrennial in 2010) we seek full debate on the optimum ways forward for this metamorphosis.