Description: This is a graduate course in Fracture Mechanics for those students who are interested in learning more about the concepts of material inelastic deformation and failure in the context of solid mechanics when cracks are present. The class will be introductory in nature as we will start with the fundamental concepts of elastic fracture mechanics before we look at nonlinear and complex behavior. The final part of the course will be based on  projects where the student will be able to solve some open-ended problems using computational, analytical or experimental tools.

Course Main Topics 

• Overview:  Elasticity, Atomic scale concepts
• Linear elastic fracture mechanics, stress intensity factor, fracture toughness,
   energy release rate, work of fracture,  J-integral.
• Small-scale yielding/plastic fracture mechanics, resistance curves
• Fracture in engineering materials (e.g., ceramics, polymers, metals, composites, 3D printed, biological materials
•  Cohesive zone models 
  
• Size effects,  Multiscale fracture
•  Strain rate and instabilities
• Testing methods, Numerical methods. Combined experimental/computational approaches.
  
  

Lectures/handouts:

Homework:

 Projects:

• Project I Description   [Link]
  
• Project I Proposal Template (for those who already discussed a project with me) [Link]  (Download and complete)
• Project II Proposal/form  [Link] (Due Nov. 15th)
  

Check out previous year's projects in the following links:

• Spring 2011: [Project 1],   [Project 2], [Pics]
• Spring 2013: [Project 1], [Project 2]
• Spring 2015: [Final Project]
• Spring 2017: [Link]
• Sprint 2019: [Link]
  

Books: No book is required. I will personally follow ideas from the following books and resources:

• T.L. Anderson, “Fracture Mechanics: Fundamental and Applications”, 3rd Edition, 2005.
•  Z.P. Bazant, J. Planas, “Fracture and size effect in concrete and other quasibrittle materials”, 1998.
• A. F. Bower, Applied Mechanics of Solids, CRC Press, 2009. [Link]
• J.W. Hutchinson, Notes on Nonlinear Fracture Mechanics. [Link]
• C.T. Sun, Fracture Mechanics (through the Purdue Library)  [Link]
• Alan T. Zehnder, Fracture Mechanics (through the Purdue Library)  [Link]
• H. Tada, P.C. Paris and G.R. Irwin, The Stress Analysis of Cracks Handbook (Excerpts) [Link]
  

Other References: