It has been said that ‘God invented plasticity, but the Devil fracture!’ Both mechanisms represent two prime modes of structural failure, respectively, plastic collapse and rupture/breaking a component, concept developing materials with enhanced resistance to fracture can be difficult. This is because invariably involves compromise—between strength ductility, between toughness—fundamentally lea...

Materials with the propensity to undergo irreversible deformation display an increasing resistance progressive crack advance, i.e., stable growth. A one-parameter description of growth by a fracture toughness vs. advance (resistance) curve is possible under specific conditions. Here, experimental observations are reported (i) demonstrate that enhancement due in hysteretic materials may be “reve...

Biocomposites is a field that has gained much scientific attention due to the current substantial consumption of nonrenewable resources and the environmentally harmful disposal methods required for traditional polymer composites. Research on natural fiber reinforced polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) has gained considerable momentum over the past decade. There is little work on PHAs reinforced with u...