Cancer is associated with increased fracture risk, due either to metastasis or associated osteoporosis. After a fracture, blood clots form. Because proteins of the coagulation cascade and activated platelets promote cancer development, a fracture in patients with cancer often raises the question whether it is a pathologic fracture or whether the fracture itself might promote the formation of me...

Recent studies document linear elastic response of muddy marine sediments to load and deformation on temporal and spatial scales relevant to animal movement, with burrowers making openings for movement in such sediments by fracture. Cracks propagate through linear elastic solids in mode I (opening-mode crack growth) when the stress intensity factor (KI) at the crack tip exceeds the material’s f...

Embedded fracture networks in rock masses are studied. The fluid flow in fracture networks with respect to variation of connectivity patterns is analyzed. Lattice Boltzmann method is used to show sensitivity of the permeability and fluid velocity distribution to connectivity patterns of generated fracture networks. Furthermore, fracture networks are mapped into the graphs and the characteristic...

Stable ductile crack growth in 3 mm thick AISI 304 stainless steel specimens has been investigated experimentally and numerically. Multi-linear Isotropic Hardening method coupled with the Von-Mises yield criterion was adopted for modeling elasto-plastic behavior of the material. Mode-I CT fracture specimens have been tested to generate experimental load-displacement-crack growth data during sta...

Micromechanisms of ductile fracturing of DH-36 steel plates subjected to blast-induced pressure loads are studied experimentally using specially designed dynamic testing facilities. The sample geometry is such that it undergoes controllable fracturing, generally initiated near its center and grows first circumferentially and then radially. Selected fractured samples are sectioned normal to the ...

The suitability of high-strength ultrafine and nanocrystalline materials processed by severe plastic deformation methods and aimed to be used for structural applications will strongly depend on their resistance against crack growth. In this contribution some general available findings on the damage tolerance of this material class will be summarized. Particularly, the occurrence of a pronounced...

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) bone cement is a polymeric material that is widely used as a structural orthopedic material. However, it is not an ideal material for bone grafting due to its fragility. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been introduced in order to reinforce PMMA resulting in a composite material which exhibits improved tensile properties, increased fatigue resistance and fracture tough...

Aging and bone diseases are associated with increased fracture risk. It is therefore pertinent to seek an understanding of the origins of such disease-related deterioration in bone's mechanical properties. The mechanical integrity of bone derives from its hierarchical structure, which in healthy tissue is able to resist complex physiological loading patterns and tolerate damage. Indeed, the mec...

Long-term alcohol consumption can interfere with bone growth and replacement of bone tissue (i.e., remodeling), resulting in decreased bone density and increased risk of fracture. These effects may be exerted directly or indirectly through the many cell types, hormones, and growth factors that regulate bone metabolism. Alcohol consumption during adolescence reduces peak bone mass and can result...

The age-related deterioration in the quality (e.g., strength and fracture resistance) and quantity (e.g., bone-mineral density) of human bone, together with increased life expectancy, is responsible for increasing incidence of bone fracture in the elderly. The present study describes ex vivo fracture experiments to quantitatively assess the effect of aging on the fracture toughness properties o...