It has been shown that temperature cycles on airless bodies of our Solar System can cause damaging surface materials. Nevertheless, propagation mechanisms in the case space objects are still poorly understood. Present work combines a thermoelasticity model together with linear elastic fracture mechanics theory to predict presence thermal gradients generated by diurnal cycling and under conditio...

Fibre reinforced plastics are increasing their importance as one of the most interesting groups of material on account of their low weight, high strength and stiffness. To obtain good quality holes, it is important to identify the type of material, ply stacking sequence and fibre orientation. In this paper, the drilling of quasi-isotropic hybrid carbon+glass/epoxy plates is analyzed. Two commer...

The fracture of brittle amorphous materials is an especially challenging problem, because the way a large object shatters is intimately tied to details of cohesion at microscopic scales. This subject has been plagued by conceptual puzzles, and to make matters worse, experiments seemed to contradict the most "rmly established theories. In this review, we will show that the theory and experiments...

Flaws in material, appearing because of imperfections, manufacturing faults or severe service conditions, can easily threaten the structural integrity of engineering components. This is particularly dangerous when concerning equipment whose purpose is to protect larger systems, e.g. pressure safety valves (PSV) that protect pressure vessels and equipment of overpressure. Catastrophic consequenc...