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...

Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) and TZM molybdenum have excellent creep resistance and strength at high temperatures in inert atmospheres. Fracture toughness and tensile testing was performed at temperatures between -1 50°C and 450°C to characterize 6.35 mm thick plate material of ODS and TZM molybdenum. A transition from low fracture toughness values (5.8 to 29.6 MPaJm) to values > 30 MPaJ...

Fiber reinforcement is an important method to enhance the performance of concrete. In this study, the compressive test and impact test were conducted, and then the hybrid effect between steel fiber (SF) and carbon fiber (CF) was evaluated by employing the hybrid effect index. Compressive toughness and impact toughness of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC), carbon fiber reinforced concrete (...

S E On the Fracture Toughness of Advanced Materials A R C H By Maximilien E. Launey, and Robert O. Ritchie* N E W S Few engineering materials are limited by their strength; rather they are limited by their resistance to fracture or fracture toughness. It is not by accident that most critical structures, such as bridges, ships, nuclear pressure vessels and so forth, are manufactured from materia...

[1] Dry slab avalanches release by propagation of shear fractures in a thin, planar weak layer underneath a cohesive, stronger slab. This implies that a balance between shear fracture toughness and the shear fracture stress intensity factor fundamentally determines snow slab stability. Conventionally, fracture toughness is a material property and, for most materials, emphasis is on tensile frac...

We have conducted a study of toughening mechanisms in rubber modified polycarbonate systems in order to evaluate the sequence of deformation events which improve fracture toughness. We conclude that cavitation of the rubber particles occurs first, followed by massive shear yielding of the matrix material. The size and shape of the deformation zone created in front of the crack is governed by th...

M. Sedlaček, B. Podgornik, Institute of Metals and Technology, Ljubljana, Slovenia, D. Česnik, Hidria Rotomatika d.o.o, Spodnja Idrija, Slovenia The aim of this work was to determine the impact of various heat treatments on the KIc/HRc ratio and subsequently on the wear properties of coated high-speed steel under dynamic impact loading. The results showed that hardness and improvement in the fr...

The cleavage fracture of a carbon structural steel is shown to deviate from what is typical of a ferritic matrix. This occurs at temperatures ranging from 150 to 20 C and affects the scatter of fracture toughness, and fractographic features. To explain the observed discrepancies a probabilistic model is developed by linking physical mechanisms of cleavage with continuum mechanics analysis appli...

Natural and artificial materials including rocks and cement-based materials such as concrete and cement mortar are affected both physically and chemically by various natural factors known as weathering factors. The freeze-thaw process, as a weathering factor, considerably affects the properties of rocks and concrete. Therefore, the effect of the freeze-thaw process on the physical and mechanica...