APPLIED FRACTURE
MECHANICS

Edited by Alexander Belov








Applied Fracture Mechanics

Edited by Alexander Belov

Contributors
A. Yu. Belov, Lucas Máximo Alves, Luiz Alkimin de Lacerda, Karl-Johan Söderholm, Ilya I.
Kudish, Kunio Asai, Sylwester Kłysz, Andrzej Leski, Narciso Acuña-González, Jorge A. González-
Sánchez, Luis R. Dzib-Pérez, Aarón Rivas-Menchi, Dino A. Araneo, Francesco D’Auria, Ľubomír
Gajdoš, Martin Šperl, Mahmood Sameezadeh, Hassan Farhangi, A. Guedri, Y. Djebbar, Moe.
Khaleel, A. Zeghloul, Ruslizam Daud, Ahmad Kamal Ariffin, Shahrum Abdullah, Al Emran Ismail

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First published December, 2012
Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from


Applied Fracture Mechanics, Edited by Alexander Belov
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0897-9









Contents

Preface IX
Section 1 Computational Methods of Fracture Mechanics 1
Chapter 1 Higher Order Weight Functions
in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials 3
A. Yu. Belov
Chapter 2 Foundations of Measurement Fractal
Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 19
Lucas Máximo Alves
Chapter 3 Fractal Fracture Mechanics
Applied to Materials Engineering 67
Lucas Máximo Alves and Luiz Alkimin de Lacerda
Section 2 Fracture of Biological Tissues 107
Chapter 4 Fracture of Dental Materials 109
Karl-Johan Söderholm
Section 3 Fracture Mechanics Based Models of Fatigue 143
Chapter 5 Fracture Mechanics Based Models of Structural
and Contact Fatigue 145
Ilya I. Kudish
Chapter 6 Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Fretting Fatigue
Considering Small Crack Effects, Mixed Mode,
and Mean Stress Effect 177
Kunio Asai
Chapter 7 Good Practice for Fatigue Crack
Growth Curves Description 197

Sylwester Kłysz and Andrzej Leski
VI Contents

Chapter 8 Early Corrosion Fatigue Damage on Stainless Steels Exposed
to Tropical Seawater: A Contribution from Sensitive
Electrochemical Techniques 229
Narciso Acuña-González, Jorge A. González-Sánchez,
Luis R. Dzib-Pérez and Aarón Rivas-Menchi
Section 4 Fracture Mechanics Aspects of Power Engineering 261
Chapter 9 Methodology for Pressurized Thermal Shock Analysis
in Nuclear Power Plant 263
Dino A. Araneo and Francesco D’Auria
Section 5 Developments in Civil and Mechanical Engineering 281
Chapter 10 Evaluating the Integrity of Pressure
Pipelines by Fracture Mechanics 283
Ľubomír Gajdoš and Martin Šperl
Chapter 11 Fracture Analysis of Generator Fan Blades 311
Mahmood Sameezadeh and Hassan Farhangi
Chapter 12 Structural Reliability Improvement Using In-Service
Inspection for Intergranular Stress Corrosion
of Large Stainless Steel Piping 331
A. Guedri, Y. Djebbar, Moe. Khaleel and A. Zeghloul
Chapter 13 Interacting Cracks Analysis
Using Finite Element Method 359
Ruslizam Daud, Ahmad Kamal Ariffin,
Shahrum Abdullah and Al Emran Ismail










Preface

Knowledge accumulated in the science of fracture can be considered as an intellectual
heritage of humanity. Already at the end of Palaeolithic Era humans made first
observations on cleavage of flint and applied them to produce sharp stone axes and
other tools. The coming of Industrial Era with its attributes in the form of skyscrapers,
jumbo jets, giant cruise ships, or nuclear power plants increased probability of large
scale accidents and made deep understanding of the laws of fracture a question of
survival. In the 20th century fracture mechanics has evolved into a mature discipline
of science and engineering and became an important aspect of engineering education.
At present, our understanding of fracture mechanisms is developing rapidly and
numerous new insights gained in this field are, to a significant degree, defining the
face of contemporary engineering science. The power of modern supercomputers
substantially increases the reliability of fracture mechanics based predictions, making
fracture mechanics an indispensable tool in engineering design. Today fracture
mechanics faces a range of new problems, which is too vast to be discussed
comprehensively in a short Preface.
This book is a collection of 13 chapters, divided into five sections primarily according
to the field of application of the fracture mechanics methodology. Assignment of the
chapters to the sections only indicates the main contents of a chapter because some
chapters are interdisciplinary and cover different aspects of fracture.
In section "Computational Methods" the topics comprise discussion of computational
and mathematical methods, underlying fracture mechanics applications, namely, the
weight function formalism of linear fracture mechanics (chapter 1) as well as the fractal
geometry based formulation of the fracture mechanics laws (chapter 2). These chapters

attempt to overview the complex mathematical concepts in the form intelligible to a
broad audience of scientists and engineers. The fractal models of fracture are further
applied (chapter 3) to analyze experimental data in terms of fractal geometry.
Section "Fracture of Biological Tissues" focuses on discussion on the strength of
biological tissues, in particular, on human teeth tissues such as enamel and dentin
(chapter 4). On the basis of the structure-property relation analysis for the biological
tissues the perspective directions for the development of artificial restorative materials
for dentistry are formulated.
X Preface

Section "Fracture Mechanics Based Models of Fatigue" reminds that the phenomenon
of fatigue still remains an important direction in fracture mechanics and attracts
considerable attention of researches and engineers. The chapters presented here show
efficacy of the traditional statistical approach and its improved versions in description
of structural fatigue (chapter 5), fretting fatigue (chapter 6), and in fitting experimental
fatigue crack growth curves (chapter 7). Even more complicated case of fatigue,
namely the fatigue of steal in natural seawater at temperatures of tropical climates, is
discussed with an account of the role of electrochemical processes (chapter 8).
Section “Fracture Mechanics Aspects of Power Engineering” contains one chapter
(chapter 9) dealing with application of fracture mechanics to the problems of safety
and lifetime of nuclear reactor components, primarily reactor pressure vessels with
emphasis on pressurized thermal shock events.
Section “Developments in Civil and Mechanical Engineering” deals with fracture
mechanics analysis of large scale engineering structures, including various pipelines
(chapters 10 and 12), generator fan blades (chapter 11), or of some more general
industrial failures (chapter 13).
The topics of this book cover a wide range of directions for application of fracture
mechanics analysis in materials science, medicine, and engineering (power,
mechanical, and civil). In many cases the reported experience of the authors with
commercial engineering software may be also of value to engineers applying such

codes. The book is intended for mechanical and civil engineers, and also to material
scientists from industry, research, or education.

Alexander Belov
Institute of Crystallography
Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow
Russia




Section 1




Computational Methods of Fracture Mechanics