"This book emphasizes the physical and practical aspects of fatigue and fracture. It covers mechanical properties of materials, differences between ductile and brittle fractures, fracture mechanics, the basics of fatigue, structural joints, high temperature failures, wear, environmentally-induced failures, and steps in the failure analysis process."--publishers website.

The First African InterQuadrennial ICF Conference “AIQ-ICF2008” on Damage and Fracture Mechanics – Failure Analysis of Engineering Materials and Structures”, Algiers, Algeria, June 1–5, 2008 is the first in the series of InterQuadrennial Conferences on Fracture to be held in the continent of Africa. During the conference, African researchers have shown that they merit a strong reputation in international circles and continue to make substantial contributions to the field of fracture mechanics. As in most countries, the research effort in Africa is und- taken at the industrial, academic, private sector and governmental levels, and covers the whole spectrum of fracture and fatigue. The AIQ-ICF2008 has brought together researchers and engineers to review and discuss advances in the development of methods and approaches on Damage and Fracture Mechanics. By bringing together the leading international experts in the field, AIQ-ICF promotes technology transfer and provides a forum for industry and researchers of the host nation to present their accomplishments and to develop new ideas at the highest level. International Conferences have an important role to play in the technology transfer process, especially in terms of the relationships to be established between the participants and the informal exchange of ideas that this ICF offers.

Fatigue Testing and Analysis: Theory and Practice presents the latest, proven techniques for fatigue data acquisition, data analysis, and test planning and practice. More specifically, it covers the most comprehensive methods to capture the component load, to characterize the scatter of product fatigue resistance and loading, to perform the fatigue damage assessment of a product, and to develop an accelerated life test plan for reliability target demonstration. This book is most useful for test and design engineers in the ground vehicle industry. Fatigue Testing and Analysis introduces the methods to account for variability of loads and statistical fatigue properties that are useful for further probabilistic fatigue analysis. The text incorporates and demonstrates approaches that account for randomness of loading and materials, and covers the applications and demonstrations of both linear and double-linear damage rules. The reader will benefit from summaries of load transducer designs and data acquisition techniques, applications of both linear and non-linear damage rules and methods, and techniques to determine the statistical fatigue properties for the nominal stress-life and the local strain-life methods. - Covers the useful techniques for component load measurement and data acquisition, fatigue properties determination, fatigue analysis, and accelerated life test criteria development, and, most importantly, test plans for reliability demonstrations - Written from a practical point of view, based on the authors' industrial and academic experience in automotive engineering design - Extensive practical examples are used to illustrate the main concepts in all chapters

Fatigue failure is a multi-stage process. It begins with the initiation of cracks, and with continued cyclic loading the cracks propagate, finally leading to the rupture of a component or specimen. The demarcation between the above stages is not well-defined. Depending upon the scale of interest, the variation may span three orders of magnitude. For example, to a material scientist an initiated crack may be of the order of a micron, whereas for an engineer it can be of the order of a millimetre. It is not surprising therefore to see that investigation of the fatigue process has followed different paths depending upon the scale of phenomenon under investigation. Interest in the study of fatigue failure increased with the advent of industrial ization. Because of the urgent need to design against fatigue failure, early investiga tors focused on prototype testing and proposed failure criteria similar to design formulae. Thus, a methodology developed whereby the fatigue theories were proposed based on experimental observations, albeit at times with limited scope. This type of phenomenological approach progressed rapidly during the past four decades as closed-loop testing machines became available.

Bringing together materials mechanics and modelling, this book provides a complete guide to damage mechanics of composite materials for engineers.

The failure of any welded joint is at best inconvenient and at worst can lead to catastrophic accidents. Fracture and fatigue of welded joints and structures analyses the processes and causes of fracture and fatigue, focusing on how the failure of welded joints and structures can be predicted and minimised in the design process.Part one concentrates on analysing fracture of welded joints and structures, with chapters on constraint-based fracture mechanics for predicting joint failure, fracture assessment methods and the use of fracture mechanics in the fatigue analysis of welded joints. In part two, the emphasis shifts to fatigue, and chapters focus on a variety of aspects of fatigue analysis including assessment of local stresses in welded joints, fatigue design rules for welded structures, k-nodes for offshore structures and modelling residual stresses in predicting the service life of structures.With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, Fracture and fatigue of welded joints and structures is an essential reference for mechanical, structural and welding engineers, as well as those in the academic sector with a research interest in the field. - Analyses the processes and causes of fracture and fatigue, focusing predicting and minimising the failure of welded joints in the design process - Assesses the fracture of welded joints and structure featuring constraint-based fracture mechanics for predicting joint failure - Explores specific considerations in fatigue analysis including the assessment of local stresses in welded joints and fatigue design rules for welded structures

These volumes cover the properties, processing, and applications of metals and nonmetallic engineering materials. They are designed to provide the authoritative information and data necessary for the appropriate selection of materials to meet critical design and performance criteria.

Engineering materials are routinely subjected to fatigue loading in a wide variety of applications in the aeronautical, automotive, nuclear plant, petroleum and transportation industries. Contemporary fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack propagation methodologies are discussed while problems in the area of crack closure, loading spectra and multiaxial loading are addressed from both analytical and experimental aspects.

In the preliminary stage of designing new structural hardware that must perform a given mission in a fluctuating load environment, there are several factors the designers should consider. Trade studies for different design configurations should be performed and, based on strength and weight considerations, among others, an optimum configuration selected. The selected design must be able to withstand the environment in question without failure. Therefore, a comprehen sive structural analysis that consists of static, dynamic, fatigue, and fracture is necessary to ensure the integrity of the structure. During the past few decades, fracture mechanics has become a necessary discipline for the solution of many structural problems. These problems include the prevention of failures resulting from preexisting cracks in the parent material, welds or that develop under cyclic loading environment during the life of the structure. The importance of fatigue and fracture in nuclear, pressure vessel, aircraft, and aerospace structural hardware cannot be overemphasized where safety is of utmost concern. This book is written for the designer and strength analyst, as well as for the material and process engineer who is concerned with the integrity of the structural hardware under load-varying environments in which fatigue and frac ture must be given special attention. The book is a result of years of both acade mic and industrial experiences that the principal author and co-authors have accumulated through their work with aircraft and aerospace structures.