绪论

Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics to characterize the material's resistance to fracture.

研究裂纹在材料中的传播。微观：缺陷

Fracture is a multi-scale process

• 空间
  • De-cohesion of atomic bonds
  • Micro-crack
• 时间
  • Catastrophic fracture（灾变裂纹），\(1 \, \mathrm{nm / ps}\)

工程中的重要性

• 机械和土木结构的失效
  • Liberty ships (WWII)：Brittle fracture