Advanced Fatigue-Crack-Growth and Fracture-Mechanics Program

The NASGRO 3.0 computer program is an advanced version of a program used by NASA and the European Space Agency for fracture-control analysis of space-system structures and other hardware. The prior version, NASA/FLAGRO 2.0, was described in “Updated Fatigue-Crack-Growth and Fracture-Mechanics Software” (MSC-22550), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 19, No. 12 (December 1995), page 74. NASGRO 3.0 affords additional capability for durability and damagetolerance analysis of aircraft structures and other mechanical systems. Because this code offers state-of-the-art and general capabilities in fracture mechanics and crack-propagation analysis, its usefulness extends beyond aerospace to numerous industrial applications: For example, it can provide guidance for prevention of catastrophic failures that originate in cracklike flaws in offshore oil structures, pressure vessels, pipes, diesel engines, and railroad tank cars. The program is also useful as an instructional device for courses in fatigue and fracture mechanics.