Fracture Mechanics and Fracture Control — A Synopsis for Ground–Vehicle Usage

An overview is given of the fracture mechanics methodologies for determining quantitative assessment of fatigue crack initiation, fatigue crack propagation, and final fracture of welded structural components. Most of the fatigue life of weldments is spent in propagating a crack to a critical size resulting in unstable fractures. Of particular significance to the designer is the realization that the fatigue crack growth rate is similar for all steels independent of strength level, toughness or microstructure.