Fracture Mechanics and Fatigue of Structures

At the end of this course, the student must be able to:

• Compute fatigue damage and (brittle) fracture using fracture mechanics;
• Apply analytical and numerical methods to compute Stress Intensity Factors (SIF) ;
• Compute fatigue crack development and life of structural elements;
• Apply the bases for designing and conducting fatigue and fracture testing;
• Apply statistical concepts to infer fatigue strength curves, including safety parameters;
• Conduct engineering critical assessment of flaws in metallic structures using the failure
• assessment diagram;

Transverse competences:

• Use an appropriate working methodology, organize his/her wor;.
• Exchange with professionals from other disciplines;
• Access appropriate information sources and evaluate them.

1. Develop long-term competencies in applied fracture mechanics;
2. Understand the bases and limits of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM);
3. Develop long-term competencies in fracture mechanics numerical methods;
4. Evaluate Stress Intensity Factors (SIF) by various methods ;
5. Understand the links between LEFM and fatigue strength curves;
6. Analyse fatigue test data using standard and more advanced methods;
7. Conduct engineering critical assessment of flaws in metallic structures using the failure assessment diagram;
8. Understand the principles and the outcomes of standard and advanced fatigue and fracture testing.

Prerequisites
The course should be accessible to any student in material science, mechanical, civil, building, aeronautical engineering who has completed a University Bachelor’s program. The learning prerequisites for the course are:

• Continuum mechanics ;
• Structural mechanics ;
• Mechanics of materials ;
• Finite element method;
• Probability and statistics ;
• Programming in Python. Facultative, programming in Matlab since some routines in the exercises are in Matlab (not part of the course but needed if you wish to understand and use/modify those routines later).

Continuum mechanics ; Structural mechanics ; Mechanics of materials ; Finite element method; Probability and statistics ; Programming

“lectures and practices”