Pre-Failure, Post-Failure, and Mechanistic Aspects of Brittle Behaviour

Abstract

The experimental studies reviewed in Chapter 3 and 5 have been concerned only with brittle fracture from a macroscopic point of view; brittle fracture is viewed as a singular event, occurring after an unrelated, essentially elastic deformation and characterized by the peak stress or “fracture stress”. The theoretical approach of Chapter 4 sets out from the same viewpoint, but it is soon apparent that the brittle failure has to be seen as the culmination of a progressive development of cracking. Closer observation supports this view and has yielded a great deal of information bearing on the mechanism of brittle failure, especially under predominantly compressive conditions.