Welcome to ME036004 - Introduction to Fracture Mechanics
============================



## Overview

Over the years Fracture mechanics ha evolved from a theoretical framework to a practical approach for design and reliability assessment. The aim of this introductory class is to present the basic concepts of fracture mechanics for undergraduate & graduate students, which are interested in broadening their understanding of design principles originating from solid mechanics and materials science. 
We will start by laying the required foundations for understanding **Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics** and the concept of **Small Scale Yielding** . Building upon these foundations, the role of a material's **microstructure** on its ability to resist crack growth will be discussed. Next, we will discover how the concepts learned so far relate to the phenomena of **Fatigue** which in turn accounts for ~25% of structural failure in engineering components and more than **50%** of failures in aircraft components [^I1].      

## Reading Materials

* Links within the lecture notes and Moodle course website.
* Anderson, T.L., 2017. Fracture mechanics: fundamentals and applications. CRC press.
* Dharan, C.K.H. and Kang, B.S., 2016. Finnie's Notes on Fracture Mechanics.
* François, D., Pineau, A. and Zaoui, A., 2012. Mechanical behaviour of materials: volume ii: fracture mechanics and damage (Vol. 191). Springer Science & Business Media.

## Communication
Course email: [ME036004@gmail.com. ](mailto:ME036004@gmail.com)

Lecture notes: [Course Website](https://sosovski.group/ME036004/Syllabus.html).

Course discussions: [MS Teams Class team](https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3AkkjRK_SatncIg1RgueYqCwVOgLHD7QpDHOFNcKVNBgM1%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=7f3322b4-40b9-4836-9ed7-eee6ff423a0f&tenantId=f1502c4c-ee2e-411c-9715-c855f6753b84).

Announcments: Moodle course website and MS-Teams.

Reception hours: Wednesday 12:30 to 13:30
## Assignments and grading

The final grade will be combined of 30% homework assignments, 10% project proposal (5-10 minutes presentation), 60% project evaluation (oral presentation + written report).

### Homework assignments
A total of 3 assignments will be given during the semester.  All homework assignments are to be submitted in order to pass the course. 

HW1 - 10%;    HW2 - 10%;   HW3 - 10%  

The HWs will be published two weeks before the submission date.

The HW grading is binary. 

### Course project

The projects can be of computational, theoretical or experimental nature. 

At week 8 of the semester each student/group (up to 2 students) will present their project while emphasizing:
* The theoretical background of the project.
* The problem to be solved.
* The solution approach.
* What will be considered as a success of the project.

```{admonition} Important dates
|Date |Task|Submision Format|
|:-:|:--|--:|
| Week 4| HW1|Moodle|
|Week 7 | HW2|Moodle|
|Week 8 |Project proposal |Oral presentation|
|Week 10 |HW3 |Moodle|
|Week 12  |Project presentation| Oral presentation|
|Week 13| Project report|Moodle|
```

## Table of Contents

```{tableofcontents}
```

[^I1]: Why aircraft fail. Materialstoday, Vol. 5 p.18-25, 2002.