The main steps of the proof of the existence result for the quasi-static evolution of cracks in brittle materials, obtained in [7] in the vector case and for a general quasiconvex elastic energy, are presented here under the simplifying assumption that the minimizing sequences involved in the problem are uniformly bounded in L.

The testing of mode III and mixed mode failure is every so often encountered in the dedicated literature of mechanical characterization of brittle and quasi-brittle materials. In this work, the application of the mixed strain displacement ε − u finite element formulation to three examples involving skew notched beams is presented. The use of this FE technology is effective in problems involving...

Brittle engineering ceramics usually fail due to flaws that are distributed in the material. Their strength depends on the length of the major flaw, which may be different from specimen to specimen, being described by a probability function. If the material exibits a statistical distribution of independent flaws and the weak link hypothesis is fulfilled, i.e., the specimen fails if its weakest ...

We have demonstrated the ability to perform a ductile material removal operation, via single-point diamond turning, on single-crystal silicon carbide (6H). To our knowledge, this is the first reported work on the ductile machining of single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC). SiC experiences a ductile-to-brittle transition similar to other nominally brittle materials such as silicon, germanium, and ...