Fracture mechanics has established itself as an important discipline of growing interest to those working to assess the safety, reliability and service life of engineering structures and materials. In order to calculate the loading situation at cracks and defects, nowadays numerical techniques like finite element method (FEM) have become indispensable tools for a broad range of applications. The present monograph provides an introduction to the essential concepts of fracture mechanics, its main goal being to procure the special techniques for FEM analysis of crack problems, which have to date only been mastered by experts. All kinds of static, dynamic and fatigue fracture problems are treated in two- and three-dimensional elastic and plastic structural components. The usage of the various solution techniques is demonstrated by means of sample problems selected from practical engineering case studies. The primary target group includes graduate students, researchers in academia and engineers in practice.

Preface1 Introduction2 Classification of fracture processes3 Basics of fracture mechanics4 Finite Element Method5 FE-techniques for crack analysis in linear-elastic structures6 Numerical calculation of generalized energy balance integrals7 FE-techniques for crack analysis in elastic-plastic structures8 Numerical simulation of crack propagation9 Practical applicationsAppendix: Fundamentals of strength of materialsIndex

After studying physics at the University of Magdeburg, Prof. Dr. Meinhard Kuna worked as researcher and group leader at the Academy of Sciences of GDR (Institute of Solid State Physics and Electron Microscopy) in Halle. At the university of Halle he graduated with PhD Thesis (1978) and habilitation (1991) in the field of numerical methods in fracture mechanics. After German reunification, he became head of department at Fraunhofer institute for Mechanics of Materials Freiburg/Halle and later at MPA Stuttgart. Since 1997 he is full Professor for Applied Mechanics and Solid Mechanics at TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

Prof. Kuna established an internationally recognized research group dealing with computational methods in fracture mechanics, damage mechanics and modelling of materials. His projects are devoted both to fundamental research and industrial applications, ranging from nuclear waste casks, piezoelectric materials to microelectronic devices.

Prof. Kuna published about 240 papers and one monograph. He organized several national and international scientific conferences on fracture mechanics and is member of Editorial Boards in international journals.