Rochester, New York Section

Overview of Fracture Mechanics:
Applications from Adhesion to Zirconia

Stephen J. Burns, Chair Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Rochester January 23, 2003 This Talk will be presented at the Center For Optics Manufacturing Click for Map University of Rochester Please plan to arrive at COM between 5:30 and 6:00pm. There will be a Poster Session and a light dinner (at a cost of about $10 per plate), followed by Professor Burns’ presentation.

Abstract

One of the most successful advances in mechanics in the last 40 years has been in the area of fracture and failure analysis. This talk is intended to apply fracture mechanics concepts to a wide selection of technical problems. The history and several of the basic assumptions in fracture mechanics will be reviewed. The physics and energetics of cracking are quite general. The applications will include optical grinding and polishing; structural failures; biological lithotripsy; super-tough ceramics; particle adhesion, cutting, etc. There is a close connection between the understanding of the failure of solids, cutting, adhesion between materials, and fracture processes. These disciplines study the same phenomena from different points of view: Fracture mechanics predicts why cracks propagate while adhesion is directed to atomic or nanostructural scales describing materials sticking; tribology which is closely related is the sliding of dissimilar materials. Included are some new results; especially on controlled fracture and stability for adhesion problems; dislocation crack tip shielding, slow crack growth, and crack wake toughening which are well known from fracture physics, they add some new insights into adhesion and cutting phenomena.