Statistical formulation and experimental determination of growth rate of micrometre cracks under impact loading

new statistical formulation and a relevant experimental approach to determine the growth rate of microcracks were proposed. The method consists of experimental measurements and a statistical analysis on the basis of the conservation law of number density of microcracks in phase space. As a practical example of the method, the growth rate of microcracks appearing in an aluminium alloy subjected to planar impact loading was determined to be ca. 10 pm/ns under a tensile stress of 1470 MPa and load duration between 0.26 ps and 0.80 ns. c; 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.