Fracture mechanics

In this article, after a brief description of some signi®cant catastrophic structural failures going back to the period when iron and steel began to replace wood and masonry as the primary structural materials, the historical development of the ®eld of fracture mechanics is discussed. First, the basic concepts of the ®eld, the motivation underlying their development and the key contributions made in the area are brie¯y described. A summary of the key engineering applications of fracture mechanics, its methods, some recent important contributions and areas of future research is is then presented.