Absract on "The Phenomena of Rupture and Flow in Solids"

502 Words3 Pages
Abstract on A.A Griffith, “The Phenomena of Rupture and Flow in Solids”, Retrospective Fracture Mechanics, Vol. CCXXI- A 587, October 21, 1920. This paper deals with the understanding of the formation and spreading of cracks or flaws in a material and their effect on its strength. The author looks into the intermolecular cohesion for an explanation for this behavior. The previous explanations on the effect of cracks in bodies stated that the maximum stress and strain in a body with cracks is 2 to 6 times higher than one without cracks, depending on their shape and nature of applied stress and independent of absolute size of the crack. This, though, is in contradiction with experimental results. It was found that reducing the size of the cracks increases the strength. For a better explanation, the author states that the Theorem of Minimum Potential Energy may be extended, taking into account the increase in the surface energy due to formation of cracks. It is necessary, for this to hold, that the strains be elastic. The problem then is to provide a viable explanation for when the strains are not elastic or when the size of the crack is comparable to the molecular distances. Thus the author looks into molecular behavior. He proposes that the intermolecular attraction is not function of distance only but also the orientation of the molecules. In a body, being assumed to be an amorphous collection of molecules, the molecules arrange themselves so as to attain equilibrium, forming groups or chains of molecules, called units. This formation may cause the formation of flaws in the body. Application of stress in such a body, causes a deformation between layers of these molecules with least attraction between them or in other words, along the gliding planes. From this theory, it is shown that the loss of strain energy due to the formation and extension of cracks is

More about Absract on "The Phenomena of Rupture and Flow in Solids"

Open Document