Crack Paths 2006

University of Parma

Parma, IT

September 14-16, 2006

Crack growth can take place under both static and fatigue loading. The complete solution of a crack growth problem includes the determination of the path taken by the crack. The crack path in a critical component or structure in aerospace, automotive, offshore and other industries can determine whether failure is benign or catastrophic. Knowledge of potential crack paths is also needed for the selection of appropriate non-destructive testing procedures. Agreement between theoretically predicted and experimentally determined crack paths is often poor, and there is relatively little information available on how to ensure that a crack path is benign.

The determination of crack paths is a matter of concern to engineers, industry experts and research scientists, from both a fundamental science standpoint and a technological one. The International Conference on Crack Paths will bring together both fatigue and fracture experts from Industries, Universities and so on, to exchange recent information and provide a discussion forum on how to promote research and development in this field early in the 21st Century.

The scope of this Conference is to focus on the state-of-the-art experimental techniques, and numerical and analytical models for the determination of crack paths in solids made of a broad range of materials, together with the application of crack path data to the design of components and structures subjected to both static and fatigue loading.

This Conference follows the Conference on Fatigue Crack Paths (FCP 2003) held in Parma in September 2003. A special issue of the International Journal of Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures (Vol.28, No.1-2, 2005) has been devoted to works presented at that Conference.