ON THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF NONEQUILIBRIUM STATISTICAL FRACTURE-MECHANICS

Nonequilibrium statistical fracture mechanics is a theory of fracture that macromechanical quantities can be derived from the microscopic at omic mechanism of microcrack (or microvoid) evolution dynamics by mean s of nonequilibrium statistical physical concepts and methods. The mic rocrack evolution equation is the central equation in the theory. The coefficients of the equation, the microcrack growth rate and microcrac k nucleation rate, come from microscopic atomic mechanism. The solutio n of the equation connects with macromechanical quantities by the mode l of the weakest chain. All the other formulas and quantities, for ins tance, microcrack distribution function, fracture probability, reliabi lity, failure rate and macromechanical quantities such as strength, to ughness, life etc. and their statistical distribution function and sta tistical fluctuations are derived in a unified fashion and expressed b y a few physical parameters. This theory can be widely applied to vari ous kinds of fracture, such as brittle, fatigue, delayed and environme ntal, of metals and structural ceramics. A detailed discussion in this paper is given on theoretical framework of nonequilibrium statistical Fracture mechanics by the way of brittle and fatigue fracture of meta ls. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.