Determination of dynamic fracture initiation toughness of linear elastic materials

The need to guarantee the structural integrity of key mechanical and struct ural components require the use of the damage tolerant concepts in their de sign, and the fracture properties of the material must be known in actual o perations conditions, The behaviour of components subjected to dynamic load s is very different from that under static loads: the existence of inertial forces and the strain rate mak. affect the properties of the material. Thi s works aims to present the experimental techniques most commonly used to d etermine the dynamic fracture properties of linear elastic materials, as we ll as the analytical and numerical tools used to interpret the experiments.