Fracture Toughness of Structural Members

Abstract. In the paper several formulae to compute the fracture toughness are presented. The formulae include either parameter characterizing the in-plane constraint or out-of-plane constraint or both. The formulae are based on different assumptions and approaches to fracture mechanics. Namely, small or finite strains were assumed, global or local approach was adopted. In all cases the standard, plain strain fracture toughness was used as a reference state.