The latest volume in this ongoing series provides thirty-eight peer-reviewed papers that examine the latest worldwide research related to fatigue and fracture.

The first paper, authored by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Frank McClintock, provides a description of slip-line fracture mechanics (SLFM) and its application to fracture problems. SLFM is expected to fill some of the gap for materials/conditions where J-integral no longer applies (too much ductility and/or too much crack growth) and plastic collapse.

The remaining papers are broadly grouped into the following categories:

Practical Applications--describes and discusses the damage caused by the Northridge earthquake. It also covers the use of fracture mechanics based techniques developed in Europe to predict structural integrity, the effects of hydrogen or fatigue on sub-critical crack growth, and material selection based on structural performance. This section includes specific examples of structural problems.

Constraint Effects and Fracture of Welds--explores the effects of constraint, including crack-front stress fields, plane-strain fracture toughness/constraint to predict the applied stress-intensity factor/constraint, the location around the perimeter where crack growth initiation will occur, and T-stress in analyses of fracture toughness data. This section also examines welds, including the role of localized plasticity and crack-tip constraint in under matched welds, cleavage fracture in welds, fabrication history relative to weld fracture and durability, and creep-crack growth.

Fatigue--covers the uncertainty of fatigue crack growth rates and the applied stress-intensity factor ranges, load interactions on the growth of small cracks, mean stress effects on fatigue crack growth rates, the fatigue crack growth mechanisms in alumina at high temperatures, frequency effects, non-planar crack growth, and corrosion fatigue.

Assorted Topics--discusses aspects of crack closure, problems related to the ductile-brittle transition zone, decohesion and crack initiation, crack arrest toughness in ferritic steels, cracks with multiple kinks, and an innovative method for measuring fracture toughness.