Course Details

Fracture Mechanics

Academic Year 2025/26

NDB031 course is part of 1 study plan

​ NPC-SIK Winter Semester 2nd year

Course Guarantor

prof. Ing. Zbyněk Keršner, CSc.

Institute

Institute of Structural Mechanics

Language of instruction

Czech

Credits

5 credits

Semester

winter

Forms and criteria of assessment

course-unit credit and examination

Offered to foreign students

Not to offer

Course on BUT site

https://www.vut.cz/en/students/courses/detail/295883

Lecture

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, elective

Syllabus

  • 1. Introduction to mechanics of material, theory of materials failures and fracture mechanics. Linear elastic fracture mechanics – energy/stress approach.
  • 2. Fracture parameters of material, fracture toughness, fracture energy, characteristic length. Methods for determination of fracture parameters, function of geometry.
  • 3. Two-parameters fracture mechanics. Non-linear fracture behaviour, approximate non-linear models, resistance curves and surfaces.
  • 4. Toughening processes quantification. Determination of brittleness number. Size effect theory.
  • 5. Fractal dimension of crack and fracture surfaces.
  • 6. Modelling of failure of concrete structures using finite element method. Constitutive equations for concrete and other quasi-brittle materials.
  • 7.–8. Strain localization problems. Crack band model, non-local continuum mechanics. Fictitious crack model. Models of fixed/rotated crack.
  • 9.–10. Software; application – modelling of experiments/structures.

Exercise

13 weeks, 1 hours/week, compulsory

Syllabus

  • 1. Introduction to fracture mechanics, information sources. Theoretical study of fracture experiment.
  • 2. Fracture test – three-point bending of beam with central edge notch.
  • 3. Test evaluation – determination of effective fracture toughness, critical crack opening displacement, specific fracture energy.
  • 4. Wedge splitting fracture test (WST).
  • 5. WST evaluation – determination of fracture toughness, critical crack opening displacement, specific fracture energy.
  • 6. Resistance curves of selected fracture parameters. Quantification of toughening processes. Brittleness number determination.
  • 7.–8. Numerical simulation – data preparation. Software, simulation of fracture experiment.
  • 9.–10. Using parameters obtained in modelling of structural response. Credit.