Project overview

The project I'm working on is the study of Three-Dimensional Fracture Mechanics. This project is conducted by Prof James Marrow.

Usually, the fracture resistance of engineering materials is measured using standard two-dimensional test specimens. But real cracks and engineering components are three-dimensional, so approximations and adjustments are needed to reliably assess their structural integrity.

Over-conservatism, to safely account for the uncertainties in these adjustments, can have significant economic consequences.

Digital correlation image analysis, combined with new X-ray tomography techniques, allows precise, in-situ, measurement of the material displacements inside solid samples. In an optimisation approach that combines these novel observations with finite element modelling of deformation and damage, we will investigate the propagation of three-dimensional cracks in a range of engineering and model materials.

The aim of the project is to validate the current design rules for complex crack shapes and their interactions with three-dimensional stress gradients.

My work in this project will be to help developing tools for three-dimensional studies of materials for energy.