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We describe the application of the dual boundary element method for the determination of stress intensity factors in plate bending problems. The loadings considered include internal pressure, and also combined bending and tension. Mixed mode stress intensity factors are evaluated by a crack surface displacement extrapolation technique and the J-integral technique. The boundary element results for the case studies considered in the paper have been compared with either analytical or finite element results and in all cases good agreement has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New methods to formulate fracture mechanics parameters are presented. These include the common format that relates the deformation behavior of a cracked structure or specimen to the deformation behavior of a tensile test and the concise format that suggests a shortened form of common fracture mechanics parameters to replace the usual polynomial formulations. These forms may give an easier way to use the fracture mechanics parameters in analytical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hold times of 300 and 3600 s under trapezoidal cyclic loading are shown to result in an increase in crack growth rates by many factors of ten for EP962 alloy and several times for EP742 alloy at a temperature 973 K. It has been found that in case the creep crack growth diagram has a first segment where the crack growth rate decreases, the crack growth kinetics under trapezoidal cyclic loading can be predicted by means of the hypothesis of linear summation of fatigue and creep crack growth rates considering special features of the first segment of the creep crack growth diagram. The authors put forward empirical approaches to determining the mean rate on the first segment of the creep crack growth diagram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Unified Curve method as proposed by the authors earlier and a probabilistic model based on the local approach and physical background of the influence of impurities and carbide size on the local strength of material, a method has been elaborated for predicting a variation of the temperature dependence of fracture toughness with neutron fluence. The results calculated by this method are compared to the available experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]