Some aspects of fracture pertinent to viscoelastic materials

Abstract

The basic mechanics of fracture in viscoelastic materials are reviewed beginning with the early Rivlin-Thomas extension of the classical Griffith energy concept. Some current thoughts regarding fracture initiation and propagation are described with special attention to situations occurring in typical solid rocket motor geometries, such as star valley cracking, stress singularity effects at discontinuities, and flaw growth at the liner-case interface. The necessity of extending fracture criteria to conditions of arbitrary strain rate history is emphasized.

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