ABSTRACT
In (macroscopic) continuum mechanics of elastic deformations, the failure of structures can generally be analyzed within the framework of fracture mechanics as one possible approach. In this paper, we restrict our considerations to the special case of linear elastic fracture mechanics as used in analyzing the fracture behavior of materials denoted as "brittle". A fundamental step was the introduction of the J-integral concept by Rice [6] as an appropriate criterion for crack propagation.
