ABSTRACT
An interface edge is the likeliest site of fracture initiation because
of the stress singularity due to modulus mismatch. As illustrated
in Fig. 6.1, the singular stress (stress-concentrated) region near the
interface edge proportionally scales down (Becker et al., 1997) in
a continuum media as the size of a component becomes small. In
a component with single-micrometer or nanometer size, the region
governed by the singular field is confined in the nanoscale (Kiramura
et al., 2002, 2003). In such a case, the applicability of fracture
mechanics to the crack initiation from the edge is questionable
because the concept is built on continuummechanics.
