ABSTRACT
Fracture of engineering components is usually driven by the propagation and coalescence of various microcracks, voids and other similar defects of the material’s microstructure. These defects preexist in the microstructure due to manufacturing and fabrication of the component or can be created during deformation [1]. Considering that most engineering materials are heterogeneous at a certain scale and taking into account the evolution of new types of materials that are naturally heterogeneous such as composites, the knowledge of the fracture process from themicrocrack to the actual macrocrack is important for the better understanding and modeling of materials’ behavior.
