ABSTRACT
Since the advent of optical and electron microscopes, physicists and materials engineers have studied the phenomenon of fracture at the atomic and mesoscopic scale. There has always been keen interest in understanding the microscopic aspects of fracture with a goal of improving the fracture resistance (or fracture toughness) of materials and in exploring the relationship between deformation and fracture. Fracture at the microscopic level can be classified as cleavage fracture and fracture by microvoid initiation, growth, and coalescence. Both mechanisms can coexist that considerably complicates the phenomenon of fracture and it leads to scatter in the data, making prediction difficult. In this chapter, we explore how fracture mechanics and the mechanistic aspects of fracture can be combined to improve our predictive capability of fracture and to develop more fracture-resistant materials.
