TY - JOUR A1 - Zerbst, Uwe A1 - Klinger, Christian A1 - Clegg, R. T1 - Fracture mechanics as a tool in failure analysis - Prospects and limitations N2 - Although fatigue crack propagation and fracture cause a large part of failure events in industrial practice, fracture mechanics in failure analysis seems to be still a side issue. Starting from an introduction into important basic questions of failure analysis and fracture mechanics, the authors specify what kind of questions in failure analysis can be effectively solved by fracture mechanics (and which can't). They illustrate their discussion with a number of 13 case studies from the literature. Much more pronounced than in the design stage the benefit of fracture mechanics in failure analysis depends on its accuracy. This is limited by both, intrinsic factors of the method and the availability and quality of the input information. The authors discuss the various aspects and provide the reader with some background information which, as they believe, will be helpful for better understanding the prospects and limitations of fracture mechanics in failure analysis and the conditions of its application. KW - Failure analysis KW - Fracture mechanics KW - Fatigue KW - Root cause KW - Accompanying measures PY - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2015.07.001 SN - 1350-6307 SN - 1873-1961 VL - 55 SP - 376 EP - 410 PB - Elsevier Science Publ. CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-33839 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -