Chapter

Chapter 1
1

Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture

Mechanics of Multimaterials
A. Yu. Belov
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/55360

1. Introduction
The quantities characterizing near-tip elds of cracks are generally recognized to play a crucial
role in both linear and nonlinear fracture mechanics. Among various methods developed to
analyze the structure of the near-tip elds, the weight function technique of Bueckner [4, 6]
based on Bettis reciprocity theorem turned out to be especially promising. The concept of
higher-order weight functions in mechanics of elastic cracks was introduced by Sham [20, 21]
as an extension of the weight function approach. A historical introduction into the existing
alternative formulations of the weight function theory and a review of its earlier development
can be found in the papers by Belov and Kirchner [28, 31]. The theory of weight functions
treats the stress intensity factor K, which is a coefcient normalizing the stress singularity
= K/(2r )1/2 at the crack tip, as a linear functional of loadings applied to an elastic body.
The kernel of the functional is however independent of loadings and, in this sense, universal
for the given body geometry and crack conguration. To emphasize this fact, Bueckner [4]
suggested that the kernel to be called universal weight function. The weight functions play
the role of inuence functions for stress intensity factors, since the weight function value
at a point situated inside the body or at its surface (including crack faces) is equal to the
stress intensity factor, which is due to the unit concentrated force applied at this point. The
weight function based functionals can be constructed not only for external forces but also for
the dislocation distributions described by the dislocation density tensor, as it was shown by
Kirchner [14]. The objective of the weight function theory is not to compute complete stress
distributions in cracked bodies for an arbitrary loading, but to express only one parameter K
characterizing the strength of the near-tip stress eld as a functional (weighted average) of
the loading. In particular, in the simplest case of a cracked body subjected to only surface
loadings the functional has the form of a contour integral. However, in order to apply the
weight function theory to practical situations, the kernel of the functional has to be evaluated
and this can be done by solving a special elasticity problem, for instance, numerically by
a nite element method. The stress singularities are inherent not only to cracks. Sharp
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4 2Applied Fracture Mechanics

Applied Fracture Mechanics

re-entrant corners or notches that are encountered in a number of engineering structures

can become likely sites of stress concentrations and therefore the potential sources of the
crack initiation. At the tips (or vertices) of these notches the stress can be also singular
= K/r1s , where s > 0 and K is a generalized stress intensity factor normalizing the stress
singularity. An attractive feature of the approach based on Bettis reciprocity theorem is that
it enables for the weight functions to be constructed not only for sharp cracks but also for
notches of nite opening angle [19]. It is the purpose of this paper to review the main ideas
underlying the higher-order weight function methodology and to consider its applications to
elastically anisotropic multimaterials with notches or cracks. The present analysis is conned
to the two-dimensional structures in the state of the generalized plane deformation, where
considerable analytical advancement was demonstrated in the last two decades.
As is known, the stress eld in a nite two-dimensional elastic body containing an edge crack
can be represented in series form over homogeneous eigenfunctions of an innite plane with
a semi-innite crack. Such a series representation was rst utilized by Williams [1, 2] to
describe stress distributions around the crack tip, and is commonly referred to as Williams
eigenfunction expansion, although Williams conned himself only to the case of isotropy
and spacial homogeneity of the elastic constants tensor. The eigenfunction expansion of this
type however exists whatever the body is elastically isotropic or anisotropic, homogeneous
or angularly inhomogeneous (with elasticity constants dependent on the azimuth around the
crack tip). The weight functions introduced by Bueckner enable to evaluate only the stress
intensity K, that is the magnitude of the singular term, which close to the crack tip dominates
other terms in the Williams expansion. It is the purpose of higher order weight function
theory to evaluate coefcients of non-singular terms in this expansion.

2. Symmetry in anisotropic theory of elasticity

If one exploits the linear elasticity theory, the tensor of the second order elastic constants
Cijkl (r) of an anisotropic medium (both homogeneous and inhomogeneous) possesses the
following types of symmetry:
a) due to the symmetry of stresses and strains
Cijkl (r) = Cjikl (r) = Cijlk (r)

(1)

b) due to the existence of the elastic potential W ( kl )

Cijkl (r) = Cklij (r)

(2)

Owing to both properties given in Eqs. (1)-(2), one has

( ab ) = (ba)t ,

(3)

where the real 3 3 matrices are constructed according to the rule

( ab ) jk = ai Cijkl (r)bl

(4)

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Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials3 5

for two arbitrary vectors ai and bl . Although Eq. (3) looks rather simple, it underlies
many fundamental results of the anisotropic elasticity theory. In particular, the proof of the
orthogonality relation for the six-dimensional Stroh eigenvectors [3] is based only on Eq. (3),
see [22] for further details. Here it is worth to mention that Bettis reciprocity theorem is
based on the symmetry properties (1)-(2) as well. This fact was utilized in [5] to derive the
aforementioned orthogonality relation for the Stroh eigenvectors from Bettis theorem. In
fact, practically all signicant analytical achievements in the anisotropic theory of elasticity
employ the directly following from Eq. (3) symmetry relation
)t = T N,

(T N
where the 6 6 matrix T is dened as


0I
,
T =
I0

2 =
T

(5)


I0
0I

= I,

(6)

=N
(r) is the well-known matrix of Stroh
I is the 6 6 unit matrix, and the 6 6 matrix N



(r) = N1 N2 ,
(7)
N
3 N
4
N
consisting of the 3 3 blocks
2 = (nn )1,
1 = (nn )1 (nm),
N
N
3 = (mm) (mn )(nn )1 (nm), N
4 = (mn )(nn )1.
N

(8)

The blocks of the Stroh matrix are formed by a convolution of the elastic constants tensor
Cijkl (r) with two unit vectors m and n forming together with the unit vector t the right-handed
basis (m, n, t). Eq. (5) is easily proved by direct inspection.

3. The consistency equation

Here, we review the fundamentals of the weight function theory in inhomogeneous elastic
media, following the method of Belov and Kirchner [28]. Let us consider a two-dimensional
(that is innite along the axis x3 ) notched body A of nite size in the x1 x2 -plane, as shown in
Fig. 1. The body is supposed to be loaded such that a state of generalized plane strains occurs,
that is the displacement vector u remains invariant along x3 and has both plane (u1 and u2 )
and anti-plane (u3 ) components. We deal with a special class of multimaterials, which are
composed from the elastically anisotropic homogeneous wedge-like regions with a common
apex, as shown Fig. 2. The wedges differ in their elastic constants. In fact, the multimaterial
structures discussed in this chapter are a particular case of the elastic media with angular
inhomogeneity of the elastic properties. Therefore they can be treated within the framework
of the general formalism developed by Kirchner [17] for elastically anisotropic angularly
inhomogeneous media, where the elasticity constants Cjikl ( ) depend on the azimuth
counted around the axis x3 from which the radius r is counted, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The
essence of this approach is to employ a six-dimensional consistency equation for the eld
variable (u,) formed by the displacement vector u and the Airy stress function vector . The

6 4Applied Fracture Mechanics

Applied Fracture Mechanics

x2
(r,)
ST
R0

r0

SN

x1

SU
Figure 1. Finite specimen A with a notch. The tractions are prescribed on ST and the displacements on
SU ; the notch faces SN are traction free. The reciprocity theorem is applied to the dashed contour L.

consistency equation results from the fact that some linear forms consisting of the rst-order
spacial derivatives of the displacements and stress functions must represent components of
the same stress tensor. Consequently the stresses ij can be equally derived from u via Hooks
law as
ij = Cijkl ( )k u l
(9)
or from according to

i1 = 2 i ,

i2 = 1 i .

Direct comparison of Eq. (9) and Eq. (10) yields a rst-order differential equation



u(r, )
( ) I 1
= 0,
N
(r, )
r
r

(10)

(11)

( ) is dened by Eq. (7) and Eq. (8) and the unit vectors m and n are
where the matrix N
rotated counterclockwise by an angle against a xed basis {m0 , n0 }, as shown in Fig.
3. The consistency condition given in Eq. (11) ensures that any its solution corresponds to
equilibrated stresses (because they are derived from the stress functions) and compatible
strains (because they are derived from the displacements). Therefore, the solutions of Eq. (11)
describe states free of body forces and dislocation distributions. As it was emphasized in
[28], the consistency equation (11) remains valid for arbitrary inhomogeneity, where the
(r, ) depends also on the radius r via Cijkl (r, ), and provides an extension of the
matrix N
well-known result [9] obtained under assumption of elastic homogeneity. The examples of
successful application of the consistency equation to the analysis of the stress state due to
linear defects such as dislocations, line forces, and disclinations in angularly inhomogeneous

Higher
Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials5 7

x2
3
(r,)

2
1
SN

x1

n-2
n-1

Figure 2. Multimaterial consisting of n bonded together elastic wedges with different elastic constants
(m)

Cijkl , (m = 1, . . . , n).

x2
(r,)

n0

n
Cijkl()

m0

SN

x1

Figure 3. Elastic plane with a notch and the elastic constants Cijkl ( ) continuously dependent on the
azimuth . Basis (m,n,t) is rotated counterclockwise by an angle against a xed basis (m0 ,n0 ,t).

anisotropic media can be found in [16] and [23, 24], respectively. The consistency equation was
further applied in [29] to study the stress behavior in the angularly inhomogeneous elastic
wedges near and at the critical wedge angle.

4. Eigenfunction expansions
According to [28], an extension of the Williams eigenfunction expansion [1] to the notched
body shown in Fig. 3 can be constructed from homogeneous solutions of Eq. (11). A suitable

8 6Applied Fracture Mechanics

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separable solution varying as a power of distance r has the form



 
u(r, )
( s ) ( ) h ,
= rs V
g
(r, )
where (h, g) is a constant six-dimensional vector and


(s)
(s) V
V
(s)
2
1

,
V ( ) =
(s) V
(s)
V
3
4

(12)

(13)

is a 6 6 matrix function of the azimuth , which is sometimes also referred to as transfer

matrix. It is to be found by inserting the separable solution (12) into the consistency equation
(11). As was shown in [17], this procedure results in the rst-order ordinary differential
equation
( s ) ( )
dV
( )V
( s ) ( )
= sN
(14)
d
with the initial condition

( s ) (0) = I.
(15)
V
The solution of Eq. (14) is the ordered exponential dened as
 

( s ) ( ) = Ordexp s
( )d
V
N
0

exp (sN (i1 ) ),

(16)

i =1

where 0 = 0, = /k, and k . A representation of the ordered exponential as a

series expansion useful for approximate calculations within the framework of the perturbation
theory can be found in [17]. The six-dimensional eld (12) satises the consistency equation
(11) and provides the solution, which is both compatible and equilibrated in the bulk for any
( ) in Eq.
value of the parameter s, which may be real or complex. Hence, the bulk operator N
(11) itself doesnt impose any restrictions on the admissible values of s. However, in order for
(12) to become an eigenfunction of the angularly inhomogeneous notched plane (see Fig. 3),
the appropriate boundary condition at the notch faces must be satised, and it is the boundary
condition that results in the discrete spectrum of the eigenvalues {sn } and the corresponding
eigenvectors (hn , gn ). If both notch faces, = 0 and = , are traction free, the boundary
condition reads as
(r, 0) = (r, ) = 0.
(17)
In view of Eq. (15), the condition at the notch face = 0 implies that g = 0. The condition at
the other face, = , gives a linear homogeneous algebraic system of equations for the three
components of h,
( s ) () h = 0.
V
(18)
3

The system (18) has a non-trivial solution for h only provided that the parameter s satises
the eigenvalue equation
( s ) () = 0,
V
(19)
3

Higher
Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials7 9

where the symbol  . . .  stands for determinant. Equation (19) yields an innite set of
roots {sn }, each of which generates an eigenfunction. With a positive real part Re sn , the
eigenfunction (12) has bounded elastic energy in any neighborhood of the notch tip, although
this requirement doesnt exclude the existence of the stress singularity at r = 0.
Finally, an inner Williams expansion for the notch is given by

 

u(r, )
( s n ) ( ) hn ,
=
K ( n) r s n V
(r, )
0

(20)

Re s n 0

with the coefcients K ( n) being the eigenfunction amplitudes, which characterize the ne
structure of the near-tip elds. Since the eigenvalue problem resulting from the traction free
boundary conditions (17) is invariant with respect to the rigid body translations and rotations,
the eigenvalues s = 0 and s = 1 are roots of equation (19), whatever the angular dependence
the elastic constants Cijkl ( ) have. Hence, two terms in Eq. (20) require special consideration.
These two terms describe a rigid body translation and a rotation and they are ordered in the
expansion (20) by n = 0 and n = 1 respectively. At this point, it is worth noting that the
expansion coefcients K (0) and K (1) of both rigid body motion terms can be uniquely dened
only if SU = 0, where SU is a part of the body surface S (see, Fig. 1 for details), at which
the displacements are prescribed. Otherwise the two coefcients remain arbitrary and the
corresponding terms in the expansion (20) can be omitted.
In the case of SU = 0 the coefcients K (0) and K (1) become important, especially in the
numerical analysis. In order to reveal their geometrical interpretation, let us consider
the corresponding eigenfunctions explicitly. Rigid body translations are generated by the
(0) ( ) reduces to the unit matrix, the eigenfunction associated
eigenvalue s0 = 0. Since V
with this eigenvalue takes the form


 
u(0) (r, )
(0) h0
=
K
.
(21)
0
(0) (r, )
Thereby the coefcient K (0) describes the notch tip (and the body as a whole) displacement
magnitude in the direction of the vector h0 , which length is assumed to be normalized to unity,
u(0) = K (0) h0 .

(22)

In turn the rigid body rotation term is generated by the eigenvalue s1 = 1 and the eigenvector
(1) ( ) (consult with [24, 28] for
h1 = n(0). Using the properties of the ordered exponential V
further details), the corresponding eigenfunction can be found in explicit form for an arbitrary
rotational inhomogeneity






u(1) (r, )
n (0)
n( )
( 1) ( 1)
.
(23)
=
K
r
V
(

)
=
r
0
0
(1) (r, )
The coefcient K (1) = represents a rigid body rotation by an angle .

10 8Applied Fracture Mechanics

Applied Fracture Mechanics

In general, for some particular angular dependencies of the elastic constants Cijkl ( ) or for
some values of the notch angle the eigenvalue equation (19) can have multiple roots. This
case needs special treatment since the expansion (20) over the power-law eigenfunctions
is no longer complete and must be completed by the power-logarithmic solutions. The
necessary modications can be done by taking into consideration some general properties of
solutions of elliptic problems in domains with piecewise smooth boundaries [26]. In fact, such
degeneracies are of minor practical importance for fracture mechanics and are not discussed
in this paper. The only exception is the root s = 1 associated with rigid body rotation as well
as the complementary root s = 1 generating a solution for a concentrated couple applied
at the noth tip. This case is analyzed in detail in [29], where also analytical expressions for
power-logarithmic solutions in elastically anisotropic angularly inhomogeneous media were
presented (see also [24]).

5. Complementary eigenfunctions
The eigenfunction expansion (20) of the near-tip eld contains only the terms of bounded
elastic energy. However, the eigenvalue problem (18) admits solutions of unbounded energy
as well. The latter correspond to self-equilibrated loadings applied at the notch tip. The
eigenfunctions of bounded and unbounded elastic energy are not independent and there
exists an intrinsic symmetry between them, which follows from the invariance of Eq. (19)
with respect to the index inversion s s. As has been proved by Belov and Kirchner [31],
for any angular inhomogeneity Cijkl ( ), whenever Eq. (19) is satised,
( s )

V
3

() = 0

(24)

is also valid. Hence, for any eigenfunction (12) generated by a positive real part root s there
exists a complementary eigenfunction generated by an eigenvalue s with negative real part
and unbounded elastic energy. This symmetry between the positive and negative real part
solutions of Eq. (19) is the cornerstone of the weight function theory.
Since eigenvalues s and s appear always in pairs, the complementary eigenfunction


 
u(r, )
(s ) ( ) h ,
= r s V
(r, )
g

(25)

where (h , g ) is a constant vector, is also a solution without body forces and dislocations that
obeys the traction free boundary condition (17) at the notch faces. The vector (h , g ) excites
this eld just as (h, g) excited (12).

6. Pseudo-orthogonality relations
The second property of the eigenfunctions (12), which underlies the weight function theory,
is their six-dimensional orthogonality. The paper by Chen [13] appears to be the rst work
where the orthogonality property of the eigenfunctions along with Bettis reciprocity theorem
were applied to compute the coefcients in the Williams eigenfunction expansion for an edge
crack. The case an elastically isotropic medium considered in [13] is rather simple, since the
existing analytical expressions for the eigenfunctions enable for the orthogonality property

Higher
Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials9 11

to be easily proved by direct calculation. Using the same method, Chen and Hasebe [25, 27]
derived the orthogonality property for an interface crack in an isotropic bimaterial and also
for an orthotropic material with pure imaginary roots of the Stroh matrix. The cumbersome
direct calculations [13, 25, 27] are possible only for very simple cases and reveal neither the
nature of the orthogonality relations nor their connection with the symmetry of the elasticity
equations. Belov and Kirchner [28] suggested a proof of the orthogonality property for both
cracks and notches of nite opening angle in an elastically anisotropic media possessing
arbitrary inhomogeneity of the elastic constants Cijkl ( ). In contrast to [13, 25], the proof
given in [28] shows that the orthogonality property of the eigenfunctions (12) directly follows
(r).
from the symmetry (5) of the operator N
The idea of the proof [28] consists in the following. Integrating by parts an average of the
weighted product of two ordered exponentials of arbitrary indices s and q, one nds

[V

(s)

(q)

( )V

( )]t T N

( )d =

[V

(s)

( )]tT

= [V

(s)

()]t T V

[V

(s)

(q)

d (q)
V ( )d
d

(26)

() T

t ( )T V
( q) ( )d
( )]tN

(q)

( ) satises equation (14) has been used.

So far only the fact that the ordered exponential V
(r) is symmetric (according to Eq.(5)), we
Taking into account that the bulk operator T N
obtain an important property of the ordered exponentials

(s + q )

[V

(s)

( )V
( q) ( )d = [V
( s ) ()]t T V
( q) () T.

( )]t T N

(27)

This result is independent of the boundary conditions (17) specied at the notch faces. It takes
place for any indices s and q, which are not necessary roots of Eq. (19). Let us now consider
two roots sn and s p satisfying the condition sn + s p = 0. Then, according to Eq. (27), the
weighted average can be represented as

[V

(s p)

(sn)

( )V

( )]t T N

( )d =

1
( s p ) ()]t T V
( s n ) () T .
[V
s p + sn

(28)

Now let (h p , 0) and (hn , 0) be corresponding eigenvectors. Multiplying equation (28) from
the right and from the left by these eigenvectors, one obtains the orthogonality relation in the
form

 
t
( s p ) ( )]tT N
( )V
( s n ) ( )d hn = 0,
(h p , 0 )
[V
( s n + s p  = 0).
(29)
0
0
Details of the proof are clear from Eq. (28) and the identity

 


 t
0
h
h
(s p)
(
s
)
(
s
)
p
n
p
n

T
V
()
() (h p , 0)T
= (h p V
= 0.
1 ( ), 0)
( s n ) ( )h n
0
0
V
1
(30)

12 10
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Finally, the orthogonality relation can be rewritten explicitly in terms of the eigenfunctions
(12) as

 
( ) un d = 0,
(u p , p )t T N
( s n + s p  = 0).
(31)
n
0
The six-dimensional orthogonality (or pseudo-orthogonality) is not an orthogonality in
the generally accepted sense, because it takes place not only for different eigenvalues,
but also when sn = s p . This means that all eigenfunctions are self-orthogonal. The
pseudo-orthogonality property fails only for the pairs s p = sn , which have special status
in the higher-order weight function theory.

7. Fundamental eld and weight function of higher-order

Following [28], we consider a notched body A shown in Fig. 1 and subject it to an external
surface loading system which includes prescribed surface tractions F on the boundary ST and
imposed displacements U at the remainder SU of the body surface S = ST + SU . We further
suppose that A is free from body forces and dislocations. The notch faces SN are assumed to
be traction free. This system of loadings leads to the boundary conditions

Tk = Fk on ST , and Tk = 0 on SN ,
(32)
u k = Uk on SU ,
where Tk = ij j and j is an outer unit normal to the body surface. Inside A the elastic
eld produced by the loading system (32) is represented by the eigenfunction expansion (20).
This eld is called regular, while it can result in a stress singularity at the notch tip. As
already noted, the elastic energy associated with the regular eld remains bounded in any
neighborhood of the notch tip.
In order to derive weight functions for the coefcients K ( n) in the series expansion (20), it is
convenient to consider the cases SU = 0 and SU = 0 separately.
(I) If SU = 0, except for n = 0 and 1, all coefcients K ( n) are dened uniquely. In order to
nd a coefcient K ( m) , one needs to apply Bettis reciprocity theorem to the regular eld and
to a specially chosen auxiliary eld called the fundamental eld of order m. It consists of a
complementary solution (25) for the term of order m and a regular part,


 
 
hm
hp
u( m) (r, )
s m ( s m )
s p (s p )
V
V
,
(33)
=
r
(

)
+
k
r
(

)
p
0
0
( m) (r, )

Re s p > 0

where the sum is extended over all eigenfunctions of bounded elastic energy. The
fundamental eld of the mth order corresponds to a certain source placed at r = 0 and thereby
provides zero body forces and dislocation density in the bulk. This justies introduction
of both the displacement (no dislocations) and the Airy stress function (no body forces)
anywhere inside the body. The coefcients k p must be chosen so as to subject the solution
(33) to the traction free boundary conditions
( m)

Tk

=0

on

ST + SN .

(34)

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Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

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Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials
11

Because SU = 0, the representation (33) of the mth order fundamental eld is possible for
m = 0 and 1. The terms corresponding to rigid body motions can be chosen arbitrary.
For a subdomain A A, bounded as shown in Fig. 1 by a closed contour L which consists of
a circular arc R0 of radius r0 around the notch tip, the body surface S = ST , and the remaining
part SN of the notch faces SN , application of Bettis reciprocity theorem yields
( m) =

( m)

ST + SN

( Tk

( m)

u k Tk u k

( m)

)ds =
ST

uk

Fk ds,

(35)

where u k and Tk are the displacement and traction due to the regular eld, and
( m) =

( m)

R0

( Tk u k

( m)

Tk

u k )ds.

(36)

Integrating Eq.(36) by part, one obtains

 
u
d,

0
(37)
with the two rst terms vanishing owing to the traction free boundary conditions (17) imposed
on all eigenfunctions at the notch faces. Hence, substituting the explicit expressions for the
regular and fundamental eld into (37), one nds
( m) = ( m) (r, 0)u( m) (r, 0) ( m) (r, )u( m) (r, ) +

( m) =

K ( n) sn r0s n s m (hm , 0)t

s +s
k p sn r0n p (h p , 0)t

n,p

[V

( s m )

( ( m) , u( m) )

(sn)

( )V

( )]t T N

[V

(s p)

d
d

( )d

( n)

( )V
( s n ) ( )d
( )]t T N

hn
0
hn
0


(38)

.

As r0 shrinks to zero, the second sum in Eq. (38) vanishes due to the fact that the real parts
of all eigenvalues sn and s p are positive. However, there is also another reason for this term
in Eq. (38) to vanish. In fact, it must vanish due to the pseudo-orthogonality property (29).
As concerns the rst sum in Eq. (38), it contains the terms formally divergent as the radius
r0 0. However, owing to the pseudo-orthogonality property (29), these terms drop out
of Eq. (38) and nally only one term for which sn = sm remains non-vanishing. This term is
independent of r0 and remains constant as it shrinks. Note also that the second sum in Eq. (38)
is not sensitive to the rigid body motion terms in the fundamental eld.
According to Eq. (38), the reciprocity theorem relates the expansion coefcient of order m
directly with external loading as
K ( m) Y ( m) =

( m)

ST

uk

Fk ds,

(39)

with a normalizing geometry factor

Y ( m) = sm (hm , 0)t

[V

( s m )

( )V

( )]tT N

(sm)

( )d

hm
0


(40)

14 12
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Correspondingly, an expansion coefcient K ( m) is available via the mth order weight function,
( m)

hk

( m)

( x1 , x2 ) = u k

as a functional
K

( m)

( m)

=
ST

hk

( x1 , x2 )/Y ( m) ,

( x1 , x2 )Fk ds

(41)

(42)

of the surface loading. Thus the mth order weight function differs from the corresponding
fundamental eld (33) only in a constant geometry factor (40).
(II) If SU = 0, all expansion coefcients in the series (20) are dened unambiguously,
including K (0) and K (1) . For m = 0 the fundamental eld of the mth order is still given by the
solution (33) provided that its bounded energy part is completed by the rigid body motion
terms. The coefcients k p in (33) are now chosen to subject it to the boundary conditions

T ( m) = 0
k

on

ST + SN ,

( m)
=0
uk

on

SU .

(43)

Modifying the reciprocal relation (35) to include SU , one obtains

( m)

=
ST

( m)
u k Fk ds +

( m)

ST

Tk

Uk ds.

(44)

The remaining calculations are similar to those performed in the case of vanishing SU . Weight
functions of the mth order are introduced according to
( m)

( x1 , x2 ) = u k

( m)

( x1 , x2 ) = Tk

hk
Hk

( m)

( x1 , x2 )/Y ( m) ,

( m)

( x1 , x2 )/Y ( m) .

(45)
(46)

The coefcients K ( m) in the eigenfunction expansion are now expressed via the mth order
weight functions as
K

( m)


=
ST

( m)
hk ( x1 , x2 )Fk ds

( m)

SU

Hk

( x1 , x2 )Uk ds.

(47)

As it was noted above, in the case of non-vanishing SU the coefcient K (0) needs a special
treatment. The complementary eld for the rigid body translation (21) has a logarithmic rather
than power-law functional form. Indeed, the auxiliary source generating this complementary
solution is a concentrated force applied at the notch tip. Unlike other eigenfunctions it is not
self-equilibrated. The complementary logarithmic solution can be constructed by means of
the analytical expression for the elastic eld of a force at the tip of a notch in an angularly
inhomogeneous plane [16, 18]. Details of further development and the corresponding 0th
order fundamental eld for the calculation of the rigid body translation term are available
from [28].

Higher
Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

15
Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials
13

8. Multimaterials
A continuously inhomogeneous elastic material is actually only a useful tool, which
considerably simplies the establishing of important properties of elastic elds involved in
weight function theory. Nowadays functionally graded materials with continuous angular
inhomogeneity of elastic properties are still exotic and in engineering structures we deal
mostly with piecewise homogeneous media (junctions of a nite number of dissimilar
materials) called multimaterials. In the case of multimaterials further analytical advancement
in the weight function theory becomes possible. The ordered exponentials are known to
appear in Eq. (16) instead of the conventional exponentials since the angular inhomogeneity
( ) for different values of the argument .
causes non-commutability of the matrices N
( ) commute within
However, when the medium is piecewise homogeneous, the matrices N
each homogeneous wedge-like region [15] and the integration in the ordered exponentials can
be performed analytically. For example, in the case of a multimaterial composed from three
wedges (triple junction)
( 1)

ijkl
( 2)
Cijkl ( ) = Cijkl

( 3)
Cijkl

0 < < ,
for

< < ,

(48)

< < ,

the ordered exponential admits factorization and reduces to (for details, see [17, 23, 24])
s
1 ( )
 

0 < < ,
V
s
s
s

N( )d = V2 ( )V2 ()V1 ()
Ordexp s
for < < , (49)

s
0
3s ( )V
2s ( )V
2s ()V
1s ()
< < ,
V3 ( )V
s

i ( ) and V
i ( ) denote for each homogeneous region powers of
where V


i ( ) = Ordexp
V
and


( )d
N

i (0) sin
= I cos + N

i ( ) sin ,
i1 ( ) = I cos N
V

(50)

(51)

i ( ) for each homogeneous wedge-like region of a multimaterial is constructed

The matrix N
( i)

by replacing Cijkl ( ) in the denition (4) by Cijkl . If s is not an integer, the powers of the
matrices (50) and (51) should be dened in terms of their spectral decompositions over the
i ( ) (for details, see [22]).
eigenvectors of the matrices N

9. Conclusions
Here, it was shown that the established in [28] pseudo-orthogonality property of the power
(r), which is commonly
eigenfunctions follows directly from the symmetry of the operator N
referred to as Stroh matrix [3, 22] of anisotropic elasticity theory. In the last decade the
proof of the pseudo-orthogonality property was republished in a large number of papers
[3238], where however only trivial particular cases of anisotropy and inhomogeneity were

16 14
Applied Fracture Mechanics

Applied Fracture Mechanics

analyzed. The general proof by Belov and Kirchner [28] is not cited in these papers, which
are to be considered as plagiarism, although some of them contain further development,
in particular, by taking into account piezoelectricity. Here, it is worth to mention that the
proof of the pseudo-orthogonality property remains valid for the general case of piezoelectric
piezomagnetic magnetoelectric anisotropic media, provided that the dimension of both the
(r) and the eld variables is increased to include these effects (for details, see
matrix N
[30]). In conclusion, it may be also said that the pseudo-orthogonality property allows for
a set of path-independent integrals similar to H-integral [7, 8, 1012] to be introduced for
multimaterials with notches or cracks. This is achieved by applying Bettis reciprocity theorem
to the complementary eld (25) rather than to the fundamental eld (33). The contour L must
be properly shifted from the surface S to interior domain of A.

Author details
Alexander Yu. Belov
Institute of Crystallography RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation

10. References
[1] Williams, M.L. (1952). Stress singularities resulting from various boundary conditions in angular corners of plates in extension, ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics,
19:526-528.
[2] Williams, M.L. (1957). On the stress distribution at the base of a stationary crack, ASME
Journal of Applied Mechanics, 24:109-114.
[3] Stroh, A.N. (1962). Steady State Problems in Anisotropic Elasticity, Journal of
Mathematical Physics, 41:77-103.
[4] Bueckner, H.F. (1970). A Novel Principle for the Computation of Stress Intensity Factors.
Zeitschrift fr Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, 50:529-546.
[5] Maln, K. & Lothe, J. (1970). Explicit Expressions for Dislocation Derivatives. Physica
Status Solidi, 39:287-296.
[6] Bueckner, H.F. (1971). Weight Functions for the Notched Bar. Zeitschrift fr
Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, 51:97-109.
[7] Stern, M.; Becker, E.H. & Dunham, R.S. (1976). A Contour Integral Computation of
Mixed-Mode Stress Intensity Factors. International Journal of Fracture, 12:359-368.
[8] Stern, M. & Soni, M.L. (1976). On the Computation of Stress Intensities at Fixed-Free
Corners. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 12:331-337.
[9] Chadwick, P. & Smith, G.D. (1977). Foundations of the Theory of Surface Waves in
Anisotropic Elastic Materials. Advances in Applied Mechanics, 17:303-376.
[10] Hong, C.-C. & Stern, M. (1978). The Computation of Stress Intensity Factors in
Dissimilar Materials. Journal of Elasticity, 8:21-34.
[11] Stern, M. (1979). The Numerical Calculation of Thermally Induced Stress Intensity
Factors. Journal of Elasticity, 9:91-95.
[12] Sinclair, G.B.; Okajima, M. & Grifn, J.H. (1984). Path Independent Integrals for
Computing Stress Intensity Factors at Sharp Notches in Elastic Plates. International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 20:999-1008.

Higher
Higher Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials

17
Order Weight Functions in Fracture Mechanics of Multimaterials
15

[13] Chen, Y.Z. (1986). New Path Independent Integrals in Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics.
Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 22:673-686.
[14] Kirchner, H.O.K. (1986). Description of loadings and screenings of cracks with the aid
of universal weight functions. International Journal of Fracture, 31:173-181.
matrix of anisotropic
[15] Kirchner, H.O.K. & Lothe, J. (1986). On the redundancy of the N
elasticity. Philosophical Magazine Part A, 53:L7-L10.
[16] Kirchner, H.O.K. (1987). Line defects along the axis of rotationally inhomogeneous
media. Philosophical Magazine Part A, 55:537-542.
[17] Kirchner, H.O.K. (1989). Elastically anisotropic angularly inhomogeneous media I. A
new formalism. Philosophical Magazine Part B, 60:423-432.
[18] Ting, T.C.T. (1989). Line forces and dislocations in angularly inhomogeneous anisotropic
elastic wedges and spaces. Quaterly Applied Mathematics, 47:123-128.
[19] Bueckner, H.F. (1989). Observations on weight functions. Engineering Analysis with
Boundary Elements, 6:3-18.
[20] Sham, T.L. (1989). The theory of higher order weight functions for linear elastic plane
problems. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 25:357-380.
[21] Sham, T.L. (1991). The determination of the elastic T-term using higher order weight
functions. International Journal of Fracture, 48:81-102.
[22] Indenbom, V.L. & Lothe, J. (Eds.) (1992). Elastic Strain Fields and Dislocation Mobility,
Amsterdam: North-Holland.
[23] Belov, A.Yu. (1992). A wedge disclination along the vertex of the wedge-like
inhomogeneity in an elastically anisotropic solid. Philosophical Magazine Part A,
65:1429-1444.
[24] Belov, A.Yu. (1993). Scaling regimes and anomalies of wedge disclination stresses
in anisotropic rotationally inhomogeneous media. Philosophical Magazine Part A,
68:1215-1231.
[25] Chen, Y.Z. & Hasebe, N. (1994). Eigenfunction Expansion and Higher Order Weight
Functions of Interface Cracks. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics 61:843-849.
[26] Nazarov, S.A. & Plamenevsky, B.A. (1994). Elliptic Problems in Domains with Piecewise
Smooth Boundaries, volume 13 of de Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics. Berlin, New
York: Walter de Gruyter and Co.
[27] Chen, Y.H. & Hasebe, N. (1995). Investigation of EEF Properties for a Crack in a
Plane Orthotropic Elastic Solid with Purely Imaginary Characteristic Roots. Engineering
Fracture Mechanics, 50:249-259.
[28] Belov, A.Yu. & Kirchner, H.O.K. (1995). Higher order weight functions in fracture
mechanics of inhomogeneous anisotropic solids. Philosophical Magazine Part A,
72:1471-1483.
[29] Belov, A.Yu. & Kirchner, H.O.K. (1995). Critical angles in bending of rotationally
inhomogeneous elastic wedges. ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, 62: 429-440.
[30] Alshits, V.I.; Kirchner, H.O.K. & Ting, T.C.T. (1995). Angularly inhomogeneous
piezoelectric piezomagnetic magnetoelectric anisotropic media. Philosophical
Magazine Letters, 71:285-288.
[31] Belov, A.Yu. & Kirchner, H.O.K. (1996). Universal weight functions for elastically
anisotropic, angularly inhomogeneous media with notches or cracks. Philosophical
Magazine Part A, 73:1621-1646.

18 16
Applied Fracture Mechanics

Applied Fracture Mechanics

[32] Qian, J. & Hasebe, N. (1997). Property of Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions for an
Interface V-Notch in Antiplane Elasticity. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 56:729-734.
[33] Chen, Y.H. & Ma, L.F. (2000). Bueckners Work Conjugate Integrals and Weight
Functions For a Crack in Anisotropic Solids. Acta Mechanica Sinica (English Series),
16:240-253.
[34] Ma, L.F. & Chen, Y.H. (2001). Weight Functions for Interface cracks in Dissimilar
Anisotropic Piezoelectric Materials. International Journal of Fracture 110:263-279.
[35] Chen, Y.H. & Ma, L.F. (2004). Weight Functions for Interface Cracks in Dissimilar
Anisotropic Materials. Acta Mechanica Sinica (English Series), 16:82-88.
[36] Ou, Z.C. & Chen, Y.H. (2004). A New Method for Establishing Pseudo Orthogonal
Properties of Eigenfunction Expansion Form in Fracture Mechanics. Acta Mechanica
Solida Sinica, 17:283-289.
[37] Ou, Z.C. & Chen, Y.H. (2006). A New approach to the Pseudo-Orthogonal Properties
of Eigenfunction Expansion Form of the Crack-Tip Complex Potential Function in
Anisotropic and Piezoelectric Fracture Mechanics. European Journal of Mechanics
A/Solids, 25:189-197.
[38] Klusk, J.; Profant, T. & Kotoul, M. (2009). Various Methods of Numerical
Estimation of Generalized Stress Intensity Factors of Bi-Material Notches. Applied and
Computational Mechanics, 3:297-304.

Chapter 2

Foundations of Measurement Fractal

Theory for the Fracture Mechanics
Lucas Mximo Alves
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51813

1. Introduction
A wide variety of natural objects can be described mathematically using fractal geometry as,
for example, contours of clouds, coastlines , turbulence in fluids, fracture surfaces, or rugged
surfaces in contact, rocks, and so on. None of them is a real fractal, fractal characteristics
disappear if an object is viewed at a scale sufficiently small. However, for a wide range of
scales the natural objects look very much like fractals, in which case they can be considered
fractal. There are no true fractals in nature and there are no real straight lines or circles too.
Clearly, fractal models are better approximations of real objects that are straight lines or
circles. If the classical Euclidean geometry is considered as a first approximation to irregular
lines, planes and volumes, apparently flat on natural objects the fractal geometry is a more
rigorous level of approximation. Fractal geometry provides a new scientific way of thinking
about natural phenomena. According to Mandelbrot [1], a fractal is a set whose fractional
dimension (Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension) is strictly greater than its topological
dimension (Euclidean dimension).
In the phenomenon of fracture, by monotonic loading test or impact on a piece of metal,
ceramic, or polymer, as the chemical bonds between the atoms of the material are broken, it
produces two complementary fracture surfaces. Due to the irregular crystalline arrangement
of these materials the fracture surfaces can also be irregular, i.e., rough and difficult
geometrical description. The roughness that they have is directly related to the material
microstructure that are formed. Thus, the various microstructural features of a material
(metal, ceramic, or polymer) which may be, particles, inclusions, precipitates, etc. affect the
topography of the fracture surface, since the different types of defects present in a material
can act as stress concentrators and influence the formation of fracture surface. These various
microstructural defects interact with the crack tip, while it moves within the material,
forming a totally irregular relief as chemical bonds are broken, allowing the microstructure
2012 Alves, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

20 Applied Fracture Mechanics

to be separated from grains (transgranular and intergranular fracture) and microvoids are
joining (coalescence of microvoids, etc..) until the fracture surfaces depart. Moreover, the
characteristics of macrostructures such as the size and shape of the sample and notch from
which the fracture is initiated, also influence the formation of the fracture surface, due to the
type of test and the stress field applied to the specimen.
After the above considerations, one can say with certainty that the information in the
fracture process are partly recorded in the "story" that describes the crack, as it walks inside
the material [2]. The remainder of this information is lost to the external environment in a
form of dissipated energy such as sound, heat, radiation, etc. [30, 31]. The remaining part of
the information is undoubtedly related to the relief of the fracture surface that somehow
describes the difficulty that the crack found to grow [2]. With this, you can analyze the
fracture phenomenon through the relief described by the fracture surface and try to relate it
to the magnitudes of fracture mechanics [3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8, 9 - 11, 12, 13]. This was the basic
idea that brought about the development of the topographic study of the fracture surface
called fractography.
In fractography anterior the fractal theory the description of geometric structures found on a
fracture surface was limited to regular polyhedra-connected to each other and randomly
distributed throughout fracture surface, as a way of describing the topography of the
irregular surface. Moreover, the study fractographic hitherto used only techniques and
statistical analysis profilometric relief without considering the geometric auto-correlation of
surfaces associated with the fractal exponents that characterize the roughness of the fracture
surface.
The basic concepts of fractal theory developed by Mandelbrot [1] and other scientists, have
been used in the description of irregular structures, such as fracture surfaces and crack [14 ],
in order to relate the geometrical description of these objects with the materials properties
[15 ].
The fractal theory, from the viewpoint of physical, involves the study of irregular structures
which have the property of invariance by scale transformation, this property in which the
parts of a structure are similar to the whole in successive ranges of view (magnification or
reduction) in all directions or at least one direction (self-similarity or self-affinity,
respectively) [36]. The nature of these intriguing properties in existing structures, which
extend in several scales of magnification is the subject of much research in several
phenomena in nature and in materials science [16 , 17 and others]. Thus, the fractal theory
has many contexts, both in physics and in mathematics such as chaos theory [18], the study
of phase transitions and critical phenomena [19, 20, 21], study of particle agglomeration [22],
etc.. The context that is more directly related to Fracture Mechanics, because of the physical
nature of the process is with respect to fractal growth [23, 24, 25, 26]. In this subarea are
studied the growth mechanisms of structures that arise in cases of instability, and
dissipation of energy, such as crack [27, 28] and branching patterns [29]. In this sense, is to
be sought to approach the problem of propagation of cracks.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 21

The fractal theory becomes increasingly present in the description of phenomena that have a
measurable disorder, called deterministic chaos [18, 27, 28]. The phenomenon of fracture
and crack propagation, while being statistically shows that some rules or laws are obeyed,
and every day become more clear or obvious, by understanding the properties of fractals
[27, 28].

2. Fundamental geometric elements and measure theory on fractal

geometry
In this part will be presented the development of basic concepts of fractal geometry,
analogous to Euclidean geometry for the basic elements such as points, lines, surfaces and
fractals volumes. It will be introduce the measurement fractal theory as a generalization of
Euclidean measure geometric theory. It will be also describe what are the main
mathematical conditions to obtain a measure with fractal precision.

2.1. Analogy between euclidean and fractal geometry

It is possible to draw a parallel between Euclidean and fractal geometry showing some
examples of self-similar fractals projected onto Euclidean dimensions and some self-affine
fractals. For, just as in Euclidean geometry, one has the elements of geometric construction, in
the fractal geometry. In the fractal geometry one can find similar objects to these Euclidean
elements. The different types of fractals that exist are outlined in Figure 1 to Figure 4.

2.1.1. Fractais between 0 D 1 (similar to point)

An example of a fractal immersed in Euclidean dimension I d 1 1 with projection in
d 0 , similar to punctiform geometry, can be exemplified by the Figure 1.

Figure 1. Fractal immersed in the one-dimensional space where D 0,631 .

This fractal has dimension D 0,631 . This is a fractal-type "stains on the floor." Other fractal
of this type can be observed when a material is sprayed onto a surface. In this case the global
dimension of the spots may be of some value between 0 D 1 .

2.1.2. Fractais between 1 D 2 (similar to straight lines)

For a fractal immersed in a Euclidean dimension I d 1 2 , with projectionin d 1 ,
analogous to the linear geometry is a fractal-type peaks and valleys (Figure 2). Cracks may
also be described from this figure as shown in Alves [37]. Graphs of noise, are also examples
of linear fractal structures whose dimension is between 1 D 2 .

22 Applied Fracture Mechanics

Figure 2. Fractal immersed in dimension d = 2. rugged fractal line.

2.1.3. Fractals between 2 D 3 (similar to surfaces or porous volumes)

For a fractal immersed in a Euclidean dimension, I d 1 3 with projection in d 2 ,
analogous to a surface geometry is fractal-type "mountains" or "rugged surfaces" (Figure 3).
The fracture surfaces can be included in this class of fractals.

Figure 3. Irregular or rugged surface that has a fractal scaling with dimension D between 2 D 3 .

Figure 4. Comparison between Euclidean and fractal geometry. D , d and D f represents the topological,
Euclidean and fractal dimensions, of a point, line segment, flat surface, and a cube, respectively

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 23

Making a parallel comparison of different situations that has been previously described, one
has (Figure 4)

2.2. Fractal dimension (non-integer)

An object has a fractal dimension, D , d D d 1 I , where I is the space Euclidean
dimension which is immersed, when:
F L0 D F L0

(1)

where L0 is the projected length that characterizes an apparent linear extension of the fractal

, is the scale transformation factor between two apparent linear extension, F L0 is a

function of measurable physical properties such as length, surface area, roughness, volume,
etc., which follow the scaling laws, with homogeneity exponent is not always integers,
whose geometry that best describe, is closer to fractal geometry than Euclidean geometry.
These functions depend on the dimensionality, I , of the space which the object is
immersed. Therefore, for fractals the homogeneity degree n is the fractal dimension D
(non-integer) of the object, where is an arbitrary scale.
Based on this definition of fractal dimension it can be calculates doing:

F( Lo )
F( Lo )

(2)

taking the logarithm one has

F( Lo )
ln

F( Lo )

D
ln( )

(3)

From the geometrical viewpoint, a fractal must be immersed into a integer Euclidean
dimension, I d 1 . Its non-integer fractal dimension, D , it appears because the fill rule of
the figure from the fractal seed which obeys some failure or excess rules, so that the
complementary structure of the fractal seed formed by the voids of the figure, is also a fractal.
For a fractal the space fraction filled with points is also invariant by scale transformation,
i.e.:
P( Lo )

F( Lo )
1

F( Lo ) N ( Lo )

(4)

Thus,

D P L0 ou N L0 D
where P L0 is a probability measure to find points within fractal object

(5)

24 Applied Fracture Mechanics

Therefore, the fractal dimension can be calculated from the fllowing equation:
D

ln N L0
ln

(6)

If it is interesting to scale the holes of a fractal object (the complement of a fractal), it is

observed that the fractal dimension of this new additional dimension corresponds to the
Euclidean space in which it is immersed less the fractal dimension of the original.

2.3. A generalized monofractal geometric measure

Now will be described how to process a general geometric measure whose dimension is
any. Similarly to the case of Euclidean measure the measurement process is generalized,
using the concept of Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension as follows.
Suppose a geometric object is recovered by -dimensional, geometric units, uD , with
extension, k and k , where is the maximum -dimensional unit size and is a
positive real number. Defining the quantity:
M D , ,{ k } k

(7)

Choosing from all the sets k , that reduces this summation, such that:
M D , inf k
{ k }

(8)

The smallest possible value of the summation in (8) is calculated to obtain the adjustment
with best precision of the measurement performed. Finally taking the limit of tending to
zero, 0 , one has:
M D ( ) lim M D ( , )
0

(9)

The interpretation for the function M D is analogous to the function for a Euclidean
measure of an object, i.e. it corresponds to the geometric extension (length, area, volume,
etc.) of the set measured by units with dimension, . The cases where the dimension is
integer are same to the usual definition, and are easier to visualize. For example, the
calculation of M D for a surface of finite dimension, D 2 , there are the cases:
-

For 1 D 2 measuring the "length" of a plan with small line segments, one gets
M D , because the plan has a infinity length, or there is a infinity number of line
segment inside the plane.
For, 2 D 2 measuring the surface area of small square, one gets M D Ad 2 A0 .
Which is the only value of where M D is not zero nor infinity (see Figure 5.)
For 3 D 2 measuring the "volume" of the plan with small cubes, one gets M D 0 ,
because the "volume" of the plan is zero, or there is not any volume inside the plan.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 25

Figure 5. Measuring, M D of an area A with a dimension, D 2 made with different measure

units uD for D 1, 2, 3 .

Therefore, the function, M D possess the following form

0 para D

M D ( ) M para D .
para D

(10)

That is, the function M D only possess a different value of 0 and at a critical point D
defining a generalized measure

2.4. Invariance condition of a monofractal geometric measure

Therefore, for a generalized measurement there is a generalized dimension which the
measurement unit converge to the determined value, M , of the measurement series,
according to the extension of the measuring unit tends to zero, as shown in equations
equaes (9) and (10), namely:

M D , ,{ k } k M Do D

(11)

where M D 0 (d ) is the Euclidean projected extension of the fractal object measured on dimensional space
Again the value of a fractal measure can be obtain as the result of a series.
One may label each of the stages of construction of the function M D as follows:
i.

the first is the measure itself. Because it is actually the step that evaluates the extension of
the set, summing the geometrical size of the recover units. Thus, the extension of the set
is being overestimated, because it is always less or equal than tthe size of its coverage.
ii. The next step is the optimization to select the arrangement of units which provide the
smallest value measured previously, i.e. the value which best approximates the real
extension of the assembly.
iii. The last step is the limit. Repeat the previous steps with smaller and smaller units to
take into account all the details, however small, the structure of the set.

26 Applied Fracture Mechanics

As the value of the generalized dimension is defined as a critical function, M D it can

be concluded, wrongly, that the optimization step is not very important, because the fact of
not having all its length measured accurately should not affect the value of critical point.
The optimization step, this definition, serves to make the convergence to go faster in
following step, that the mathematical point of view is a very desirable property when it
comes to numerical calculation algorithms.

2.5. The monofractal measure and the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension

In this part we will define the dimension-Hausdorf Besicovicth and a fractal object itself. The
basic properties of objects with "anomalous" dimensions (different from Euclidean) were
observed and investigated at the beginning of this century, mainly by Hausdorff and
Besicovitch [32,34]. The importance of fractals to physics and many other fields of
knowledge has been pointed out by Mandelbrot [1]. He demonstrated the richness of fractal
geometry, and also important results presented in his books on the subject [1, 35, 36].
The geometric sequence, S is given by:
S Sk

onde k 0,1,2,....

(12)

represented in Euclidean space, is a fractal when the measure of its geometric extension,
given by the series, M k satisfies the following Hausdorf-Besicovitch condition:
Md ( k ) (d) k Nd ( k ) (d) k

k 0

D
MD ; D ,
; D
0;

(13)

where:
d is the geometric factor of the unitary elements (or seed) of the sequence represented
geometrically.
: is the size of unit elements (or seed), used as a measure standard unit of the extent of the
spatial representation of the geometric sequence.
N : is the number of elementary units (or seeds) that form the spatial representation of
the sequence at a certain scale
: the generalized dimension of unitary elements
D : is the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension.

2.6. Fractal mathematical definition and associated dimensions

Therefore, fractal is any object that has a non-integer dimension that exceeds the topological
dimension ( D I , where I is the dimension of Euclidean space which is immersed) with
some invariance by scale transformation (self-similarity or self-affinity), where for any
continuous contour that is taken as close as possible to the object, the number of points N D ,
forming the fractal not fills completely the space delimited by the contour, i.e., there is

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 27

always empty, or excess regions, and also there is always a figure with integer dimension, I
, at which the fractal can be inscribed and that not exactly superimposed on fractal even in
the limit of scale infinitesimal. Therefore, the fraction of points that fills the fractal regarding
its Euclidean coverage is different of a integer. As seen in previous sections - 2.2 - 2.5 in
algebraic language, a fractal is a invariant sequence by scale transformation that has a
Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension.
According to the previous section, it is said that an object is fractal, when the respective
magnitudes characterizing features as perimeter, area or volume, are homogeneous
functions with non-integer. In this case, the invariance property by scaling transformation
(self-similar or self-affinity) is due to a scale transformation of at least one of these functions.
The fractal concept is closely associated to the concept of Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension,
so that one of the first definitions of fractal created by Mandelbrot [36] was:
Fractal by definition is a set to which the Haussdorf-Besicovitch dimension exceeds strictly
the topological dimension".
One can therefore say that fractals are geometrical objects that have structures in all scales of
magnification, commonly with some similarity between them. They are objects whose usual
definition of Euclidean dimension is incomplete, requiring a more suitable to their context
as they have just seen. This is exactly the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension.
A dimension object, D , is always immersed in a space of minimal dimension I d 1 , which
may present an excessive extension on the dimension d , or a lack of extension or failures in
one dimension d 1 . For example, for a crack which the fractal dimension is the dimension
in the range of 1 D 2 the immersion dimension is the dimension I 2 in the case of a
fracture surface of which the fractal dimension is in the range 2 D 3 the immersion
dimension is the I 3 . When an object has a geometric extension such as completely fill a
Euclidean dimension regular, d , and still have an excess that partially fills a superior
dimension I d 1 , in addition to the inferior dimension, one says that the object has a
dimension in excess, de given by de D d where D is the dimension of the object. For
example, for a crack which the fractal dimension is in the range 1 D 2 the excess
dimension is de D 1 , in the case of a fracture surface of which the fractal dimension is in
the range of 2 D 3 the excess dimension is de D 2 . If on the other hand an object
partially fills a Euclidean regular dimension, I d 1 certainly this object fills fully a
Euclidean regular dimension, d , so that it is said that this object has a lack dimension
d fl I D d 1 D , where de 1 d fl . For example, for a crack which the fractal dimension
is the range of 1 D 2 the lack dimension is d fl 2 D . In the case of a fracture surface of
which the fractal dimension is the range of 2 D 3 the lack dimension is d fl 3 D .

2.7. Classes and types of fractals

One of the most fascinating aspects of the fractals is the extremely rich variety of possible
realizations of such geometric objects. This fact gives rise to the question of classification,

28 Applied Fracture Mechanics

and the book of Mandelbrot [1] and in the following publications many types of fractal
structures have been described. Below some important classes will be discussed with some
emphasis on their relevance to the phenomenon of growth.
Fractals are classified, or are divided into: mathematical and physical (or natural) fractals
and uniform and non-uniform fractals. Mathematical fractals are those whose scaling
relationship is exact, i.e., they are generated by exact iteration and purely geometrical rules
and does not have cutoff scaling limits, not upper nor lower, because they are generated by
rules with infinity interactions (Figure 6a) without taking into account none phenomenology
itself, as shown in Figure 6a. Some fractals appear in a special way in the phase space of
dynamical systems that are close to situations of chaotic motion according to the Theory of
Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and Chaos Theory. This approach will not be made here,
because it is another matter that is outside the scope of this chapter.

Figure 6. Example of branching fractals, showing the structural elements, or elementary geometrical
units, of two fractals. a) A self-similar mathematical fractal. b) A statistically self-similar physical fractal.

Real or physical fractals (also called natural fractals) are those statistical fracals, where not
only the scale but all of fractal parameters can vary randomly. Therefore, their scaling
relationship is approximated or statistical, i. e., they are observed in the statistical average
made throughout the fractal, since a lower cutoff scale, min , to a different upper cutoff scale
max (self-similar or self-affine fractals), as shown in Figure 6b. These fractals are those which
appear in nature as a result of triggering of instabilities conditions in the natural processes
[24] in any physical phenomenon, as shown Figure 6b. In these physical or natural fractals the
extension scaling of the structure is made by means of a homogeneous function as follows:
F ~ d D ,

(14)

where d is the Euclidean dimension of projection of the fractal and D is the fractal
dimension of self-similar structure.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 29

It is true that the physical or real fractals can be deterministic or random. In random or
statistical fractal the properties of self-similarity changes statistically from region to region
of the fractal. The dimension cannot be unique, but characterized by a mean value, similarly
to the analysis of mathematical fractals. The Figure 6b shows aspects of a statistically selfsimilar fractal whose appearance varies from branch to branch giving us the impression that
each part is similar to the whole.
The mathematical fractals (or exact) and physical (or statistical), in turn, can be subdivided
into uniform and nonuniform fractal.
Uniforms fractals are those that grow uniformly with a well behaved unique scale and
constant factor, , and present a unique fractal dimension throughout its extension.
Non-uniform fractals are those that grow with scale factors i ' s that vary from region to
region of the fractal and have different fractal dimensions along its extension.
Thus, the fractal theory can be studied under three fundamental aspects of its origin:
1.
2.
3.

From the geometric patterns with self-similar features in different objects found in nature.
From the nonlinear dynamics theory in the phase space of complex systems.
From the geometric interpretation of the theory of critical exponents of statistical
mechanics.

3. Methods for measuring length, area, volume and fractal dimension

In this section one intends to describe the main methods for measuring the fractal dimension
of a structure, such as: the compass method, the Box-Counting method, the Sand-Box
Method, etc.
It will be described, from now, how to obtain a measure of length, area or fractal volume. In
fractal analysis of an object or structure different types of fractal dimension are obtained, all
related to the type of phenomenon that has fractality and the measurement method used in
obtaining the fractal measurement. These fractal dimensions can be defined as follows.

3.1. The different fractal dimensions and its definitions

A fractal dimension D f in general is defined as being the dimension of the resulting
measure of an object or structure, that has irregularities that are repeated in different scales
(a invariance by scale transformation). Their values are usually noninteger and situated
between two consecutive Euclidean dimensions called projection dimension d of the object
and immersion dimension, d 1 , i.e. d D f d 1 .
In the literature there is controversy concerning the relationship between different fractal
dimensions and roughness exponents. The term "fractal dimension" is used generically to
refer to different fractional dimensions found in different phenomenologies, which results in
formation of geometric patterns or energy dissipation, which are commonly called fractals
[1]. Among these patterns is the growth of aggregates by diffusion (DLA - Diffusion Limited

30 Applied Fracture Mechanics

Aggregation), the film growth by ballistic deposition (BD), the fracture surfaces (SF), etc..
The fractal dimensions found in these phenomena are certainly not the same and depend on
both the phenomenology studied as the fractal characterization method used. Therefore, to
characterize such phenomena using fractal geometry, a distinction between the different
dimensions found is necessary.
Among the various fractal dimensions one can emphasize the Hausdorff-Besicovitch
dimension, DHB , which comes from the general mathematical definition of a fractal [32,
33,34]. Other dimensions are the dimension box, DB , the roughness dimension or exponent
Hurst, H , the Lipshitz-Hlder dimension, , etc.. Therefore, a mathematical relationship
between them needs to be clearly established for each phenomenon involved. However, is
observed, then that relationship is not unique and depends not only on phenomenology, but
also the characterization method used.
Therefore, the phenomenological equation of the fracture phenomenon can also, in theory,
provide a relationship between fractal dimension and roughness exponent of a fracture
surface, as happens to other phenomenologies. In this study, there was obtained a fractal
model for a fracture surface, as a generalization of the box-counting method. Thus, will be
discussed the relationship between the local and global box dimension and the roughness
dimension, which are involved in the characterization of a fracture surface, and any other
dimension necessary to describe a fractal fracture surface.

3.1.1. Compass methods and divider dimension, DD

The divider dimension DD is defined from the measure of length of a roughened fractal
line, for example, when using the compass method. This measure is obtained by opening a
compass with an aperture and moving on the line fractal to obtain the value of the line
length rugosa (see Figure 7). The different values of the rough line length due to the
compass aperture determines the dimension divider.

Figure 7. Compass method applied to a rugged line.

For a fractal rough line the divider dimension can be defined as:

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 31

L
ln

DD .

ln
L0

(15)

where L0 is the projected length obtained from the rugged fractal length L

Figure 8. Compass method applied on a line noise or a rough self-affine fractal.

Several methods for determining the fractal dimension based on the compass method,
among them stand out the following methods: the Coastlines Richardson Method, the Slit
Island Method, etc.

3.2. Methods of measurement for determining the fractal dimension of a structure

There are basically two ways to recover an object with boxes for fractal dimension measuring.
In the first method, boxes of different sizes extending from a minimum size min until to a
maximum size max , from a fixed origin recovering the whole object at once time. In the
second case, one side of the recovering box is kept fixed, and with a minimum size ruler, min ,
then recovers the figure by moving the boundary of that recovering from the minimum min
to maximum size max of the object. The first method is known as a method Box-Counting
exemplified in Figure 9 and the second method is known as Sand-box, shown in Figure 10. The
advantage of the second over the first is that it detects the changes in dimension D with the
length of the object. If the object under consideration has a local dimension for boxes with size
0 , unlike the global dimension, , it is said that the object is self-affine fractal.
Otherwise the object is said self-similar. These two main methods of counts of structures
which may lead to determination of the fractal dimension of an object [38].

3.2.1. Box-counting method by static scaling of the elements in a fractal structure

The Box-Counting method, comes from the theory of critical phenomena in statistical
mechanics. In statistical mechanics there is an analogous mathematical method to describing

32 Applied Fracture Mechanics

phenomena which have self-similar properties, permitting scale transformations without

loss of generality in the description of physical information of the phenomenon ranging
from quantities such as volume up to energy. However, in the case described here, the BoxCounting method is performed filling the space occupied by a fractal object with boxes of
arbitrary size , and count the number N of these boxes in function its size, (Figure 9
and Figure10). This number N of boxes is given as follows:
N C D

(16)

Plotting the data in a log log graph one obtains from the slope of the curve obtained, the
fractal dimension of the object.
In the Box-Counting method (Figure 9), a grid that recover the object is divided into
nk L0 / k boxes of equal side k and how many of these boxes that recovering the object
is counted. Then, varies the size of the boxes and the counting is retraced, and so on. Making
a logarithm graph of the number N k of boxes that recovering the object in function of the
scale for each subdivision k k / L0 , one obtains the fractal dimension from the slope of
this plot. Note that in this case the partition maximum is reached when,
N L0 / k k L0 / l0 , where Lmax L0 is the projected crack length l0 is the
length of the shortest practicable ruler.

Figure 9. Fragment of a crack on a testing sample showing the variation of measurement of the crack
length L with the measuring scale, k k / L0 for a partition, k varivel and Lk L0 (fixed), with
sectioning done for counting by one-dimensional Box-Counting scaling method.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 33

Therefore, the number N k k depending on the size, k , of these boxes is given as follows:

N k k k
max

(17)

In the Figure 9 is illustrated the use of this method in a fractal object. Are present different
grids, or meshes, constructed to recover the entire structure, whose fractal dimension one
wants to know. The grids are drawn from an original square, involving the whole space
occupied by the structure. At each stage of refinement of the grid L0 (the number of equal
parts in the side of the square is divided) are counted the number of squares N L0 which
contain part of the structure. Repeatedly from the data found, is constructed the graph of
log L0 log N L0 . If the graph thus obtained is a straight line, then the fractal behavior of
the structure has self-similarity or statistical self-affinity whose dimension D is obtained by
calculating the slope of the line. For more compact structure, it is recommended to make a
statistical sampling, that is, the repeat the counting of the squares N L0 for different
squares constructed from the gravity center (counting center) of the in the structure. Thus,
one obtains a set of values N L0 for another set of values L0 . These data must be
statistically treated to obtain the value of fractal dimension, " D " .
From the viewpoint of experimental measurement, one can consider using different
methods of viewing the crack to obtain the fractal dimension, such as optical microscopy,
electron microscopy, atomic force microscope, etc.., Which naturally have different rules k
and therefore different scales of measurement k ,.
The fractal dimension is usually calculated using the Box-Counting shown in Figure 9, i.e.
by varying the size of the measuring ruler k and counting the number of boxes, N k that
recover the structure. In the case of a crack the fractal dimension is obtained by the
following relationship:

ln N
ln(lo / Lo )

(18)

The description of a crack according to the Box-Counting method follows the idea shown in
Figure 9, which results in:

ln 57
1.096 .
ln(1 / 40)

(19)

The same result can be obtained using the Box-Sand method, as shown in Figure 10.

3.2.2. The sand-box counting method of the elements by static scaling of a fractal structure
The Sand-box method consists in the same way as the Box-Counting method, to count the
number of boxes, N u , but with fixed length, u , as small as possible, extending gradually

34 Applied Fracture Mechanics

up the boundary count until to reach out to the border of the object under consideration.
This is done initially by setting the counting origin from a fixed point on the object, as
shown in Figure10. This method seems to be the most advantageous, as well as to establish a
coordinate system, or a origin for calculating the fractal dimension, it also allows, in certain
cases, to infer dynamic data from static scaling, as shown by Alves [47].

Figure 10. Fragment of a crack on test specimen showing the variation of measurement of the crack
length L with the measuring scale, k k / L0 for a partition Lk varivel , and k l0 (fixed), with
sectioning done for counting by one-dimensional Sand-Box scaling method.

In the Sand-Box method (Figure10), the figure is recovered with boxes of different sizes Lk ,
no matter the form, which can be rectangular or spherical, however, fixed at a any point " O
" on figure called origin, from which the boxes are enlarged. It is counted the number of
elementary structures, or seeds, which fit within each box. Plotting the graph of
log N k log k min Lk in the same manner as in the above method the fractal dimension
is obtained. Note that in this case the maximum partition is achieved when
N Lk k min L0 l0 , where L L0 is the projected crack length and min l0 it is
the length of the lower measuring ruler practicable.

3.2.3. The global and local box dimensions

To define the box dimension, DB , is assumed that all the space containing the fractal is
recovered with a grid (set of -dimensional units juxtaposed in the same shape and size, )

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 35

with maximum size, max , which inscribes the fractal object. Defining the relative scale,
on the grid size, max , as being given by:

max

(20)

countting the number of boxes N ( ) that have at least one point of the fractal. The box
dimension is therefore defined as:
DB lim

ln N ( )
ln

(21)

At this point, there are two ways to obtain the actual value of the measure, or taking the
limit when 0 and allows that the dimension D fits the end value of N ( ) , or it is
considered a linear correlation in value of ln N ( ) ln , which D is the slope of the line,
and this defines the measure independently of the scale.
In the case of numerical estimation, one can not solve the limit indicated in the equation
(21). Then, DB is obtained as a slope, ln N ( ) ln when it is small. The value N ( ) is
obtained by an algorithm known as Box-Counting.
Self-affine fractals requiring different variations in scale length for different directions.
Therefore, one can use the Box-Counting method with some care being taken, in the sense
that the box dimension DB to be obtained has a crossing region between a local and global
measure of the dimensions. From which follows that for each region is used the following
relationships:

L
lim N L0 0
l0 0
l0

DBg

L
lim N L0 0
l0 0
l0

DBl

p / L0 L0 s

(22)

p / L0 L0 s

(23)

for a global measurement

where L0 s is the threshold saturation length which the fractal dimension changes its
behavior from local to global stage.
For measurement, generally, for any self-affine fractal structure the local fractal dimension is
related to the Hurst exponent, H , as follow,
DBl d 1 H q 1

(24)

At this point, one observes that for a profile the relationship DBl 2 H commonly used,
only serves for a local measurements using the box counting method. While for global

36 Applied Fracture Mechanics

measures one can not establish a relationship between DBg and H . For the global fractal
dimension, Dg d and I d 1 the Euclidean dimension where the fractal is embedded
one has
d DBg d 1

(25)

Some textbooks on the subject show an example of calculation of local and global fractal
dimension of self-affine fractals, obtained by a specific algorithm [18, 22, 23, 26, 38,39].
In crossing the limit of fractal dimension local Dl to global Dg , there is a transition zone
called the "crossover", and the results obtained in this region are somewhat ambiguous and
difficult to interpret [39]. However, in the global fractal dimension, the structure is not
considered a fractal [42 , 43].

3.2.4. The Relationship between box dimension and HausdorffBesicovitch dimensions

The mathematical definition of generalized dimension of Haussdorff-Besicovitch need a
method that can measure it properly to the fractal phenomenon under study. Some authors
[23, 40, 44, 45] have discussed the possibility of using the Box-Counting method as one of
the graphical methods which obtains a box dimension DB , very close to generalized
Haussdorff Besicovitch, DHB , i.e. [44]:

DB DHB

(26)

In this sense the box dimension, DB is obtained for self-asimilar fractals that may be
rescaled for the same variation in scales lengths in all directions by using the relationship:

L
N L0 0
l0

DB

(27)

where l0 is the grid size used and L0 is the apparent size of the fractal to be characterized.
The analytical calculation of the Hausdorff dimension is only possible in some cases and it is
difficult to implement by computation. In numerical calculation, is used another more
appropriate definition, called box dimension, DB , which in the case of dynamic systems,
has the same value of the Haussdorff dimension, D [44]. Thus, it is common to call them
without distinction as fractal dimensions, D as will be shown below.
All the definitions related to fractal exponents that are shown here, and all numerical
evaluation of these, always calculates the inclination of some amount against on a
logarithmic scale.
The two definitions of, Hausdorff-Besicovitch Dimension, DH and Box-Dimension, DB are
allocated the same amount, but in a way somewhat different from each other. In inaccurate
way, one can think that the connection between the two is done considering that:

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 37

M D D ~ N d ,

(28)

by analogy with equation (13), i.e. approximating to the geometric extension of the object by
the number of boxes (of the same size) necessary to recover it. But, since the definition of the
box dimension there is no optimization step, and its value is directly dependent on N
(which is not the case with the Hausdorff dimension) in practice one has often the geometric
extension is overestimated, particularly for large, i. e. upper limit 1 and thus
DB D . However, for the lower limit, i.e. 0 , the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimensions,
DH and the box dimension, DB are equal, becoming valid the measure of geometric
extension process, M D at box counting algorithm.
Considering from (28) that:

N ~ D d D d 1 ,

(29)

N max ~ max D d D d 1

(30)

and that

Therefore, dividing (29) by (30) has:

N max max

d D d 1

(31)

taking max the total grid extension that recover the object, one has:

max 1

(32)

N D d D d 1

(33)

M D D ~ D ,

(34)

From as early as (31)

Substituting (33) in (28) has:

This equation is analogous to the fundamental Richardson relationship for a fractal length.

4. Crack and rugged fracture surface models

The two main problematics of mathematical description of Fracture Mechanics are based on
the following aspects: the surface roughness generated in the process and the field
stress/strain applied to the specimen. This section deals with the fractal mathematical
description of the first aspect, i.e., the roughness of cracks on Fracture Mechanics, using
fractal geometry to model its irregular profile. In it will be shown basic mathematical

38 Applied Fracture Mechanics

assumptions to model and describe the geometric structures of irregular cracks and generic
fracture surfaces using the fractal geometry. Subsequently, one presents also the proposal
for a self-affine fractal model for rugged surfaces of fracture. The model was derived from a
generalization of Voss [48] (1) equation and the model of Morel [49] for fractal self-affine
fracture surfaces. A general analytical expression for a rugged crack length as a function of
the projected length and fractal dimension is obtained. It is also derived the expression of
roughness, which can be directly inserted in the analytical context of Classical Fracture
Mechanics.
The objectives of this section are: (i) based geometrical concepts, extracted from the fractal
theory and apply them to the CFM in order to (ii) construct a precise language for its
mathematical description of the CFM, into the new vision the fractal theory. (iii) eliminate
some of the questions that arise when using the fractal scaling in the formulation of physical
quantities that depend on the rough area of fracture, instead of the projected area, in the
manner which is commonly used in fracture mechanics. (iv) another objective is to study the
way which the fractal concept can enrich and clarify various aspects of fracture mechanics.
For this will be done initially in this section, a brief review of the major advances obtained
by the fractal theory, in the understanding of the fractography and in the formation of
fracture surfaces and their properties. Then it will be done, also, a mathematical description
of our approach, aiming to unify and clarify aspects still disconnected from the classical
theory and modern vision, provided by fractal geometry. This will make it possible for the
reader to understand what were the major conceptual changes introduced in this work, as
well as the point from which the models proposed progressed unfolding in new concepts,
new equations and new interpretations of the phenomenon.

4.1. Application of fractal theory in the characterization of a fracture surface

In this section one intends to do a brief history of the fractography development as a fractal
characterization methodology of a fractal fracture surface.

4.1.1. Geometric aspects and observations extracted from the quantitative fractography of
irregular fracture surface
The technique used for geometric analysis of the fracture surface is called fractography.
Until recently it was based only on profilometric study and statistical analysis of irregular
surfaces [50]. Over the years, after repeated observations of these surfaces at various
magnifications, was also revealed a variety of self-similar structures that lie between the
micro and macro-structural level, characteristic of the type of fracture under observation.
Since 1950 it is known that certain structures observed in fracture surfaces by microscopy,
showed the phenomenon of invariance by magnification. Such structures recently started to
be described in a systematic way by means of fractal geometry [51, 25]. This new approach
allows the description of patterns that at first sight seem irregular, but keep an invariance by
1

Voss present a fractal description for the noise in the Browniano mouvement

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 39

scale transformation (self-similarity or self-affinity). This means that some facts concerning
the fracture have the same character independently of the magnification scale, i.e. the
phenomenology that give rise to these structures is the same in different observation scales.
The Euclidean scaling of physical quantities is a common occurrence in many physical
theories, but when it comes to fractality appears the possibility to describe irregular
structures. The fracture for each type of material has a behavior that depends on their
physical, chemical, structural, etc. properties. Looking at the topography and the different
structures and geometrical patterns formed on the fracture surfaces of various materials, it is
impossible to find a single pattern that can describe all these surfaces (Figure 11), since the
fractal behavior of the fracture depends on the type of material [52]. However, the fracture
surfaces obtained under the same mechanical testing conditions and for the same type of
material, retains geometric aspects similar of its relief [53] (see Figure 12).
This similarity demonstrates that exist similar conditions in the fracture process for the same
material, although also exist statistically changinga from piece to piece, constructed of the
same material and under the same conditions [54; 55]. Based on this observation was born
the idea to relate the surface roughness of the fracture with the mechanical properties of
materials [50].

Figure 11. Various aspects of the fracture surface for different materials: (a) Metallic B2CT2 sample, (b)
Polymeric, sample PU1.0, with details of the microvoids formation during stable crack propagation, (c)
Ceramic [56].

4.1.2. Fractal theory applied to description of the relief of a fracture surface

Let us now identify the fractal aspects of fracture surfaces of materials in general, to be
obtained an experimental basis for the fractal modeling of a generic fracture surface. The
description of irregular patterns and structures, is not a trivial task. Every description is
related to the identification of facts, aspects and features that may be included in a class of
phenomena or structure previously established. Likewise, the mathematical description of
the fracture surface must also have criteria for identifying the geometric aspects, in order to
identify the irregular patterns and structures which may be subject to classification. The
criteria, used until recently were provided by the fractogrfico study through statistical

40 Applied Fracture Mechanics

analysis of quantities such as average grain size, roughness, etc. From geometrical view
point this description of the irregular fracture surface, was based, until recently, the
foundations of Euclidean geometry. However, this procedure made this description a task
too complicated. With the advent of fractal geometry, it became possible to approach the
problem analytically, and in more authentic way.

Figure 12. Fracture surfaces of different parts mades with the same material, a) Lot A9 b) Lot A1 [56 1999].

Inside the fractography, fractal description of rugged surfaces, has emerged as a powerful
tool able to describe the fracture patterns found in brittle and ductile materials. With this
new characterization has become possible to complement the vision of the fracture
phenomenon, summarizing the main geometric information left on the fracture surface in
just a number, " D ", called fractal dimension. Therefore, assuming that there is a close
relationship between the physical phenomena and fractal pattern generated as a fracture
surface, for example, the physical properties of these objects have implications on their
geometrical properties. Thinking about it, one can take advantage of the geometric
description of fractals to extract information about the phenomenology that generated it,
thereby obtaining a greater understanding of the fracture process and its physical
properties. But before modeling any irregular (or rough) fracture surface, using fractal
geometry, will be shown some of the difficulties existing and care should be taken in this
mathematical description.

4.2. Fractal models of a rugged fracture surface

A fracture surface is a record of information left by the fracture process. But the Classical
Fracture Mechanics (CFM) was developed idealizing a regular fracture surface as being
smooth and flat. Thus the mathematical foundations of CFM consider an energy equivalence
between the rough (actual) and projected (idealized) fracture surfaces [57]. Besides the
mathematical complexity, part of this foundation is associated with the difficulties of an
accurate measure of the actual area of fracture. In fact, the geometry of the crack surfaces is
usually rough and can not be described in a mathematically simple by Euclidean geometry

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 41

[52]. Although there are several methods to quantify the fracture area, the results are
dependent on the measure ruler size used [56]. Since the last century all the existing
methods to measure a rugged surface did not contribute to its insertion into the analytical
mathematical formalism of CFM until to rise the fractal geometry. Generally, the roughness
of a fracture surface has fractal geometry. Therefore, it is possible to establish a relationship
between its topology and the physical quantities of fracture mechanics using fractal
characterization techniques. Thus, with the advent of fractal theory, it became possible to
describe and quantify any structure apparently irregular in nature [1]. In fact, many theories
based on Euclidean geometry are being revised. It was experimentally proved that the
fracture surfaces have a fractal scaling, so the Fracture Mechanics is one of the areas
included in this scientific context.

4.2.1. Importance of fracture surface modeling

The mathematical formalism of the CFM was prepared by imagining a fracture surface flat,
smooth and regular. However, this is an mathematical idealization because actually the
microscopic viewpoint, and in some cases up to macroscopic a fracture surface is generally a
rough and irregular structure difficult to describe geometrically. This type of mathematical
simplification above mentioned, exists in many other areas of exact sciences. However, to
make useful the mathematical formalism developed over the years, Irwin started to consider
the projected area of the fracture surface [57] as being energetically equivalent to the rugged
surface area. This was adopted due to experimental difficulties to accurately measure the
true area of the fracture, in addition to its highly complex mathematics. Although there are
different methods to quantify the actual area of the fracture [56], its equationing within the
fracture mechanics was not considered, because the values resulting from experimental
measurements depended on the "ruler size" used by various methods. No mathematical
theory had emerged so far, able to solve the problem until a few decades came to fractal
geometry. Thus, modern fractal geometry can circumvent the problem of complicated
mathematical description of the fracture surface, making it useful in mathematical modeling
of the fracture.
In particular, it was shown experimentally that cracks and fracture surfaces follow a
fractional scaling as expected by fractal geometry. Therefore, the fractal modeling of a
irregular fracture surface is necessary to obtain the correct measurement of its true area.
Therefore, fracture mechanics is included in the above context and all its classical theory
takes into account only the projected surface. But with the advent of fractal geometry, is also
necessary to revise it by modifying its equations, so that their mathematical description
becomes more authentic and accurate. Thus, it is possible to relate the fractal geometric
characterization with the physical quantities that describe the fracture, including the true
area of irregular fracture surface instead of the projected surface. Thought this idea was that
Mandelbrot and Passoja [58] developed the fractal analysis by the "slit island method ".
Through this method, they sought to correlate the fractal dimension with the physical wellknown quantities in fracture mechanics, only an empirical way. Following this pioneering

42 Applied Fracture Mechanics

work, other authors [3 , 4 , 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 11, 12, 13, 59 ] have made theoretical and geometrical
considerations with the goal of trying to relate the geometrical parameters of the fracture
surfaces with the magnitudes of fracture mechanics, such as fracture energy, surface energy,
fracture toughness, etc.. However, some misconceptions were made regarding the
application of fractal geometry in fracture mechanics.
Several authors have suggested different models for the fracture surfaces [60-63]. Everyone
knows that when it was possible to model generically a fracture surface, independently of the
fractured material, this will allow an analytical description of the phenomena resulting the
roughness of these surfaces within the Fracture Mechanics. Thus the Fracture Mechanics will
may incorporate fractal aspects of the fracture surfaces explaining more appropriately the
material properties in general. In this section one propose a generic model, which results in
different cases of fracture surfaces, seeking to portray the variety of geometric features found
on these surfaces for different materials. For this a basic mathematical conceptualization is
needed which will be described below. For this reason it is done in the following section a
brief bibliographic review of the progress made by researchers of the fractal theory and of the
Fracture Mechanics in order to obtain a mathematical description of a fracture surface
sufficiently complete to be included in the analytical framework of the Mechanics Fracture.

4.2.2. Literature review - models of fractal scaling of fracture surfaces

Mosolov [64] and Borodich [3 ] were first to associate the deformation energy and fracture
surface involved in the fracture with the exponents of surface roughness generated during
the process of breaking chemical bonds, separation of the surfaces and consequently the
energy dissipation . They did this relationship using the stress field. Mosolov and Borodich
[64, 3 ] used the fractional dependence of singularity exponents of this field at the crack tip
and the fractional dependence of fractal scaling exponents of fracture surfaces, postulating
the equivalence between the variations in deformation and surface energy. Bouchaud [62]
disagreed with the Mosolov model [64] and proposed another model in terms of
fluctuations in heights of the roughness on fracture surfaces in the perpendicular direction
to the line of crack growth, obtaining a relationship between the fracture critical parameters
such as K IC and relative variation of the height fluctuations of the rugged surface. In this
scenario has been conjectured the universality of the roughness exponent of fracture
surfaces because this did not depend on the material being studied [63]. This assumption
has generated controversy [61] which led scientists to discover anomalies in the scaling
exponents between local and global scales in fracture surfaces of brittle materials. Family
and Vicsk [39, 65] and Barabasi [66] present models of fractal scaling for rugged surfaces in
films formed by ballistic deposition. Based on this dynamic scaling Lopez and Schimittibuhl
[67, 68] proposed an analogous model valid for fracture surfaces, where they observed in
your experiments anomalies in the fractal scaling, with critical dimensions of transition for
the behavior of the roughness of these surfaces in brittle materials. In this sense Lopez [67,
68] borrowed from the model of Family and Vicsk [39, 65] analogies that could be applied
to the rough fracture surfaces.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 43

4.2.3. The fractality of a crack or fracture surface

By observing a crack, in general, one notes that it presents similar geometrical aspects that
reproduce itself, at least within a limited range of scales. This property called invariance by
scale transformation is called also self-similarity, if not privilege any direction, or selfaffinity, when it favors some direction over the other. Some authors define it as the property
that have certain geometrical objects, in which its parts are similar to the whole in in
successive scales transformation. In the case of fracture, this takes place from a range of
minimum cutoff scale , min until a maximum cutoff scale, max , contrary to the proposed
by Borodich [3], which defines an infinite range of scales to maintain the mathematical
definition fractal. In the model proposed in this section, one used the fractal theory as a form
closer to reality to describe the fracture surface with respect to Euclidean description. This
was done in order to have a much better approximatation to reality of the problem and to
use fractal theory as a more authentic approach.

Figure 13. Self-similarity present in a pine (fractal), with different levels of scaling, k.

To understand clearly the statements of the preceding paragraph, one can use the pine
example shown in Figure 13. It is known that any stick of a pine is similar in scale, the other
branches, which in its turn are similar to the whole pine. The relationship between the scales
mentioned above, in case of pine, can be obtained considering from the size of the lower
branch (similar to the pine whole) until the macroscopic pine size. Calling of min l0 , the
size of the lower branch and max L0 , the macroscopic size of whole pine one may be
defined cutoff scales lower and upper (minimum and maximum), subdivided, therefore, the
pine in discrete levels of scales as suggested the structure, as follows:

min

static case L0 L0 max

lo
l
L
k k max o 1
Lo
Lo
Lo
dynamic case L0 L0 (t )

(35)

where an intermediate scale k min k max can also be defined as follows:

lk
.
Lo

(36)

44 Applied Fracture Mechanics

The magnitude k represents the scaling ratio which depicts the size of any branch with
length, lk , in relation to any pine whole. l0 is related to the Mishnaevsky minimum size for
a crack which is shown in section - 4.2.6 and L0 L0 max is the maximum leght if the fracture
already been completed.
Similarly it is assumed that the cracks and fracture surfaces also have their scaling relations,
like that represented in equations (35) and (36). In the continuous cutoff scale levels, lower
and upper (minimum and maximum), are thus defined as follows:

min

lo
L
l

max o 1
Lo
Lo
Lo

(37)

Note that the self-similarity of the pine so as the crack self-affinity, although statistical, is
limited by a lower scale min as determined by the minimum size, l0 , and a upper scale
max , given by macroscopic crack size, L0 .
From the concepts described so far, it is verified that the measuring scale k to count the
structure elements is arbitrary. However, in the scaling of a fracture surface, or a crack
profile, follows a question:
Which is the value of scale k to be properly used in order to obtain the most accurate
possible measurement of the rugged fracture surface?
There is a minimum fracture size that depends only on the type of material?
Surely the answer to this question lies in the need to define the smallest size of the fractal
structure of a crack or fracture surface, so that its size can be used as a minimal calibration
measuring ruler(2).
Since an fracture surface or crack, is considered a fractal, first, it is necessary to identify in
the microstructure of the material which should be the size as small as possible a of a rugged
fracture, i.e. the value of lmin . This minimal fracture size, typical of each material, must be
then regarded as an elementary structure of the formation of fractal fracture, so defining a
minimum cutoff scale, min , for the fractal scaling, where min l0 L0 , where l0 it is a
planar projection of lmin . In practice, from this value the minimum scale of measurement,
min l0 L0 one defines a minimum ruler size min , for this case, equal to the value of the
plane projection the smallest possible fracture size, i.e. min l0 . Thus, the fractal scaling of
the fracture surface, or crack, may be done by obtaining the most accurate possible value of
the rough length, L . However, the theoretical prediction of the minimum fracture, lmin ,
must be made from the classical fracture mechanics, as will be seen below.

4.2.4. Scaling hierarchical limits

Mandelbrot [58] pointed out in his work that the fracture surfaces and objects found in
nature, in general, fall into a regular hierarchy, where different sizes of the irregularities
2

This must be done so that the measurement scales are not arbitrary and may depend on some property of the material.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 45

described by fractal geometry, are limited by upper and lower sizes, in which each level is a
version in scale of the levels contained below and above of these sizes. Some structures that
appear in nature, as opposed to the mathematical fractals, present the property of invariance
by scale transformation (self- similarity of self-affinity) only within a limited range of scale
transformation ( min max ) . Note in Figure 13 that this minimal cutoff scale min , one
can find an elementary part of the object similar to the whole, that in iteration rules is used
as a seed to construct the fractal pattern that is repeated at successive scales, and the
maximum cutoff scale D one can see the fractal object as a whole.
One must not confuse this mathematical recursive construction way, with the way in which
fractals appear in nature really. In physical media, fractals appears normally in situations of
local or global instability [24], giving rise to structures that can be called fractals, at least
within a narrow range of scaling ( min max ) as is the case of trees such as pine,
cauliflower, dendritic structures in solidification of materials, cracks, mountains, clouds, etc.
From these examples it is observed that, in nature, the particular characteristics of the seed
pattern depends on the particular system. For these structures, it is easy to see that that
fractal scaling occurs from the lowest branch of a pine, for a example, which is repeated
following the same appearance, until the end size of the same, and vice versa. In the case of
a crack, if a portion of this crack, is enlarged by a scale, , one will see that it resembles the
entire crack and so on, until reaching to the maximum expansion limit in a minimum scale,
min , in which one can not enlarge the portion of the crack, without losing the property of
invariance by scaling transformation (self-similar or self-affinity). As the fractal growth
theory deals with growing structures, due to local or global instability situations [24], such
scaling interval is related to the total energy expended to form the structure. The minimum
and maximum scales limit is related to the minimum and maximum scale energy expended
in forming the structure, since it is proportional to the fractal mass. The number of levels
scaling, k , between min and max depends on the rate at which the formation energy of
fractal was dissipated, or also on the instability degree that gave rise to the fractal pattern.

4.2.5. The fractal geometric pattern of a fracture and its measurement scales
Considering that the fracture surface formed follows a fractal behavior necessarily also
admits the existence of a geometric pattern that repeats itself, independent of the scale of
observation. The existence of this pattern also shows that a certain degree of geometric
information is stored in scale, during the crack growth. Thus, for each type of material can
be abstract a kind of geometric pattern, apparently irregular with slight statistical variations,
able to describe the fracture surface.
Moreover, for the same type of material is necessary to observe carefully the enlargement or
reduction scales of the fracture surface. For, as it reduces or enlarges the scale of view, are
found pattern and structures which are modified from certain ranges of these scales. This
can be seen in Figure 14. In this figure is shown that in an alumina ceramic, whose
ampliation of one of its grains at the microstructure reveals an underlying structure of the

46 Applied Fracture Mechanics

cleavage steps, showing that for different magnifications the material shows different
morphologies of the surface of fracture.

Figure 14. Changings in pattern of irregularities with the magnification scale on a ceramic alumina, Lot
A8 [56].

To approach this problem one must first observe that, what is the structure for a scale becomes
pattern element or structural element to another scale. For example, to study the material, the
level of atomic dimensions, the atom that has its own structure (Figure 15a) is the element of
another upper level, i.e., the crystalline (Figure 15b). At this level, the cleavage steps formed by
the set of crystalline planes displaced, in turn, become the structural elements of
microsuperfcie fracture in this scale (Figure 15c). At the next level, the crystalline, is the
microstructural level of the material, where each fracture microsurface becomes the structural
member, although irregular, of the macroscopic rugged fracture surface, as visible to the naked
eye, as is shown diagrammatically in Figure 15d. Thus, the hierarchical structural levels [69]
are defined within the material (Figure 15), as already described in this section.

Figure 15. Different hierarchical structural levels of a fracture in function of the observation scale; a)
atomic level; b) crystalline level (cleavage steps); c) microstructural level (fracture microsurfaces) and d)
macrostructural level (fracture surface).

Based on the observations made in the preceding paragraph, it is observed that the fractal
scaling of a fracture surface should be limited to certain ranges of scale in order to maintain

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 47

the mathematical description of the same geometric pattern (atom, crystal, etc.) , which is
shown in detail in section - 4.2.3. Although it is possible to find a structural element, forming
a pattern, at each hierarchical level, it should be remembered that each type of structure has
a characteristic fractal dimension. Therefore, it is impossible to characterize all scale levels of
a fracture with only a single fractal dimension. To resolve this problem one can uses a
multifractal description. However, within the purpose of this section a description
monofractal provides satisfactory results. For this reason, it was considered in the first
instance, that a more sophisticated would be unnecessary.
Considering the analytical problem of the fractal description, one must establish a lower and
an upper observation scale, in which the mathematical considerations are kept within this
range. These scales limits are established from the mechanical properties and from the
sample size, as will be seen later. Obviously, a mathematical description at another level of
scale, should take into account the new range of scales and measurement rules within this
other level, as well as the corresponding fractal dimension.
As already mentioned, the description of the rough fracture surface can be performed at the
atomic level, in cleavage steps level (crystalline) or in microstructural level (fracture
microsurfaces), depending on the phenomenological degree of detail that wants to reach. This
section will be fixed at the microstructural level (micrometer scale), because it reflects the
morphology of the surface described by the thermodynamic view of the fracture. This means
that the characteristics lengths of generated defects are large in relation to the atomic scale, thus
defining a continuous means that reconciles in the same scale the mechanical properties with
the thermodynamic properties. Meanwhile, the atomic level and the level of cleavage steps is
treated by molecular dynamics and plasticity theory, respectively, which are part areas.

4.2.6. The calibration problem of a fracture minimum size as a "minimal ruler size" of their
fractal
To answer the previous question, about the minimum fracture size, Mishnaevsky [70]
proposes a minimum characteristic size, a , given by the size of the smallest possible
microcrack, formed at the crack tip (or notch) as a result of stress concentration in the
vicinity of a piling up dislocations in the crystalline lattice of the material, satisfying a
condition of maximum constriction at the crack tip, where:
a ~ konb ,

(38)

where k0 is a proportionality coefficient. n is the number of dislocations piling up that can

be calculated by:
n

l (1 )
,
b

(39)

where v is the Poisson's ratio, l is the length of the piling up of dislocations, is the
normal or tangential stress, is the shear modulus and b is the Burgers vector.
Substituting (39) in (38) one has;

48 Applied Fracture Mechanics

a~

kon l (1 )

(40)

Mishnaevsky equates with mathematical elegance, the crack propagation as the result of a
"physical reaction" of interaction of a crack size, L0 with a piling up of dislocations, nb ,
forming a microtrinca size, a , i.e.;

Lo nb Lo a ,

(41)

where a Lo e nb Lo .
Mishnaevsky proposes a fractal scaling for the fracture process since the minimum scale,
given by the size a , until the maximum scale, given by the macroscopic size crack, L0 .
As a consequence for the existence of a minimum fracture size, recently has arosen a
hypothesis that the fracture process is discrete or quantized (Passoja, 1988, Taylor et al.,
2005; Wnuk, 2007). Taylor et al. (2005) conducted mathematical changes in CFM to validate
this hypothesis. Experimental results have confirmed that a minimum fractures length is
given by:

l0 ~

2 Kc
.

(42)

where Kc is the fracture toughness, 0 is the stress of the yielding strength before the
material fracture.

4.2.7. Fractal scaling of a self-similar rough fracture surface or profile

A mathematical relationship between the extension of the self-similar contour and a
extension of its projection is calculated as follows.
Being A the surface extension of the fractal contour, given by a self-similar homogenous
function with fractional degree, D , where:
A D Au .

(43)

A0 is the plane projection extension, given by a self-similar homogeneous function with

integer degree, d , in accordance with the expression:
A0 d Au ,

(44)

where, Au d is the unit area of measurement, whose values on the rugged and plane
surface are the same. Thus the relationships (43) and (44) can be written in the same way as
the equations (43) and (44). Therefore, by dividing these equations, one has:
A A0 d D .

(45)

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 49

An illustration of the relationship (43), (44) and (45) can be seen in Figure 16.

Figure 16. Rugged surface formed by a homogeneous function A , with frational degee D , whose
planar projection, A0 is a homogeneous function of integer degree d , showing the unit surface area
Au .

The rugged fracture surface, may be considered to be a homogeneous function with

frational degree, D , ni.e.:
A Ak k D ,

(46)

and its planar projection, may be considered as a homogeneous function with integer degree
d 2 , i.e.:

A0 Ar r d .

(47)

The index k was chosen to designate the irregular surface at a k -level of any magnification
or reduction. The index r has been chosen to designate the smooth (or flat) surface at a r level, and the index, 0 , was chosen to designate the projected surface corresponding to
rugged surface, at the k -level.
Considering that, for k r and k r , the area unit, Ak and Ar , are necessarily of equal
value and dividing relationships (46) and (47) , one has:

A( k ) A0 k d D .

(48)

The equation (48), means that the scaling performed between a smooth and another
irregular surface, must be accompanied by a power term of type k d D . Thus, there is the
fractal scaling, which relates the two fracture surfaces in question: a rugged or irregular
surface, which contains the true area of the fracture and regular surface, which contains the
projected area of the fracture.
From now on will be obtained a relationship between the rugged and the projected
profile of the fracture in analogous way to equation (250) for a thin flat plate (Figure 17a

50 Applied Fracture Mechanics

and Figure 17b) with thickness e 0 . In this case the area of rugged surface can be
written as:
A Le ,

(49)

Figure 17. Scaling of a rugged profile of a fracture surface or a crack, using the Mishnaevsky minimum
size as a "measuring ruler"; a) in the case of a crack is a non-fractal straight line, where D d 1 ; b) in
the case of tortuous fractal crack, with its projected crack length, where d D d 1 .

and the area of the projected surface as

A0 L0 e ,

(50)

According to the equation (48) the valid relationship is:

L( k ) Lo k d D ,

(51)

where, L( k ) is the measured crack length on the scale k , L0 is the projected crack length
measured on the same scale, in a growth direction.

4.2.8. The self-similarity relationship of a fractal crack

The fracture is characterized from the final separation of the crystal planes. This
separation has a minimum well-defined value, possibly given by theory Mishnaevsky Jr.
(1994). If it is considered that below of this minimum value the fracture does not exist,
and above it the crack is defined as the crystal planes moving continuously (and the
formed crack tip penetrates the material), so that an increasing number of crystal planes
are finally separated. One can in principle to use this minimum microscopic size as a kind
of ruler (or scale) for the measurement of the crack as a whole(3), i.e. from the start point
from which the crack grows until its end characterized by instantaneous process of crack
growth, for example.
The above idea can be expressed mathematically as follows:

During or concurrently with its propagation, in a dynamic scaling process, or not

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 51

L L0 d D ,

(52)

dividing the entire expression (52) above by the minimum Mishnaevsky size one has:
L L0 d D
,

a a

(53)

N N 0 d D ,

(54)

or

where
N L a : is the number of crack elements a on the non-projected crack
N 0 L0 a : is the number of cracl elements a on the crack projected
and yet:

a L0 ,

(55)

where:

: is the scaling factor of the fractal crack

d : is the Euclidean dimension of the crack projection
D : is the crack fractal dimension.

Within this context the number of microcracks that form the macroscopic crack is given by:
a
N
Lo

(56)

In this context (in Mishnaevsky model), the above expression is volumetric and admits cracks
branching generated in the fracture process with opening and coalescence of microcracks.
However, he continue equating the process in a one-dimensional way reaching an expression
for the crack propagation velocity. A complete discussion of this subject, using a self-affine
fractal model to be more realistic and accurate, can be done in another research paper.
The answer to the question about what should be the best scale to be used for fractal fracture
scaling is then given as follows: being the limit of the crack length Lk in any scale, given by
Lk L (actual size) as well as lk lmin , the value of the minimum size ruler, l0 it must be
equal to the minimum crack size, a (4), given by Mishnaevsky [70], through its energy
balance for the fracture of a single monocrystal of the microstructure of a material. The
physical reason for this choice is because the Mishnaevsky minimum size is determined by a
4 It is possible that this minimal ruler size be very low than the scale used in fractal characterization of the fracture
surfaces. However, it must to be the smallest possible size for a microcrack.

52 Applied Fracture Mechanics

energy balance, from which the crack comes to exist, because below this size, there is no
sense speak of crack length. Therefore, the scale that must be considered is given by:

min a L0 ,

(57)

where a is given by relation (40).

Therefore, the statistical self-similarity or self-affinity of a fracture surface, or a crack is
limited by a cutoff lower scale min , determined by the minimum critical size, l0 a , and a
cutoff upper scale max , given by the macroscopic crack length, L0 .
In two dimensions, the problem of existence of a minimum scale size (possibly given by the
Mishnaevky minimum size), leads to abstraction of a microsurface with minimum area,
whose shape will be investigated further, in Appendices, in terms of the number of stress
concentrators nearest existing within a material.

4.3. Model of self-affine fracture surface or profiles

In this section one intend to present the development of fractal models of self-similar
surfaces. From a rough fracture surface can be extracted numerous profiles also rough on
the crack propagation direction. However, in this section is considered only one profile,
which is representative of the entire fracture surface (Figure 18). The plane strain condition
admits this assumption. Because, although the fracture toughness varies along the thickness
of the material to a plastic zone reduced in relation to material thickness, it can be
considered a property. This means that it is possible to obtain a statistically rough profile,
equivalent to other possible profiles, which can be obtained within the thickness range
considered by plane strain conditions.

Figure 18. Statistically equivalent profiles along the thickness of the material

In order also equivalent to this, it is also possible to obtain an average projected crack length
as a result of an average of the crack size along the thickness of the material thickness within
the range considered by plane strain, for the purpose of calculations in CFM, it is considered

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 53

this average size as if it were a single projected crack length, as recommended by the ASTM
E1737-96 [71]. Therefore, inwhat follows, is effected by reducing or lowering the
dimensional degree of relationship from the two-dimensional case, shown above, for the
one-dimensional case, as follows:

A x, y L x .

(58)

L(x x) x H L( x),

(59)

H 2D

(60)

thus, for a self-affine fractal one has:

where

is the Hurst exponent measuring the profile ruggedness. In one-dimensional case the
fracture surface is a profile whose length L is obtained from measuring the projected
length, L0 , as illustrated below in Figure 19.

4.3.1. Calculation of the rugged crack length as a function of its projected length
Considering a profile of the fracture surface as a self-affine fractal, analogous to the fractal of
Figure 19, which perpendicular directions have the same physical nature the Voss [48]
equation to the Brownian motion can be generalized(5) to obtain rugged crack length L ,
depending on the projected crack length, L0 .
Figure 19 illustrates one of the methods for fractal measuring. This measure can be obtained
by taking boxes or rectangular portions, based L0 and height H 0 on the crack profile,
and recovering up this profile, within these boxes, with "little boxes" (recovering units) with
small sizes, l0 and h0 , respectively (Figure 19). Instead of little boxes is also possible to use
other shapes(6) compatible with the object to be measured. Then makes the counting of the
little boxes (or recovering units) needed to recover the extension of the rugged crack,
centered in the box L0 H0 . The number of these little boxes (or recovering units) of size
r in function of the boxes extension (or parts), L0 H0 , provides the fractal dimension, as
shown in section 3 - Methods for Measuring Length, Area, Volume and Fractal Dimension.
Assume that the rectangular little boxes (or recovering units) of microscopic size, r , recover
the entire crack length, L inside the box with greater length, L0 H0 . The number of
little boxes (recovering unit) with sides of l0 h0 needed to recover a crack in the horizontal
direction, inside the box (or stretch) of rectangular area L0 H0 , for the self-affine fractal
can be obtained by the expression:
5 Voss [48], modeled the noise plot of the frational Brownian motion , where in the y-direction, he plots the amplitude,
VH, and in the x-direction, he plots the time, t.
6 Some authors used balls

54 Applied Fracture Mechanics

Figure 19. Self-affine fractal of Weierstrass-Mandelbrot, where k 1 / 4 and Dx 1.5 and H 0.5 ,
used to represent a fracture profile (Family, Fereydoon; Vicsek, Tamas Dynamics of Fractal Surfaces,
World Scientific, Singapore , 1991, p.7).

Nv

L0 0
in vertical direction
l0 v

(61)

where L0 is the crack horizontal projection and v is the vertical scaling factor.
Considering that the self-affine fractal extends in the horizontal direction along L0 , and
oscillates in the perpendicular direction, i.e. in the vertical direction, the number of little
boxes N h , with size, l0 in the horizontal direction, are gathered to form the projected length
L0 , while vertically the number of little boxes N v , with size h0 , overlap each other,
increasing (as power law) this number in comparison to the number of little boxes gathered
horizontally. Therefore, for the vertical direction with a projection H 0 , the box sides
L0 H0 , an expression for the number of boxes (or units covering) can be writen as:

Nh

H 0 H

in horizontal direction .
h0 h

(62)

where H is the Hurst exponent, H0 is the total variation in height ( lo H0 Lo ) and

h is the scale transformation factor in the horizontal direction.
Therefore, for the corresponding rugged crack length (real) L , the stretch L0 H0 one
can writes:
L N vr

(63)

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 55

where r is equal to the rugged crack length on a microscopic scale, as a function of

extension of the little boxes l0 h0 by:

r l0 2 h0 2

(64)

where l0 and h0 are the microscopic sizes of the crack length in horizontal and vertical
directions, respectively. Substituting (64) in (63), one has:
L N v l02 h02

(65)

substituting (61) in (65), one has:

L

L0
l0 2 h0 2
l0

(66)

Since that in the fracture process, the scales in orthogonal directions are the same physical
nature, one can choose v h l0 / L0 , and one can writes from (62) that:
H 0 L0
N h

l0 l0

(67)

being necessarily N h N v , one has:

L0 H 0 L0

l0 l0 l0

(68)

rewriting the equation (66), one has:

h
L L0 1 0
l0

(69)

writing h0 from (68), as:

L
h0 H 0 0
l0

H 1

(70)

Eliminating in (69) the dependence of h0 , by substituting (70) in (69), one has:

2

H0 L0
L L0 1

l0 l0

2 H 1

(71)

56 Applied Fracture Mechanics

The curve length in the stretch, L0 H0 considering the Sand-Box method [38] whose
counting starts from the origin of the fractal, can be written as: L L , L0 L0 and
H 0 H 0 hence the equation (71) shall be given by:
L L0

H
1 0
l0

L0

l0

2 H 1

(72)

whose the plot is shown in Figure 20. Note that the lengths L0 and H 0 correspond to the
projected crack length in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively.
Applying the logaritm on the both sides of equation (72) one obtains an expression that
relates the fractal dimension with the projected crack length:

Df

ln L / l0

ln L0 / l0

2
2 H 1

H L

ln 0 0

l
l
1 0 0

ln L0

(73)

Figure 20. Graph of the rugged length L in function of the projected length L0 , showing the influence
of height, H0 , of the boxes in the fractal model of fracture surface: a) in the upper curves is observed
the effect of H 0 as it tends to unity ( H 0 1.0 ), b) in the lower curves, that appearing almost overlap, is
observed the effect of H 0 as it tends to zero ( H 0 0 ).

The graph in Figure 20 shows the influence of the boxes height H 0 on the rugged crack
length, L , as a function of the projected crack length, L0 . Note that for boxes of low
height ( H 0 0 ), in relation to its projected length, L0 , the lower curves (for
H 0 0.01,0.001,0.0001 ), denoted by the letter " b ", almost overlap giving rise to a linear
relation between these lengths (Figure 21). While for boxes of high height ( H 0 1.0 ) in
relation to its projected length, L0 , the relation between the lengths become each more
distinct from the linear relationship for the same exponent roughness, H .

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 57

Figure 21. Counting boxes (or strechts) with rectangular sizes Lo x H o where the boxes that recovers
the profile have different extensions in the horizontal and vertical directions.

Making up the counting boxes (or stretch) with rectangular sizes Lo x H o where the boxes
recovering the profile have different extensions in the horizontal and vertical directions
respectively, i.e., H o lo the equation (72). Is simplified to:
l
L Lo 1 o
Lo

2H 2

(74)

which plot is shown in Figure 22.

The graph in Figure 22 shows the influence of the roughness dimension on the rugged crack
length, L , in function of the projected length, L0 . Note that for H 0 1.0 , corresponding to
a smooth surface, the relation between the rugged and projected length becomes
increasingly linear. While for H 0 0 , which corresponds to a rougher surface, the the
relation between the rugged and projected length becomes increasingly non-linear.

Figure 22. Graph of the rugged length, L , in function of the projected length, L0 , showing the
influence of the Hurst exponent H , in the fractal model of the fracture surface.

Note that for Lo H o , one has, from the equation (62) and (68) the following relationship:

l
Lo ho o
Lo

(75)

58 Applied Fracture Mechanics

which is a self-similar relation between the projected crack length, L0 , and height of the
little box, h0 . This relationship shows that all self-affine fractal, in the approximation of a
small scale, has a local self-similarity forming a fractal substructure, when is considered
square portions, L0 L0 , instead of rectangular portions, L0 H 0 .
It important to observe that L0 denotes the distance between two points of the crack (the
projected crack length). The self-affine measure, L of L0 , in the fractal dimension, D , is
given by (72). l0 is the possible minimum length of a micro-crack, which defines the scale
l0 / L0 under which the crack profile is scrutinized, as discussed in previous section and will
be discussed after in the section #.5.4.5. The Hurst exponent, H , is related to D by (60).
In the study of a self-affine fractal there are two extremes limits to be verified. One is the
limit at which the boxes height is high in relation to its projected length, L0 , i.e. ( H 0 L0 ),
which is also called local limit. The other limit is one in which the boxes height is low in
relation to its projected length, L0 , i.e., ( H 0 h0 ) which is called global limit. It will be seen
now each one of this limits case contained in the expression (72).
Case 1 : The self-similar or local limit of the fractality
Taking the local limit of the self-affine fractal measure as given by (72), i. e. for the case
where, H 0 L0 l0 , one has:
l
L Lo o
Lo

H 1

(76)

where
L
Lo

2H

lo H 1 constant

(77)

This equation is analogous to self-similar mathematical relationship only that the exponent
is 1 H instead of D 1 , which satisfies the relation H 2 D [3 , 40, 51 , 70].
According to these results it is observed that the relation (77) has a commitment to the Hurst
exponent of the profiles on the considered observation scale l0 / L0 . It is observed that
the consideration of a minimum fracture size l01 over a region, one must consider the local
dimension of the fracture roughness on this scale. Similarly, if the considerations of a
minimum fracture size are made in a scale that involves several regions, l02 this should take
into account the value of the roughness global dimension on this scale, so that:
(2 H1 )l01H1 1 (2 H 2 )l02 H 2 1 constant ,

(78)

although l01 l02 e H1 H 2 .

Case 2: The self-affine or global limit of fractality
Taking the global limit of the self-affine fractal measure given by (72), i.e. for the case in
which: H 0 l0 L0 . Therefore the length L is independently of H and D 1 , so

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 59

L Lo

(79)

It must be noted that the ductile materials by having a high fractality have a crack profile
which can be better fitted by the equation (76), while brittle materials by having a low
fractality will be better fitted by the equation (79) corresponding the classical model, i.e., a
flat geometry for the fracture surface. Furthermore, the cleavage which occurs on the
microstructure of ductile materials tend to produce a surface, where L L0 , which could be
called smooth. However, this cleavage effect is just only local in these materials and
therefore the resulting fracture surface is actually rugged.

4.3.2. Local Ruggedness of a fracture surface

Defining the local roughness of a fracture surface, as:

dA
A A0 dA0 .
dAo

(80)

where A is the rugged surface and A0 is the projected surface. In the case of a rugged crack
profile,one has:

dL
L L0 dL0
dLo

(81)

using (74) in (81), one has that:

2H 2

l
1 (2 H ) o
Lo

2H 2
l
1 o
Lo

(82)

From (81) note that when there is no roughness on surfaces (flat fracture) one has that:
L L0 , thus
dL
1.
dLo
The quantity

(83)

dL
seems be a good definition of ruggedness unlike the definition where
dLo

the ruggedness is given by L / L/ / [56, 57] (where L/ / L0 M cos , see Figure 23) does not
satisfy the requirement intuitive of the ruggednes when L0 M is only inclined with respect to
L0 , while maintaining, L0 L0M , as shown Figure 23.

60 Applied Fracture Mechanics

Figure 23. Schematization of a rugged surface which is inclined with respect to its projection.

The ruggedness must depend on infinitesimally of the projected length and its relative
orientation to it. In this case, the surface roughness by the usual definition adds an error
equal to the angle secant , or
L L

L 1
.

cos

L L/ /
0 M
L
0 M L/ / L0 M

(84)

However, by the definition proposed herein, when only one inclines a smooth surface against
dL
dL dLoM
to the horizontal, one has: L L0 M and L0 M L0 and again,

1.
dLo dLoM dLo
Within this philosophy will be considered as rugged any surface that presents in an
dL
infinitesimal portion a variation of their contour such that
1 , therefore has to be:
dLo
dL
1.
dLo

(85)

4.3.3. Preliminary considerations on the proposed model

Considering a fractal model for the fracture surface given by the equation:
H o
L Lo 1

lo

lo

Lo

2 H 2

(86)

it is possible to describe its ruggedness in order to include it in the mathematical formalism

CFM to obtain a Fractal Fracture Mechanics (FFM). This derivative of equation (86) defines a
fractal surface ruggedness, which for the case of a self-affine crack which grows with,
H 0 l0 , is given by:

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 61

2 H 2

l
1 (2 H ) o
Lo

2H 2
l
1 o
Lo

1.

(87)

such modifications were added to equations of the Irregular Fracture Mechanics to obtain a
Fractal Fracture Mechanics as described below.

4.3.4. Comparison of fractal model with experimental results

In Figure 24 and Figure 25, a good agreement is observed in the curve fitting of equation
(72) and equation (73) to the fractal analyses of the mortar specimen A 2 side1 and the red
ceramic specimen A8 , respectively.

Figure 24. a) Fractal analysis of mortar specimen A2 side 1 Fractal dimension x Projected length, L0 ;
b)Fractal analysis of mortar specimen A2 side 1 - rugged length L x projected length, L0

Figure 25. a) Fractal analysis of red clay A8 side 1 Fractal dimension x Projected length, L0 ; b) Fractal
analysis of red ceramic specimen A8 - rugged length L x projected length, L0

62 Applied Fracture Mechanics

5. Conclusions
i.

It is possible, in principle, mathematically distinguish a crack in different materials

using geometric characteristics which can be portrayed by different values of roughness
exponents in the relations (72) and (74).
ii. The fractal model of the rugged crack length, L in function of the projected crack
length, L0 , suggested by Alves [72 73 ,74 , 75 ] seems have a good agreement with
experimental results. This results allowed us to consolidate the model previously
published in the literature on fracture [72 , 73 , 75 ].
iii. The rugged crack length is a response to its interaction with the microstructure. of the
material. Therefore, mathematically is possible to portray the rugged peculiar behavior
of a crack using fractal geometry
iv. The mathematical model presents a wealth (mathematical richness) that can still be
explored in terms of determining the minimum crack length, l0 for each material and
the fractal dimension as a function of test parameters and material properties.
v. The mathematical model is sensitive to variations in the behavior of the crack length it
is a linear or logarithmic with the projected crack length.
Comparing the experimental results with the model proposed in this chapter, it is
concluded that one of the more important results obtained here are the equations (72), (74)
and (82) leading to finding that the fracture surfaces of the materials analyzed are indeed
(actually) self-affine fractals. Starting from this verification it becomes feasible to consider
the fractal model of rugged fracture surface and its ruggedess inside the equations of the
classical fracture mechanics, according to equation (74) and (82). As there is a close
relationship between phenomenology and structure formed by virtue of its fractal
geometry, the understanding of the formation processes of these dissipative structures, as
the cracks, should be derived from their mathematical analysis, as the close relationship
between the phenomenology of the formation process of dissipative structures and their
fractal geometry. Therefore, the mathematical description of fractal structures must
exceed a simple geometrical characterization, in order to correlate the pattern formed in
the process of energy dissipation with the amount of energy dissipated in the process that
generated it. Thus, it is possible to use the fractal geometry in order to understand other
more and more complex processes inside the fracture mechanics. Therefore, the various
mechanisms responsible by the crack deviation and by the formation of the rugged
fracture surface can then, from the fractal model, be quantified in the fractal analysis of
this surface.
The idea of obtaining a relationship between L and L0 comes the need to maintain the
present formalism used by the CFM, showing that fractal geometry can greatly contribute to
the continued advancement of this science.
On the other hand, we are interested in developing a Fractal Thermodynamic for a rugged
crack that will be related to the CFM and the Classical Fracture Thermodynamics when the
crack ruggedness is neglected or the crack is considered smooth.

Foundations of Measurement Fractal Theory for the Fracture Mechanics 63

Author details
Lucas Mximo Alves
GTEME Grupo de Termodinmica, Mecnica e Eletrnica dos Materiais, Departamento de Engenharia
de Materiais, Setor de Cincias Agrrias e de Tecnologia, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Brazil

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