9320405 Liebowitz This research will explore whether there exists a "universal" fracture law that has sufficient generality so that it can be used for a large variety of applications, and to determine what form it takes. The undertaking will require a critical examination of the currently existing special fracture laws, and then an identification of the guiding principles for the formulation of a universal fracture law. Finally, the explicit form of this law needs to be obtained, and verified against experimental results for a variety of structural materials, geometry of structure, and loading conditions. Should this investigation establish that such a universal law does not exist, then the investigators will develop an expert system to be utilized for fracture analysis of real mechanical and structural systems. ***
