In earlier columns, we looked at some photos of broken parts to gain an appreciation for the fact that ductile and brittle fractures may be more complicated than the commonly

Understanding how a component fails is an important step in understanding why a component fails. In order to understand how a component cracks, it is important to understand what loading geometry or geometries could have been responsible for the fracture.

Many engineers think it is pretty easy to distinguish a ductile from a brittle crack. However, many people have incomplete understandings of these concepts.