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White paper - Fracture toughness of thin high-strength metal sheets

This White Paper contains definitions of fracture mechanics concepts, recommendations for fracture toughness characterization of thin ductile metal sheets, state-of-the-art techniques for fracture toughness assessment, novel testing approaches and successful industrial application cases. It tries to answer to frequently asked questions like what fracture toughness is, why is important to know fracture toughness properties of high strength steels and how can it be applied to understand daily problems in industrial production and improve material selection. This content is based on the results of the ToughSteel project.

The White Paper is divided into three different sections, the first deals with the definition of the main fracture mechanics concepts and different testing methods for fracture toughness characterization of ductile metal sheets. The second section addresses the implementation of fracture toughness measurements, mainly the Essential Work of Fracture methodology, in the sheet metal sector to understand and predict crack-related phenomena during the design and implementation of high-performance sheet metals. It includes results of academic and industrial research works as well as practical examples of application in the industry. The last section of the White Paper describes the Open Access fracture toughness database created in ToughSteel and the procedures necessary to encode or consult data.