Newsletter #55-2015

E-mail: asedmak@mas.bg.ac.rs
Treasurer

European Structural Integrity

Society
ESIS Newsletter #55, January, 2015

In this issue:
EDITORIAL BY THE ESIS PRESIDENT 1
WELCOME. 2
ESIS COUNCIL MEETING..3
Special Issues 7
NATIONAL COMMITTEES
Hungary 8
Israel: 4th ISIG Symposium. 9
Italy: activities in 2014-2015. 9
Latvia: New delegate 9
Portugal: IJSI 2014. 9
Serbia: NT2F14 Conference 9
OBITUARY Stojan Sedmak 10
Sweden: activities in 2014-2015.11
Ukraine11
TECHNICAL COMMITTEES
TC2: 10th TC2-ESIS11
TC3: activities in 2014-201612
TC4: activities in 2014-201512
TC10: ESIS TC10 Workshop.13
TC 24: Report..15
CONFERENCES
Calendar17
INVITED PAPERS:
Gordon Williams
The Fracture Mechanics of Soft Solids 19
ESIS PROCEDURES AND DOCUMENTS 24
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM 25

ESIS Officers
President
Prof. Leslie Banks-Sills
School of Mechanical Engineering
Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel
E-mail: banks@eng.tau.ac.il
Vice-President
Prof. Francesco Iacoviello
Universit di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale - DICeM
via G. Di Biasio 43,
03043, Cassino (FR), Italy
E-mail: iacoviello@unicas.it
Vice-President
Prof. Aleksandar Sedmak
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
University of Belgrade
KraljiceMarije 16,
11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Prof. Giuseppe Ferro

Department of Structural Engineering & Geotechnics
Politecnico di Torino
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24
10129 Torino, Italy
E-mail: ferro@polito.it
Secretary
Dr Bamber Blackman
Department of Mechanical Engineering
City & Guilds Building
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London SW7 2AZ, UK
E-mail: b.blackman@imperial.ac.uk
Newsletter and Publications
Prof. Valery Shlyannikov
Kazan Scientific Centre
Russian Academy of Science
Lobachevsky Steet, 2/31
420111. Kazan, Russia
E-mail: shlyannikov@mail.ru
Liaison
Prof. Zhiliang Zhang
NTNU Nanomechanical Lab
Dept. of Structural Engineering
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU)
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Email: Zhiliang.zhang@ntnu.no
Blogger
Prof. Per Sthle
Lund University
Solid Mechanics
Lund, Sweden
Email: per.stahle@solid.lth.se

EDITORIAL BY THE ESIS

PRESIDENT
The next meeting of the
ESIS Executive Committee
(ExCo) will take place on
March 6, 2015 in Rome.
Recall that the Committee
consists
of
myself
as
President,
Francesco
Iacoviello and Aleksandar
Sedmak, the two Vice
Presidents,
Bamber
Blackman,
Secretary,
Giuseppe Ferro, Treasurer,
Valery
Shlyannikov,
Publications Manager, Zhiliang Zhang, Liaison to
other organizations, and Per Sthle, Blogger.
At this meeting, we will consider having
Elseviers Procedia as the platform for future ECF
meetings, as well as National and Technical

Newsletter #55-2015

Committee meetings. A poll of the committee

chairs has indicated some interest. We will also
consider video recording TC meetings to be put
on U-tube. I would be happy to hear opinions on
these subjects from our membership.

and
make
a
contribution:
http://imechanica.org/node/9794.
I would also like to send sincere condolences
to Aleksandar Sedmak on the loss of his father
Stojan. Please see the obituary in this issue of
the Newsletter. It is a great loss to the structural
integrity community.

Special issues resulting from ECF and TC

meetings from 2013 until 2015 are listed below:

H.J. Christ amd D. Klingbeil (eds.),

Recent Progress in the Understanding of Fatigue
Crack Propagation (ECF 18), International
Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 50 (2013).

B.R.K. Blackman and J.G. Williams

(eds.), Fracture of Polymers, Composites and
Adhesives (6th International ESIS TC 4
Conference), Engineering Fracture Mechanics,
Vol. 113 (2013).

H. Klingelhffer (ed.), Thermomechanical

Fatigue
(2nd
International
Workshop
on
Thermomechanical Fatigue TC 11), International
Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 53 (2013).

R. Brighenti, A. Carpinteri, F. Iacoviello

and L.P. Pook (eds.), Crack Paths (CP 2012
TC3), Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 108
(2013).

H. Yuan and J. Besson (eds.), Cohesive

Zone Models (TC 8), Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 109 (2013).

J. Pokluda and T.J. Marrow (eds.),

Micromechanisms of Deformation and Fracture
(7th and 8th ESIS TC Conferences), Engineering
Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 110 (2013).

A. Carpinteri, L.P. Pook, L. Susmel and S.

Vantadon (eds.), Fatigue Crack Paths 2012 (CP
2012 TC3), International Journal of Fatigue, Vol.
58, (2014).

A. Carpinteri, T. Itoh, T. Palin-Luc, M.

Sakane and L. Susmel (eds.), Multiaxial Fatigue
2013 (ICMFF10 TC 3), International Journal of
Fatigue, Vol. 67 (2014).

A. Spagnoli (ed.), Special Issue on

Multiaxial Fracture 2013, Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 123 (2014).

R.V. Goldstein and V.N. Shlyannikov

(eds.), Macrofracture Analysis and Testing
(ECF19), Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol.
129 (2014).

R.V. Goldstein and V.N. Shlyannikov

(eds.), Microstructural Effects on Macroscopic
Fracture
Properties
(ECF19),
Engineering
Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 130 (2014).

R.V. Goldstein and V.N. Shlyannikov

(eds.),
Failure
of
Components
(ECF19),
Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol. 47B (2015).

Finally, I would like to remind you that ECF21

will take place in Catania, Sicily, June 20 to June
24, 2016. The co-chairs are Francesco
Iacoviello, Giuseppe Ferro, Donato Firrao and
Luca Susmel. And for those who want to really
plan ahead, ECF22 will take place in Belgrade,
Serbia, in the summer of 2018, chaired by
Aleksandar Sedmak.
Leslie Banks-Sills

WELCOME
This issue of the Newsletter has traditional
content.
We thoroughly inform
our readers about the
activities of National and
Technical Committees.
It is gratifying to note
the increased activity of
these
committees
in
2014.
You'll
also
find
information on upcoming
international conferences
and special issues of
journals associated with ESIS.
A great number of international conferences
the subject of which are the problems of
Structural Integrity reflects the continuing
interest of scientists and specialists to various
aspects of investigations and researches in this
interdisciplinary field of knowledge.
It is a tradition that ESIS awardees are
invited to present a scientific paper. Professor
Gordon Williams was awarded the Griffith
Medal at ECF 20 in Trondheim, Norway. You will
find his paper in the present Newsletter.
Special Issues devoted to ECF19 have been
published:

R.V. Goldstein, V.N. Shlyannikov (eds.),

Macrofracture Analysis and Testing (ECF19),
Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 129
(2014).

R.V. Goldstein, V.N. Shlyannikov (eds.),

Microstructural Effects on Macroscopic Fracture
Properties
(ECF19),
Engineering
Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 130 (2014).

R.V. Goldstein, V.N. Shlyannikov (eds.),

Failure of Components (ECF19), Engineering
Failure Analysis, Vol. 47B (2015).
Valery Shlyannikov

We can see from these many volumes the

excellent activity of our members. I would like
to thank them, as well as all of the authors, for
their important contribution to ESIS and our
knowledge of structural integrity.
Our new blogger, Per Sthle, has recently
posted a review of the paper: M. Sistaninia and
O. Kolednik, Effect of a soft interlayer on the
crack driving force.
Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, 130 (2014) 21-41. Please take a look
2

Newsletter #55-2015

d.

ESIS COUNCIL MEETING

Trondheim, Norway
2nd July 2014, 18:00
MINUTES
Attendees: The meeting was attended by 41
representatives. A full list is given at the end of
the minutes

ExCo vice-presidents and ExCo

secretary.
LBS thanked Ziliang Zhang, the ECF20
chair, for the excellent organization of
meeting, and particularly the Young
Scientist lecture competition and
award, which was supported by
Elsevier.

2. Minutes of last meeting: L. Banks-Sills

a. The minutes of the last council meeting
(Kazan, ECF19) were available on the
ESIS website. They were accepted as
correct.

1. Welcome, Leslie Banks-Sills

a. The president, Leslie Banks-Sills (LBS),
chaired the meeting and thanked all
the council members for coming, and
the ECF organisers for providing the
meeting room.
b. The voting members of Council were
established by the secretary, (based on
unique memberships for 2013/2014).
Proxy representation had been
identified earlier by communication
with the secretary.
i. Austria: R. Pippan
ii. Bulgaria: D. Angelova
iii. Czech Republic: J. Pokluda
iv. France: J. Besson
v. Germany: D. Klingbeil
vi. Italy: F. Iacoviello
vii. Israel: D. Sherman
viii. Norway: Z. Zhang
ix. Poland: A. Niemitz
x. Portugal: P. Moirera
xi. Russia: R. Goldstein
xii. Serbia: A. Sedmak
xiii. Slovenia: N. Gubeljak
xiv. Spain: A. Martin-Meizoso
xv. Sweden: S. Melin (for J.
Larsson)
xvi. Switzerland: A. Brunner
xvii. Ukraine: H. Nykyforchyn (for V.
Panasyuk)
xviii. United Kingdom: G. Williams
xix. TC1: U. Zerbst
xx. TC2: J. Pokluda
xxi. TC3: A. Spagnoli (for A.
Carpineri)
xxii. TC4: G. Williams
xxiii. TC5: Y. Petrov
xxiv. TC8: H. Yuan
xxv. TC9: G. Ferro
xxvi. TC10: J. Toribio
xxvii. TC11: U. Zerbst (for H.
Klingelhoffer)
xxviii. TC24: M Carboni (for S.
Beretta)
xxix. Vice-President: J. Pokluda
xxx. Vice-President: S. Beretta
xxxi. Secretary: J. Marrow
c. There were 31 eligible votes in total;
18 national delegates, 10 TC chairs, 2

3. Presidents Report: L. Banks-Sills

a. The president thanked the ECF20
organisers and congratulated them on
the conference, which was attended by
536 participants from 40 countries.
b. She reported that four ESIS fellows had
been elected at ECF20; Bamber
Blackman, James Marrow, Jess Toribio
and Huang Yuan.
c. The ECF20 awards committee was
Deitmar Klingbeil, Francesco Iacoviello,
Andrzej Neimitz, Aleksander Sedmak,
Antonio Martin-Meizoso, Hrihory
Nykyforchin, Otmar Kolednik, Vlad
Ulmanu and Andreas Brunner. The
Griffith medal had been awarded to
Gordon Williams, and the Whler medal
to Reinhard Pippan. The award of
merit had been presented to Wolfgang
Dietzel; John Hutchinson had been
elected an Honorary Member of ESIS.
These awards would be presented at
the ECF20 Conference dinner.
d. ESIS had provided the registration fees
for 20 scientists to support their
participation in ECF20, following a
selection process. Four scientists from
Ukraine had also been given support,
due to problems caused by the political
unrest there.
e. The ESIS affiliated journals
(Engineering Failure Analysis,
Engineering Fracture Mechanics,
International Journal of Fatigue) had
published a number of special issues,
as part of the ESIS/Elsevier contract.
i. The issues for 2013 were:

Recent Progress in the

Understanding of Fatigue
Crack Propagation (Ed. H.J.
Christ): IJF 50, 2013

Fracture of Polymers,
Composites and Adhesives
(Eds. B.R.K. Blackman, J.G.
Williams): EFM 101, 2013

Thermomechanical Fatigue
(Ed. H. Klingelhffer): IJF 53,
Aug. 2013
3

Newsletter #55-2015

f.

g.

h.
i.

j.

Micromechanisms of
Deformation and Fracture
(Eds. J. Pokluda, T.J.
Marrow): EFM 110, Sept.
2013

Crack Paths 2012 (Eds. R.

Brighenti, A. Carpinteri, F.
Iacoviello, L.P. Pook): EFM
108, 2013
ii. There also 3 special issues so far
in 2014

New Advances in VHCF (Eds.

Ch. Berger, H.-J. Christ, B.
Pyttel, M. Zimmermann): IJF
60, March 2014

Fatigue Crack Paths 2012

(Eds. A. Carpinteri, L.P. Pook,
L. Susmel, S. Vantadori): IJF
58, 2014

Multiaxial Fracture 2013 (Eds.

A. Fatemi, L. Pook, A.
Spagnoli, S-T Tu): EFM 123
(June 2014)
iii. Four special issues were
published in 2011 and two in
2012.
The chair of TC1 commented that TC1
had attempted to produce a special
issue about 18 months ago, but had
experienced problems and had not
progressed further. The president said
there had been a workflow problem
between the journal editors and the
guest editors. She had discussed this
with Elsevier. The editorial website
had since been changed. She
recommended TC chairs to contact the
ESIS president if problems were
experienced. She thanked all the guest
editors for their support.
The Young Scientist Award had been
reinstated by the ExCo with support of
Elsevier. The prizes would be given at
the ECF20 conference dinner.
All ECF proceedings have been digitised
and are on the ESIS website.
The president reported on the recent evote on the proposed statute change to
alter the voting procedures of the ESIS
Council to one vote per member.
There were 17 votes for, 6 against and
4 abstentions. The necessary 2/3
majority was not reached so the
statute change was not passed. The
ExCo would discuss this further in
preparation for a debate and vote at
ECF21 in Catania, Italy. The strawvote on associate-member status for
non-European countries had been in
favour and would also be considered
for ECF21
The president also thanked the ExCo
and ECF chairs for their continued
efforts.

4. Report on ECF20, Z. Zhang

a. The ECF20 chair reported that the
meeting had received 702 abstracts
and was attended by 600 participants
from 43 nations. There were 536
presentations, including 13 plenary
lectures, 2 medal lectures, 40 keynote
lectures and 10 parallel sessions. A
total of 365 papers had been published
as Open Access on Procedia a few days
before the meeting.
b. The summer school had been attended
by 60 participants from 20 countries,
with excellent responses from the
participants to the lectures. A special
session on how to teach fracture
mechanics had been included. An eposter session had been included for
first time and the organisers would be
evaluating its success; 5 minutes
presentation from each speaker with no
questions.
5. Report on ECF21, F. Iacoviello
a. The ECF21 chair reported that the
ECF21 website was open
(www.ecf21.eu). A Facebook page had
also been created and a Twitter
account, which might be used during
the event for changes and
announcements. The IGF had
successfully organized an event at
same location (FRAMCOS) to test the
venue, and will be holding a meeting in
Sept 2014 in collaboration with Spain
and Portugal.
b. The proceeding will be published in
Frattura ed Integrita Strutturale, and
will be available to read online during
the meeting, for instance accessed
using QR codes posted outside the
sessions.
c. The conference fee will 550 (early
bird). This will not include lunch, as
there is a wide range of facilities
available and this will allow flexibility
for participants. There will be a
summer school (18-19 June 2016) with
a fees of 250 (early bird).
d. The social events will include the Greek
theatre in Siracusa and some other
surprises.
6. Treasury Report, G. Ferro
a. The ESIS deposit continues to rise and
was currently just less than 220000.
There was a need to reduce this.
b. The president commented that the
ExCo had supported ECF20 (including
attendance of Young Scientists,
scientists from Ukraine due to current
circumstances and also the summer
school). DK urgently need some
4

Newsletter #55-2015

statutes/rules to govern how ESIS can

spend (e.g. for
7. Budget, L. Banks-Sills
a. The president presented a 2 year
budget, with income from special
issues, ECF20 and membership fees,
balanced by expenditure to support the
meetings of the TCs, ExCo and its
working groups, the ESIS website,
support for scientists at ESIS meetings
and a contingency budget for actions
such as the recent support of Ukranian
scientists.

b.
c.

8. Elsevier special issues and Publications, W.

Brocks
a. In addition to the special issues
reported by the president, the
publications manager noted that there
were still 5 special issues planned from
ECF19 that are under preparation. He
said that it was important that the
publications manager was informed
about the progress on special issues by
the guest editors.
b. The president said that TC and national
meetings should be reported in the
ESIS newsletter, and asked for reports
to be provided by the representatives.

d.

e.
12.

9. Membership report (2013,2014), J. Marrow

a. The secretary reported that ESIS had
546 members in 2013, with similar
numbers for 2014. Credentials for
access to the ESIS website can be
obtained from the secretary or
Francesco Iacoviello.
b. The president asked the TC chairs to
encourage people to join ESIS.
10.

ESIS Awards: L. Banks-Sills

The president reported that the awards
committee for ECF21 will be nominated
by the ESIS ExCo, following ECF20,
and Council will be informed.
b. The chair of the ECF21 awards
committee is Francesco Iacoviello. The
chair of the Fellows Committee is the
ESIS President.
c. The council was reminded that
recommendations and nominations for
ESIS Fellows awards for ECF21 were
needed by the deadline of Dec 20th
2015.
a.

11.
a.

ECF22: A Sedmak
The proposed date for ECF22 is 26-31
August 2018 in Belgrade, with the
title Loading and Environmental
Effects on Structural Integrity. The
conference will be supported by
Minister of Education and Science of
Repubic of Serbia, the Mayor of
5

Belgrade. The registration fee will be

630 (550 for ESIS members) with
50 discount for early
registration. 150 for students and
accompanying persons.
The meeting structure and
dissemination will be similar to ECF20.
The social programme will include:
welcome reception, a boat cruise on
Danube, dinner in Kalemegdan Fortress
amongst other events and an
accompanying person programme. A
large number of hotels are
available. The buffet lunches will be
included in the conference fee.
Further sponsorship is expected from
local organisations, and the registration
fee will be reduced if possible. There
will be a summer school and young
scientist award competition.
The proposal was accepted by the
council by acclamation.

ECF23: P. Moreira
a. An indicative proposal for ECF23 in 2018
was presented from Portugal. A firm
proposal will be presented in Catania at
ECF21. The proposed dates are 28
June-3 July in Funchal, Madeira,
Portugal. The proposal has the support
of the Portuguese Society of Materials.
b. The programme and structure will be
consistent with previous ECF meetings;
up to 12 parallel sessions can be
accommodated at the venue.
c. The social programme includes a
Welcome cocktail reception (Quinta
Magnolia), Madeiras gastronomical
adventure (Sao Tiago Fortress, 17th
century) and Madeira Sight Seeing tour
and also a conference banquet
(Pestana Casino Park Hotel).
d. The venue will be the Hotel Pestana
Casino Park (5*, with 340
rooms). Other hotels nearby are 5-10
minutes from the conference centre
(4* and 3*). Travel links are good.
e. The preliminary registration fee is 680
maximum (early bird). ESIS member
620 (early bird), student 450 (early
bird). However, expected sponsorships
from local government and industry
have not yet been included..
f. There were some concerns from
members of the Council that the
registration fees were high and flights
to Madeira were long and
expensive. This could discourage the
typical ECF attendees. Portugal
responded that it was expected to
reduce the registration fee with
sponsorship.

Newsletter #55-2015

13.

Election of Officers: J. Marrow

There were two candidates; Leslie
Banks-Sills was nominated by Sweden
and seconded by Spain, Stefano
Beretta was nominated by the Czech
Republic and seconded by France.
b. Each gave a brief speech outlining their
views and plans for ESIS, and
responded to questions from Council.
Following the vote, Leslie Banks-Sills
was elected as president of ESIS for
the next 4 years until ECF22 (17 votes
to 13 votes).
c. For Vice-President; Aleksander Sedmak
was nominated by the President and
seconded by Sweden, Francesco
Iacoviello was also nominated by the
President and the TC10 chair. These
nominations were accepted by
acclamation.

3 Elsevier journals are affiliated

with ESIS

a.

14.

The meeting ended at 20:20.

Attendance:
S. Beretta, A. Martin-Meizoso, M. Carboni, D.
Klingbeil, J. Toribio, F. Iacoviello, G. Ferro, P.
Moreira, P. Tavares, H. Nykyforchyn, A.
Spagnoli, U. Zerbst, N. Gubeljak, P. Trampus, L.
Marsavina, M. Benedetti, D. Angelova, J. Besson,
J. He, B. Skalleruo, C. Thaulow, Z. Zhang, J.
Pokluda, Z. Chlop, J. Stafan, S. Melin, A.
Sedmak, H.Yuan, J. Hoefnagels, A. Neimitz,
R.Pippan, D. Firrao, A. Brunner, G. Williams, L.
Milovic, W. Brocks, D. Sherman, R. Goldstein, Y.
Petrov, J. Marrow, L. Banks-Sills.
T.J. Marrow

Newsletter #55-2015

Special Issues 2013-14

Journal

Title

Source

Editor

Status

Int J Fatigue

Recent Progress in the

Understanding of
Fatigue Crack
Propagation

ECF 18

H.J. Christ,
D. Klingbeil

IJF 50, May 2013

Eng Fract
Mech

Fracture of Polymers,
Composites and
Adhesives

6th Int. ESIS TC4

conference

B.R.K.
Blackman
J.G. Williams

EFM 113, 2013

Int J Fatigue

Thermomechanical
Fatigue

2nd Int. Workshop on

Thermo-mechanical
fatigue, May 2011,
BAM, Berlin, Germany
/ TC 11

H. Klingelhffer

IJF 53, Aug. 2013

Eng Fract
Mech

Micromechanisms of
Deformation and
Fracture

TC 2 Meetings in
Berlin and Oxford

J. Pokluda
T. J. Marrow

EFM 110, Sept. 2013

Eng Fract
Mech

Crack Paths 2012

4th Int. Conf. on Crack

Paths (CP 2012) / TC3

EFM 108, 2013

Eng Fract
Mech

Cohesive Zone Models

TC 8

R. Brighenti,
A. Carpinteri,
F. Iacoviello,
L.P. Pook
H. Yuan,
J. Besson

Int J Fatigue

Fatigue Crack Paths

2012

4th Int. Conf. on Crack

Paths (CP 2012) / TC3

IJF 58, January 2014

Eng Fract
Mech

Special Issue on
Multiaxial Fracture
2013

A. Carpinteri,
L.P. Pook,
L. Susmel,
S. Vantadori
A. Spagnoli

Eng Fract
Mech

Macrofracture analysis
and testing

ECF 19

R. Goldstein,
V. Shlyannikov

EFM 129, Oct. 2014

Eng Fract
Mech

Microstructural effects
on macroscopic
fracture properties

ECF 19

R. Goldstein,
V. Shlyannikov

EFM 130, Nov. 2014

Int J Fatigue

Fatigue Mechanism
and Structural
Integrity: Advances
and Applications

ECF 19

Y. Murakami,
V. Shlyannikov

in preparation

Eng Failure
Anal

Failure analysis of
structure components
undergone stress
corrosion, fatigue and
neutron irradiation

ECF 19

R. Goldstein,
V. Shlyannikov

EFA 47B, Jan. 2015

Int J Fatigue

Multiaxial Fatigue
2013

ICMFF10

IJF 67, 2014

Eng Fract
Mech

Multiaxial Fracture
2013

ICMFF10

A. Carpinteri,
T. Itoh,
T. Palin-Luc,
M. Sakane,
L. Susmel
A. Fatemi,
L.P. Pook,
A. Spagnoli,
S.-T. Tu

EFM 109, 2013

EFM 123, 2014

EFM 123, June 2014

Newsletter #55-2015

in the future. The idea was supported by the fact

that in the recent years, in three different places
of the country, in three different poles of the
scientific and technical life entities were
established with special focus on structural
integrity. These were: (1) the Structural
Integrity Section at the Bay Zoltn Institute for
Logistics and Production Engineering, (2) the
Structural Integrity Department at the Miskolc
University and (3) the Structural Integrity Subcommittee within the Materials Science and
Engineering
Scientific
Committee
of
the
Hungarian Academy of Science.

National Committees
Hungary
ESIS Conference,
November 7, 2014

Miskolc,

Hungary,

The European Structural Integrity Society

(ESIS) is actively working for decades; today
ESIS has some 500 members. The Hungarian
National Committee (HNC) was established by a
group of specialists expressed their interest for
ESIS in 1980; Dr. Ern Czoboly became the
leader of the Committee. Dr. Czoboly was
replaced by Prof. Lszl Tth in 1994. Under the
leadership of Prof. Tth the HNC provided a
remarkable activity first of all within the
Technical Committee on Education and Training
(ESIS TC 13).

Prof. P. Trampus

To move forward this direction an ESIS

Conference was jointly organized by the
Structural Integrity Sub-committee of the
Materials Science and Engineering Scientific
Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Science
and the Bay Zoltn Institute for Logistics and
Production Engineering. The conference was
sponsored by the project TMOP-4.2.3.-12/1/
konv-2012-058. Over 40 specialists from
industry, academia and state administration
attended. The following presentations were
presented followed by living discussions:
Prof. L. Tth: Past, present and future of
the ESIS Hungarian National Committee
Prof. P. Trampus: Short and long term
visions and plans of the ESIS HNC
Prof. L. Tth: What should we understand
when saying structural integrity?
Prof. P. Trampus: Structural integrity
assessment vs. Structural health monitoring

Prof. L. Tth

Dr. S. Szvai: Role of BAY-LOGI in EU

sponsored projects in the field of structural
integrity

Due to personal and other reasons in the past

couple of years the TC 13 activity showed
serious erosion, and the number of HNC
members decreased fewer than 10. The latter
has meant that Hungary has had no voting right
in the ESIS Council. A small group of the related
people has recognized the indefensibility of this
situation, and decided to revitalize the ESIS HNC
and, in general, to reinvigorate the structural
integrity assessment related activities in
Hungary and, if the need exists, to coordinate it

Prof. J. Lukcs: Status of the Hungarian

high education relating to structural integrity
B. Fekete: Low cycle fatigue of reactor
pressure vessel steels
Dr. G. Krllics, P. Rzsahegyi: Cyclic crack
propagation in stainless steel structures
Round table discussion: Goals of ESIS HNC.
8

Newsletter #55-2015

Italy
In 2014 IGF, Italian Group of Fracture
(www.gruppofrattura.it), in cooperation with
Grupo Espaol de Fractura and Portuguese
Society of Materials/Fracture Division, organized
in Catania (Italy) a Multilateral workshop on
Fracture and Structural Integrity related
Issues, with more than 80 participants. In
addition, IGF published 4 issues of the IGF
"International Journal Fracture and Structural
Integrity" (Frattura ed Integrit Strutturale),
ISSN 1971-8993.
In 2015 IGF will organize:

Discussion

- April 20-22, 2015: Third IJFatigue &

FFEMS Joint Workshop Characterisazion of
Crack Tip Fields, Urbino, Italy.

In the round table discussion the participants

unanimously expressed the opinion that there
was a need for the HNC activity and supported
Prof. L. Tths efforts. Prof. Tth backed out of
the HNC leadership and passed over this
function to Prof. Trampus who received a strong
support from the participants. Prof. Trampus
declared that he would reorganize the HNC
activity however he required the support of all
interested people. The work may be positively
influenced and strengthened by the current
Hungarian economic situation (e.g. building new
nuclear units, other important investments,
development in high education).

- April 22-24, 2015: First International

Workshop on Challenges in Multiaxial
Fatigue, Urbino, Italy.
- June 22-24, 2915: IGFXXIII National
Meeting,
1st
International
Edition,
Favignana,
Italy.
Abstracts
deadline:
28.02.2015. Proceedings will be published in
Procedia Engineering.
Francesco Iacoviello

Latvia

L. Tth, P. Trampus

The LatvianDelegate to ESIS is now Andrejs

Krasnikovs.

Israel

The previous representative Prof. Vitauts

Tamuzs recently has retired after 20 years of
chairmanship.

The Fourth Israel Structural Integrity

Group (ISIG) Symposium is a one day event
that will take place on Monday, January 26,
2015, at Tel Aviv University, Israel. This
Symposium, for which there is no fee, will
gather scientists and engineers from different
universities, as well as various industries from
all over Israel to present their latest research
results in the fields of fracture mechanics and
fatigue. More than 50 fracture mechanics and
fatigue experts are planning to participant in this
event. In the morning session of the
Symposium, a student competition will be held
in order to encourage students to work in this
field; there will be a cash prize awarded for the
best oral presentation. The aim of this meeting
is to provide an opportunity to learn and discuss
recent advances in this field. Moreover, the
symposium serves as a forum for networking
and collaboration.

Portugal
The main event in 2014 was: International
Conference of the International Journal of
Structural Integrity, 1 - 4 September, 2014.
Funchal,
Madeira,
Portugal
http://ijsi2014.inegi.up.pt.

Serbia
The Fourteenth Conference New Trend in
Fatigue and Fracture (NT2F14) held in
Belgrade, Serbia 1518.9.2014, organized by
the Serbian Society for Structural Integrity and
Life.

https://sites.google.com/site/israelstructuralinte
grity

The conference NT2F14 under the title

Fatigue and fracture at all scales was held in
Belgrade from 15 to 18 September. This years
conference was attended by 99 participants from
14 countries (Serbia, France, Croatia, India,

Dana Ashkenazi
Leslie Banks-Sills

Newsletter #55-2015

Libya, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia,

Slovenia,
Turkey,
Algeria,
Bosnia
and
Hercegovina).
Two opening lectures were presented by Prof.
Guy Pluvinage (University of Metz, France) and
Prof. Laszlo Toth (Universities of Miscolc and
Debrecen, Hungary).
Four plenary lectures were given by: Prof.
Mohamed Hadj Meliani (Hassiba Ben Bouali
University of Chlef, Algeria), Prof. Ljubica Milovi
(University of Belgrade, Faculty of Technology
and Metallurgy, Serbia), Prof. eljko Boi
(University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mech.
Engineering and Naval Architecture, Croatia),
and Prof. Aleksandar Sedmak (University of
Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Serbia).
Two lectures were dedicated to the memory
of eminent scientists Mladen Berkovi and
Michael Wnuk.
A total of 33 oral lectures and 7 posters were
presented.
A special award for exceptional contribution
to developments and applications of Fracture
Mechanics in Yugoslavia was presented to the
Honourable President of NT2F14 and first
President of DIVK, Prof. Stojan Sedmak. The
founder of the New Trends in Fatigue and Fracture conference Prof. Guy Pluvinage was also
awarded (the Appreciation Award - Gratitude)
for contributions in organizing all fourteen
conferences held to date.

Aleksandar Sedmak

Obituary
Prof.
Stojan
Sedmak, Professor of
the
University
of
Belgrade,
Serbia,
internationally
recognized
scientist,
has died on 2.11.2014,
at the age of 85. Ever
since his post graduate
Magister diploma work
in 1968 he has been
active in the field of
Fracture Mechanics and
Structural
Integrity,
introducing these disciplines in ex-Yugoslavia
and Southeast Europe.
His doctoral thesis,
defended in 1977, was one of the first in the
region to be completely devoted to fracture
mechanics, leading to the establishment of a
sound basis for its further development.

The NT2F group has held a meeting that

voted on the next NT2F15 conference to be held
in Algeria, in November 2015. Prof. Mohamed
Hadj-Meliani has been elected as President of
the Organising Committee.
All reviewed papers presented at NT2F14
shall be published in Structural Integrity and
Life, Vol. 14 (No. 2, 3), and Vol. 15 (No. 1),
which is open access journal (www.divk.org.rs).

Based on that, Stojan has established

International
Fracture
Mechanics
Summer
Schools, starting from 1980 (10 of them held in
the meantime), and became the principle
investigator of the USA-Yu project on Weldment
Fracture Mechanics, 1982-1990.
These two
activities were the pillars of strong development
of Fracture Mechanics in the whole region,
including all six ex-Yu republics. This was also
the decade in which Stojan started his fruitful
activities in the scope of EGF and European
Conferences on Fracture, which culminated in
1992, with ECF9 in Varna, which he organized
successfully as the mission impossible.
10

Newsletter #55-2015

Unfortunately, a tragic chain of events in exYugoslavia significantly slowed down all activities
afterwards. Anyhow, after 2001 a new era
emerged, starting with the establishment of the
Society for Structural Integrity and Life (DIVK)
in Serbia, which has gathered more than 200
members, including 50 members of ESIS.
Stojan served as the first president and the first
editor-in-chief
of
the Journal
Structural
Integrity and Life, also established in 2001.
Renewed activities culminated with a successful
bid for ECF22 to be held in Serbia in 2018, as
decided in Trondheim in July 2014. Stojan has
also witnessed another great recognition for
Serbia - the president of DIVK becoming an
ESIS Vice-President.
Surely, to his greatest
satisfaction, it was his own son, and if I may
say, his loyal co-worker for the last 32 years. Let
me be clear - there is no doubt it is he who
should be honored for these two significant
achievements and recognitions for Serbia and
the region.

The meetings are held in Swedish, but the

autumn courses are in many cases held in
English and could be of interest for an
international audience.
Jrgen Larsson

Ukraine
The
preparation
of
5th
International
Conference Fracture Mechanics of Materials and
Structural Integrity was the main achievement
of Ukrainian National Group of ESIS for year of
2014. The conference was successfully held from
June 24 to June 27 in Lviv (Ukraine) under the
auspices of the National Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine and ESIS. The information about this
event was published in the last issue of the ESIS
Newsletter # 54 (please, see pages 15-17).

Now, when I look back at my fathers career,

I can see a great man with a vision, building the
pyramid of knowledge, seeing everything from
the top of it, and leading us all. I can see the
raising pyramid touching the sky, taking him to
well-deserved peace in heaven.

Now Ukrainian National Group of ESIS takes

part in the preparation of 14th Polish-UkrainianGerman Summer School Fracture Mechanics of
Materials and Structural Integrity, which will be
held from 22 to 25 September 2015 in Ternopil
(Ukraine). In time we will certainly prepare the
short paper about this school for next issues of
the ESIS Newsletter.

Aleksandar Sedmak

V.V. Panasyuk

Sweden

TECHNICAL COMMITTEES

In October the 20-21, 2014, the UTMIS

autumn course was held. 84 participants
representing Sweden, Finland, Norway and
Switzerland took part in the course Fatigue
analysis of notches, defects and cracks given by
Professor Gunnar
Hrkegrd fron NTNU,
Trondheim, Norway. The course was hosted by
the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
Stockholm, Sweden.

TC 2: Micromechanisms
Let me tell you some words about the 10th
TC2-ESIS meeting on Micromechanisms in
Leoben, Austria, in April 2015:
We received in total 38 abstracts submitted
by authors from 12 countries, one of them was
not accepted. The meeting is planned for two full
days and the program will consist of 36 oral
presentation and 1 keynote given by Prof. Stan
Veprek from the Technical University Munich,
Germany,
on
"Mechanism
of
Hardness
Enhancement and of Plastic Deformation in
Super-and Ultrahard nc-TiN/Si3N4 and Related
Nanocomposites".

The annual UTMIS meeting will be held

January 27-28 hosted by ABB High Voltage
Cabels in Karlskrona, Sweden. Except from
taking part of the host companys matters on
fatigue the audience also will hear several
presentations given by PhD students within the
fields of VHCF, endurance modelling, fatigue of
cast iron and in large welded structures.

Mainly because of an extended production of

special issues of journals related to ESIS, the
TC2 can provide support for those participants
who made a relevant application for financial
assistance. To facilitate the attendance in
Leoben, two young participants from Russia and
Sweden
will
receive
partial
assistance
(conference fee) and one participant from
Ukraine will gain full support (fee, travel
expenses and accommodation).

The spring meeting will be held May 19-20

hosted by Atlas Copco Rock Drills in rebro,
Sweden. Presentations from the academy and
industry will be given on the theme weld joints.
The master thesis work of 2014 also will be
presented.
The autumn course 2015 is in the planning
phase. It will take place in October at Sandvik
Materials Technology in Sandviken, Sweden. The
subject probably will be related to VHCF and the
influence of microstructurally short cracks.

Jaroslav Pokluda

11

Newsletter #55-2015

TC 4: Polymers And Polymer

Composites

TC 3: Micromechanisms

Report on 2014:

ACTIVITIES in the years 2014-2016

The
committee
hosted
the
7th
International Conference on the Fracture of
Polymers, Composites and Adhesives in Les
Diablerets in September 2014. The conference
was organised by Elsevier. There were 101
delegates and a single oral session of 38 papers
and a poster session with 40 posters, over three
days. An excellent conference was enjoyed by
all, with the conference dinner on the final night
being held in the mountains overlooking the
village. Delegates were taken by cable car to
and from the dinner location.

(a)
Professor Andrea Carpinteri (Parma,
Italy), Professor Les P. Pook (Sevenoaks, UK),
Professor Luca Susmel (Sheffield, UK), and Dr
Sabrina Vantadori (Parma, Italy): Guest
Editors of a Special Issue on Fatigue Crack
Paths 2012 of the International Journal of
Fatigue, Vol. 58, 1-224, 2014, with papers
selected from those presented at the 4th
International Conference on Crack Paths (CP
2012), held in Gaeta, Italy, 19th to 21th
September, 2012.
(b)
Professor Andrea Carpinteri (Parma,
Italy), Professor Takamoto Itoh (Ritsumeikan,
Japan), Professor Thierry Palin-Luc (Talence,
France), Professor Masao Sakane (Ritsumeikan,
Japan), and Professor Luca Susmel (Sheffield,
UK): Guest Editors of a Special Issue on
Multiaxial
Fatigue
2013
of
the
International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 67,
1-228, 2014, with papers selected from those
presented at the 10th International Conference
on Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture ICMFF10,
held in Kyoto, Japan, 3rd to 6th June, 2013.
(c)
Professor Ali Fatemi (Toledo, USA),
Professor Les P. Pook (Sevenoaks, UK),
Professor Andrea Spagnoli (Parma, Italy), and
Professor Shan-Tung Tu (Shanghai, China):
Guest Editors of a Special Issue on
Multiaxial
Fracture
2013
of
the
International Journal Engineering Fracture
Mechanics, Vol. 123, 1-222, 2014, with
papers selected from those presented at the
10th International Conference on Multiaxial
Fatigue and Fracture ICMFF10, held in Kyoto,
Japan, 3rd to 6th June, 2013.

The best poster prize was awarded before dinner

by the ESIS president, Professor Leslie BanksSills. The prize winners were Nadia Perillo
(Politecnico di Milano) and Marc Kanters (TU/e).
The poster chairman was Professor Ian Horsfall
and the poster prize was sponsored by Permali.
A special issue of Engineering Fracture
Mechanics will be published with selected papers
from the conference.

(d)
Professor Andrea Carpinteri (Parma,
Italy), Professor Les Pook (Sevenoaks, UK),
Professor Luca Susmel (Sheffield, UK) and
Professor
Roberto
Tovo
(Ferrara,
Italy):
Chairmen
of
the
5th
International
Conference on Crack Paths (CP 2015), to be
held in Ferrara, Italy, 16th to 18th September,
2015.

ESIS TC4 met twice in 2014, in May and

September to make progress in the current work
areas. These include elastic and elastic-plastic
test methods for polymers, fracture of polymers
at high test rates, mode II and mixed-mode
fracture in composites, fatigue of composites,
short fibre composites, structural adhesives
testing and the peel testing of flexible laminates.

(e)
Professor Andrea Carpinteri (Parma,
Italy), Professor Ali Fatemi (Toledo, USA) and
Professor Carlos Navarro (Seville, Spain):
Chairmen
of
the
11th
International
Conference on Multiaxial Fatigue and
Fracture (ICMFF11), to be held in Seville,
Spain, 1st to 3rd June, 2016.

Committee chairman, Professor Gordon

Williams, was awarded the Griffith Medal at ECF
20 in Trondheim, and technical secretary Dr
Bamber Blackman was awarded an ESIS
Fellowship.
Plans for 2015

Andrea Carpinteri

27th 29th May 2015:

meeting in Les Diablerets.

Les P. Pook

Regular committee

30th Sept 2nd Oct 2015:

committee meeting in Les Diablerets.

Regular

Bamber Blackman
12

Newsletter #55-2015

TC 10:
Cracking

Environmentally Assisted

ESIS
TC
10
Workshop
Environmentally
Assisted
Cracking
Hydrogen Embrittlement
Venice, Italy, 3-4 November 2014

on
&

EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY SOCIETY

(ESIS)
UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA (USAL)
VENEZIA TECNOLOGIE (VT)

CHAIRS
Prof. Dr. Jess Toribio (University of Salamanca,
Spain, E-mail: toribio@usal.es)
Dr. Giovanna Gabetta (Eniricherche, Italy, Email: Giovanna.Gabetta@eni.com)
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITEE
Prof. Dr. Hrihoriy Nykyforchyn (Karpenko
Institute, Ukraine, E-mail: nykyfor@ipm.lviv.ua)
Dr.
Wolfgang
Dietzel
(Helmholtz-Zentrum
Geesthacht,
Germany,
E-mail:
wolfgang.dietzel@hzg.de)
LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Dr. Marino Tolomio (VeneziaTecnologie, Italy, Email: mtolomio@veneziatecnologie.it)
Dr. Marco Scapin (VeneziaTecnologie, Italy
E-mail: mscapin@veneziatecnologie.it)
Dr. Letizia Meregalli (VeneziaTecnologie, Italy
E-mail: lmeregalli@veneziatecnologie.it)
VENUE
VeneziaTecnologie S.p.A.
Via Delle Industrie, 39 Porto Marghera
Venezia, ITALY

ESIS TC-10 Workshop

1. History of ESIS TC 10 Committee

ENVIRONMENTALLY
ASSISTED CRACKING
&
HYDROGEN
EMBRITTLEMENT

The
ESIS
TC
10
Committee
on
Environmentally Assisted Cracking (EAC) was
established by ESIS (European Structural
Integrity Society) in 1991. In 1995, following an
initiative by the members of the Karpenko
Physico-Mechanical Institute (KPMI) of the
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
(NASU), a new Sub-committee on the topic of
Hydrogen Degradation was also established. The
main objective of ESIS TC10 was and continues
to be a merger of research experience in the
areas of fracture mechanics and structural
integrity as a method of failure assessment, and
of
practice
in
the
environmental
degradation/corrosion of materials. From the
very beginning, the work has been strongly
devoted to the development of fracture
mechanics test and evaluation techniques and
procedures and to their application to problems
of environmentally assisted cracking.

Venezia, Italy, 3-4 November 2014

TC 10 workshops are usually held during

ESIS conferences, but sometimes they are
hosted by a participating organization, such as is
the case of VeTec. Venezia Tecnologie hosted
the meeting the first time in 2004, and again in
2006. The location is quite good for the
13

Newsletter #55-2015

workshop purpose since it offers the opportunity

of establishing a good relationship based on
work but also on friendship and networking. In
fact, the need to implement the activities of
scientific working parties with the aim at a better
use of modern tools such as social networks is
nowadays growing. However, implementation of
tools is not effective if it is not coupled with a
cultural exchange that should be promoted by
the activities of associations and/or working
parties, such as ESIS TC 10 Committee.

Is 13 years too a long time for an EAC gas bottle

burst?

Dr. Wolfgang Dietzel, who was the Chairman

of the Committee since its inception, and Dr.
Giovanna Gabetta who became co-chairperson
since 1996 were both present; Prof. Hryhoriy
Nikyforchyn, Chairman of the Sub-Committee on
Hydrogen Degradation presented a paper via
Skype. Starting at the ESIS Council Meeting
during
the
ECF
18
in
Dresden
in
August/September 2010, the ESIS TC 10
Committee Chairmanship was handed to Prof.
Jess Toribio from the University of Salamanca
in Spain. In recent years, TC 10 started to take
up new EAC related tasks for which the open
and versatile structure of the group appears
ideally suited. Knowledge Management and the
solution of complex technical problems are new
challenges that need to be addressed, and the
formation of new networks will play an
important role in future. To this aim, TC 10 and
its Chairman Jess Toribio actively took part in
the organization, by the Italian, Portuguese and
Spanish Group on Fracture, of the 1st
MULTILATERAL WORKSHOP ON FRACTURE AND
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY RELATED ISSUES,
held in Catania, Italy, on September 15-17
2014.

Jess Toribio, Miguel Lorenzo,

Vergara and Viktor Karin:

Ral Bermejo, Clemens Krautgasser, Peter

Supancic and Robert Danzer:
Environmentally strength degradation of glassceramic composites: experiments and modeling.
Takashi Matsuo, Masahiro Endo and Hisao
Matsunaga:
Effects of internal hydrogen on the ductility of
ductile cast iron.

FE numerical analysis of hydrogen-assisted

rolling-contact fatigue degradation in bearings
for wind turbines
Manuela Gentile:
Pipeline sour service material selection: where
are we?
Laura Vergani, Giorgia Gobbi and Chiara
Colombo: A cohesive model to simulate
hydrogen-assisted cracking
Filippo Berto and Pasquale Gallo:
High temperature fatigue of notches components
made of structural steel.
Alberto Pontarollo:
Experimental devices for EAC tests at ultra high
pressure.
3. Round Tables and Discussions
In the final part of the meeting, two subjects
were discussed: Round Table n1 discussed the
NATO Program Science for Peace: Implications
in Environmentally Assisted Cracking. A project
will be proposed by Karpenko at the beginning of
2015, with the cooperation of Politecnico di
Milano (Gabriella Bolzon). The cooperation of
Salamanca University and of eni SpA is foreseen.

2. Papers presented in the Workshop

Researchers from Austria, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Spain and Ukraine participated in the
Workshop. Here is the list of papers, presented
after the opening address by Prof. Jess Toribio
and Dr. Giovanna Gabetta:

Round Table N2 was devoted to the

discussion of Future Activities of ESIS TC10.
Jess Toribio illustrated the next event:
Salamanca 2015: ESIS TC10 Conference on
Environmentally Assisted Cracking & Hydrogen
Embrittlement and Degradation.

Giovanna Gabetta:
35 years in EAC What is left?
Wolfgang Dietzel:

4. Photos of the Event

SCC of high strength Aluminum alloys.

Jess Toribio and Viktor Kharin:
Revisiting continuum modeling
diffusion and trapping in metals.

of

Diego

hydrogen

Hryhoriy
Nykyforchyn
and
Giovanna
Gabetta: Experimental modeling of in-bulk
material degradation of main gas pipelines.
Giovanni Meneghetti:
Engineering estimations of notch-stress intensity
factors using the peak stress method.
Gabriella Bolzon:
The diagnostic capabilities of indentation tests.
Conference Room

Donato Firrao and Paolo Matteis:

14

Newsletter #55-2015

(EURAXLES, SUSTRAIL) and other projects about

new concepts for fatigue design and durability,
that can represent a significant advance and
challenge
to
currect
practices.
Moreover, new interesting outcomes about
maintenance
and
inspections
have
been
presented. The meeting was organized in two
session attended by more than 80 experts from
Europe, US, Japan and China (see Fig. 1).

Lecture by Prof. Jess Toribio

(a)
Wolfgang Dietzel was awarded at the ESIS ECF20
Conference for his service as Chairman

The new Chairman Jesus Toribio receiving the ESIS

Fellow Award at ECF20 Conference

Jess Toribio
Giovanna Gabetta

(b)
Fig. 1 - TC24 meeting held in Milan: a) overview of
the meeting room; b) presentation by S. Cervello.

TC 24:
Integrity of Railway
Structures

The presentations were organized in two

sessions, the first devoted to fatigue design and
the second to maintenance and inspections. An
interesting technical discussion was held at the
end of Session 1, where a way was devised to
report some of the important results presented
in the meeting to CEN, for incorporation into
future revision of standards EN13103/13104 and
13261.

1. Scientific Report
A TC24 meeting was held on 1-2 October
2014, at Politecnico di Milano. The meeting had
been organized by S. Beretta and M. Carboni at
the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The opportunity of the meeting has been
offered by results obtained within EU projects
15

Newsletter #55-2015

Session 1 - Fatigue Design, Life and

reliability calculations
AUTHOR(S)

TITLE

M. Carboni
(PoliMi, Italy)

Evaluation of the effect of axle

protection against ballast
impacts

A.Landaberea
(CAF, Spain)

EURAXLES - Analysis of local

stress concentration at
transitions

A.Landaberea
(CAF, Spain)

EURAXLES - Survey of
maintenance practices and
costs

M.L. NguyenTajan
(SNCF, France)

EURAXLES - Advances in
reliability assessments of axles

S. Cantini
(LucchiniRS,
Italy)

Improved POD for automatic

axle boreprobe

M. Filippini &
M. Luke
(PoliMi, Italy, &
IWM, Germany)

EURAXLES - Fatigue properties

of railway axles: small scale
tests and damage calculations

C. Muller
(BAM,
Germany)

A holistic view on NDT

reliability: multi- parameterPOD and Human Factor
influences within the modular
reliability approach

S. Cervello
(Lucchini RS,
Italy)

EURAXLES - Fatigue properties

of railway axles: new results of
full-scale specimens

H.P. Ganser
(MCL Leoben,
Austria)

EBFW3 - Description and aims

of the new project

S. Beretta
(PoliMi, Italy)

EURAXLES - Summary of
strength distributions and
probabilistic damage
calculations

M. Luke
(IWM,
Germany)

EURAXLES - Initiation of
fretting fatigue in press fits

S. Friedrich &
M. Traupe
(DB
Systemtechnik
GmbH,
Germany)

Dynamic Torsional Loads on

Wheelsets -

The speakers have accepted making public

their presentation, which are available at:
http://esistc24.mecc.polimi.it/milano_14.html.
All the participants appreciated that a Special
Issue of Int. J. Fatigue has been approved by
ESIS Exco, Elsevier and Journal Editors.
The worflow of the special issue (whose
Guest Editors will be S. Beretta and M. Carboni)
will be: i) submission deadline 28th February
2015; ii) acceptance deadline 30th July 2015;
iii) expected online publication October 2015.
The successfull meeting has surely confirmed
the role of ESIS TC24 as the leading forum for
the structural integrity of railway components.
The next TC24 meeting is going to be held in Fall
2015.
S. Beretta
ESIS TC24 Chairman

Session 2 - Maintenance, service and

inspections
AUTHOR(S)

TITLE

S. Foletti
(PoliMI, Italy)

EURAXLES - Acceptance of
defects at press-fits

K. Maedler
(DB
Systemtechnik
GmbH,
Germany)

An experimental approach to
determining the residual
lifetimes of wheelset axles on a
full-scale wheel-rail roller test
rig

T. Gerlach
(GHH Radsatz
GmbH,
Germany)

EURAXLES - New axle coatings

and axle preparation

W. Kappes
(IZFP,
Germany)

EURAXLES - Potential
improvements of the presently
applied in-service inspection of
wheel- set axles

16

Newsletter #55-2015

CALENDAR OF TC MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES

TC 11

September 10, 2014

HTMTC Committee Meeting

EMPA Dbendorf
(Switzerland)

www.htmtc.com

TC 11

September 11 -12,
2014

CreepFatigue Crack Initiation

& Growth

Swansea, UK

www.htmtc.com

TC 4

September 14-18,
2014

7th Int. ESIS TC4 conference

Les Diablerets,
Switzerland

www.esistc4conference.co
m

TC 24

October 1-2, 2014

Committee Meeting: new

concepts for fatigue design and
durability

Politecnico di Milano,
Italy

http://esistc24.mecc.polimi.it

TC 2

April 13-14, 2015

10th Meeting of ESIS-TC2 on

Micromechanisms

Leoben, Austria

http://www.esisweb.org/

TC4

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Newsletter #55-2015

The Griffith Medal Lecture

The Fracture Mechanics of Soft Solids
Gordon Williams
Mechanical Engineering Department, Imperial College London, UK
Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Dept. University of
Sydney, Australia
1. Introduction
I was honoured to be awarded the Griffith
Medal by ESIS and to give the Medal Lecture at
ECF20 in Trondheim. I chose to talk about
applying energy based fracture mechanics as
pioneered by Griffith, to the study of fracture in
soft solids. This is a relatively new field but is
becoming
increasingly
important
in
the
characterisation of biological materials and
foods.
I believe the energy based approach to such
problems to be profound and the two papers
written by Griffith [1,2] provide the basis on
which an understanding can be based. On a
personal note I have always felt an affinity with
Alan Griffith since we share a common birthdate,
13th June, were both brought up in Liverpool
and our first job was at the Royal Aircraft
Establishment in Farnborough. Both of his only
two fracture papers were written while he was at
Farnborough and he introduced the concept of
Energy Release Rate, (G, in honour of Griffith)
as the crack driving force which will be used
throughout here.
He also addressed the
necessity of achieving a sufficient cohesive
stress at the crack tip to cause fracture in
addition to the necessary energy release via G.
He observed that for sharp cracks the stress
concentration was generally sufficient to achieve
this and that G Gc, some critical property
value, was a sufficient single fracture criterion
and can be used for brittle fracture where cracks
remain sharp. The issue for soft solids is that
the second criterion is not necessarily achieved
because of crack blunting and we need more
than a single criterion.
This issue has been recognised in the study
of the fracture of rubber in the 1960s. Work at
the Natural Rubber Research Association by a
very talented group including Rivlin, Thomas,
Gent, Lake and Lindley [e.g.3,4] extended the G
concept to finite strains and recognised that
crack blunting was an important factor. Indeed
they defined a Tearing Energy when the material
failed with the crack blunted by the large strains
and measured values of 20 kJm-2 for natural

rubber.
They devised tests in which razor
cutting was used and G calculated from the
cutting force and observed a value of 0.5 kJm-2.
It was noted that this was the true toughness
and was the controlling factor in, for example,
the failure of tyres. The work is notable for
skilful experimental work and the pursuit of
sound physics. What is described here is done
in, what I hope, is the same spirit.
Also in the 1960s George Irwin [5] addressed
the issue of blunt cracks in the context of crack
sharpness in fracture toughness testing.
He
considered the stress at the tip of a crack of
finite radius and noted that the stress intensity
factor (K2=EG) to achieve a critical stress is
given by

=
,

(1)

where c is a critical radius below which =

the sharp crack values and;

= 1,

(2)

Or, in terms of G,

and

=1

(3)

In this case is the initial radius of the crack tip

and does not arise from self-blunting.
The
notion of c is important in all fracture
mechanics testing standards.
2. Fracture in Soft Solids
A Soft solid is defined here as a material
which has a low elastic modules, E, and, in some
cases, a low yield stress. The top end of the
scale are soft polymer with E= 1GP and Y
10MPa i.e a yield strain eY = 0.10, down to
starch gels and cheese with E-0.1Mpa, Y = 0.05

Newsletter #55-2015

and if c at fracture and K = Kc at = c we

have,

MPa and eY = 0.15. Many very soft materials

have no real yield stress and are elastic, often
with some visco-elasticity. An example of what
occurs when stretching a soft polymer (PE) is
shown in fig. 1 in which a sharp crack self-blunts
because of the large strains. Of course, initially
blunt notches continue to blunt further on
loading.

the Irwin result in equation 1.

Using the G form, equation 4 becomes,

2
(1 + )

2 =
3
2
(1 + )
2
and using the criterion that G Gc for
at r = and introducing =

22

we have,

(1 + 2)
=
2

(1 + )

(5)

A useful approximation is obtained for >> ,

which gives the linear form,

1
=
+

2 8

1
). This
2

function is shown plotted in Fig 2 as

and G/Gc = 1 for

(6)

= 8 (1

with = 0, the Irwin solution,giving a lower

bound and

G = Gc at = 0

32
27

giving the upper

bound for

88
in equation (5). Also
27

for the two bounds.

Figure 1. Self blunting in a stretched PE sheet

(Photograph by kind permission of Hongjian
(Andy) Wang, University of Sydney)
A useful model of these effects is the elastic
analysis of a blunt crack of length, a, and a tip
radius subjected to a stress . The stress at a
distance r from the crack tip is given by Inglis
[6],

(1 + )
=
3
2
2
(1 + )
2
As 0,

(4)

Figure 2. Dependence of G on for a range of

values.

the stress at a sharp crack. For a finite as r

0 we have,

Self-blunting occurs from both elastic and plastic

strains. The elastic radius is given by [7]

2
= 2 =

20

Newsletter #55-2015

4
=

(7)

and the plastic contribution

opening displacement , is

via

the

1
=
2
2

crack

120MPa and

, =

(10)

constant at about 0.05

( 4 ) = 0.036.

blunting. For the very low values the failures

were ductile tearing with large blunting. The
results are shown in Fig 3 as Gb/Gc versus Y.

Note that the effect of summing is highly

nonlinear such that, for example, if

> 1 from self

Three types of behaviour were observed; for

high the failures were brittle and stable with a
sharp crack. For medium values the failures
were brittle but unstable with G > Gc and crack

(9)

) =

e remained

thus giving the parameter

i.e.
8

3. The effect of changing Y

A set of epoxy resins were tested in [8] and
and E were changed by various methods
including increasing the test temperature, the
loading time in creep, and rubber modification.
The effective varied from about 40MPa to

To obtain the combined radius we must sum the

displacements which are proportional to so
that

= (1 +

blunting

(8)

= +

0.41 < ( 4 ) ( ) < 1,

e = 1m, p

y 110 MPa, G/Gc = 1 with no blunting and

for C 70 MPa there was ductile failure. In the
range 70-100MPa Gb/Gc increase as Y

= 10m, b = 17m. Values of k for various

For

Table 1

decreased and the line shown is fitted from

values of e are shown in Table 1.

0.01

0.02

0.05

0.10

0.50

0.67

0.75

0.92

1.13

2.26

Equation 11 to

G/Gc = 1 at Y = 110MPa so that,

0.41 = ( 4 ) ( ) and = 370

Initially blunt notches of radius

may be

incorporated into the analysis as 0 in equation

(9).
Self-blunting fracture may be described by
combining equation (10) with equation (6) and
for the upper bound;

= 0.59 +
= 0.59 + ( )

8
8
2

= 0.59 + ( ) ( ) ( )
4

i.e.

0.59

2
1 ( ) ( )
4

(11)
Figure 3. Failures in epoxy resins with varying
Y. (data from [9])

The following conditions pertain;

( ) ( ) 0.41,

In the original paper a similar analysis guessed a

value of k = 1 which, as the analysis shows, is
actually 0.92. It has taken the author 34 years
to confirm the guess!

= 1, No blunting

effect.

( ) ( ) 1 ,

No fracture

4. Cutting Methods
Since self blunting in a soft solids can give
apparent toughness values much in excess of
the true value an alternative test must be
sought which does not involve the stretching of
21

Newsletter #55-2015

the specimen. This is provided by cutting tests

in which a sharp blade has a force applied to
cause cutting of a sheet of thickness b. In the
absence of other forms of energy dissipation
such as plastic work or friction the fracture
energy comes directly from the external work
and is,

b, to cut the material. A very simple analysis, as

illustrated if fig 4, gives ( 9,10]

= + (1 + )

(13)

Steady state cutting must be a achieved and

Fc determined for each diameter and then Fc/b
plotted versus d to obtain Gc from the intercept
as shown for data obtained on cheese, an
obvious starting point for the method. Table 2
shows data obtained on three cheeses and three
starch gels. The Gc values are small in the range
of 1-10 J/m2 and they are compared with results
obtained on standard SENB tests.

(12)

This type of test was developed by Lake

et al [4] for testing rubber and ways of avoiding
friction were explored. In general, thin sheets
do not give rise to plasticity effects.

Table 2: Wire cutting results for cheeses and

starch gels. (from [10] and [11])
Cheese
data

E
kPa

c
kPa

Gc
Jm-2

Gc
Jm-2

SENB

Wire

Sharp
Cheddar

210

44

4.5

5.8

27

240

Mild
Cheddar

750

84

11.2

12.5

19

600

Processed
cheese

370

62

6.8

5.2

23

330

Starch
Gel

E
kPa

kPa

Gc
Jm-2

Gc
Jm-2

SENB

Wire

63

40

2.2

2.3

44

43

150

80

3.6

2.3

25

35

15

(self
weight
fracture)

0.7

59

580

These are quite difficult to do and particularly for

the gels where corrections for the self weight of
the specimen are necessary. Indeed for one very
fragile gel the specimen always failed when the
beam was put on the supports. Overall,
however, the agreement is good and the cutting
test is far simpler. Estimates of the blunt crack
radius are given together with c and it can be
seen that cheese does not self blunt whilst gels,
in some cases, do.

Figure 4. Wire cutting (from [10])

Two types of cutting tests have been found to
be effective for soft solids and both involve
corrections for plasticity and friction. The first is
wire cutting which is illustrated in fig.4. Here
wire of varying diameters are pulled taut and
then forced through a block of solid of thickness

An alternative is orthogonal cutting illustrated

in Figure 5. Here chips of varying thickness h are
removed and, in steady state cutting, the cutting
force Fc and the transverse

22

Newsletter #55-2015

Figure 6. Orthogonal cutting data on polymers

(data from [11])
5. Conclusions
Testing soft solids for toughness presents
many challenges and the idea of basing an
understanding of the mechanics via energy
appears to be a good way to proceed. The issue
of self blunting can be rationalised and
quantified in terms of G and when a true
toughness is needed then cutting tests seem to
provide useful schemes.
Such methods are
essential if fracture mechanics is to be used for
such materials. I hope Alan Griffith would have
approved of the approach.

Figure 5. Orthogonal cutting (from [11])

force Ft are measured. Ft enables the frictional of
contribution to be determined and is hence, [11]

( )

1
= ( +
) +
2

(14)

6. References
1.
Griffith A. A.; Trans. R. Soc.; A221
(1920) 165-198.
2.
Griffith A. A.:Proc.of 1st Int. Congress
for Applied Mechanics, Delft (1924) 55-63
3.
Rivlin R.S., Thomas A.G.; J. Polymer Sci
(1953) 291-318
4.
Lake G. J., Yeoh, O.H.; Int. J. Fracture
14(5); (1978) 509-526;
5.
Irwin G.R.; Handbuch der Physik, Bd. VI
(Ed. S. Flgge), 551-590, Springer, 1958.
6.
Inglis C.E.; Trans. Inst. Naval Architects;
60 (1913); 219-230
7.
Williams J.G.; Fracture Mechanics of
Polymers; Ellis Harwood, Chichester; 1984
8.
Kinloch A.J.; Williams J.G.; J. Mat. Sci.
15 (1980) 987-996
9.
Kamyab I., Chakrabati; Williams J.G.; J.
Mat. Sci. 33(1998) 2763-2770
10.
Charalambides M. et. al; J. Mat. Sci. 44
(2009) 4976-4986
11.
Patel Y. et al.; Pro. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part
C, J. Mech Eng. Sci. 223 (2009) 2861-2869

is the shear plane angle on which the shear

stress is

Y/2

chip thickness

and can be determined from the

hc from,

(15)

where is the rake angle of the tool. The

general form of equation (14) is similar to that
for were cutting, equation (13). Gc can be found
by plotting (F_c/b-F_t/b tan) vs h/2 (tan +
1/(tan)) and figure 6 shows such data for a
range of ductile polymers.

23

Newsletter #55-2015

ESIS Procedures and Documents

(free available for ESIS Members at www.structuralintegrity.eu)
Two kinds of documents are produced by ESIS Technical Committees with the following designatory system: ESIS P2-92 or ESIS P4-92D, where:
1. P means "Procedure", and 2 and 4 are the current numbers, while 92 is the year of issue.
2. D following the year (eg: 92D) means "draft", ie: not yet approved, while
3. D prior to the year (eg: D1-92) means "Document" other than test methods.

P1-92
ESIS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DETERMINING THE FRACTURE RESISTANCE OF DUCTILE MATERIALS.
Responsible body: TC1 Subcommittee on Fracture Mechanics Testing Standards.
P2-92
ESIS PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING THE FRACTURE BEHAVIOUR OF MATERIALS.
Responsible body: TC1 Subcommittee on Fracture Mechanics Testing Standards.
P3-03D
DRAFT UNIFIED PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING THE FRACTURE BEHAVIOUR OF MATERIAL.
Responsible body: TC1 Subcommittee on Fracture Mechanics Testing Standards (UNDER PREPARATION NOT AVAILABLE).
P4-92D
ESIS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STRESS CORROSION TESTING USING PRE-CRACKED SPECIMENS.
Responsible body: TC10 Committee on Environmental-Assisted Cracking.
P5-00/VAMAS
PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING THE OF FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF CERAMICS USING THE SEVNB
METHOD .
Responsible body: TC6 Committee on Ceramics.
P6-98
ESIS PROCEDURE TO MEASURE AND CALCULATE MATERIAL PARAMETERS FOR THE LOCAL APPROACH
TO FRACTURE USING NOTCHED TENSILE SPECIMENS.
Responsible body: TC8 Committee on Numerical Methods.
P7-00
ESIS PROCEDURE FOR DYNAMIC TENSILE TESTS
Responsible body: TC5 Subcommittee on Dynamic Testing at Intermediate Strain rates.
P8-99D
ESIS DRAFT CODE OF PRACTICE FOR THE DETERMINATION AND INTERPRETATION OF CYCLIC STRESSSTRAIN DATA.
Responsible body: TC11 Committee on High Temperature Mechanical Testing.
P9-02D
GUIDANCE ON LOCAL APPROACH OF RUPTURE OF METALLIC MATERIALS.
(UNDER PREPARATION NOT AVAILABLE).
P10-02
A CODE OF PRACTICE FOR CONDUCTING NOTCHED BAR CREEP RUPTURE TESTS AND INTERPRETING
THE DATA.
Responsible body: TC11 High Temperature Mechanical Testing Committee.
P11-02
TECHNICAL RECOMMANDATIONS FOR THE EXTREME VALUE ANALYSIS OF DATA ON LARGE
NONMETALLIC INCLUSIONS
Responsible body: TC20 Committee on Inclusions.
D1-92
FRACTURE CONTROL GUIDELINES FOR STRESS CORROSION CRACKING OF HIGH STRENGTH ALLOYS.
Responsible body: TC10 Committee on Environmental Assisted Cracking.
D2-99
FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF CERAMICS USING THE SEVNB METHOD; ROUND ROBIN, TEST PROGRAMME.
The ESIS TC6 and VAMAS TWA3 developed a test method and conducted a round robin for its validation. D2-99 presents a
detailed documentation of this activity. The final form of the test method has appeared as P5-00.
Responsible body: TC6 Committee on Ceramics.

Newsletter #55-2015

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