Special Use Sensors
Structures can, and do, break, and this may be important and sometimes dramatic. It’s critical to determine whether a particular object made from a particular material can carry a particular load. If a true stress is ignored, the cost of not acting is usually far higher than the cost of dealing with the problem earlier. A good example is in ductile materials. The crack moves slowly and is accompanied by a large amount of plastic deformation around the crack tip. The crack will usually not extend unless an increased stress is applied. Geometrical irregularities, such as cracks, sharp corners and holes – which many times are ignored – may raise the local stress.
