Safer Bridges

Safer bridges are among a number of spinoff benefits from NASA procedures for testing 'cfracture toughness" of a structural part, meaning its ability to -~sis~cracktsh at might cause failure. The New River Bridge in West Virginia, shown under construction, is the world's largest single span bridge. U.S. Steel fracture toughness requirements for such bridges include NASA-developed test procedures. Bridge materials and other metal structures may develop flaws during their service lifetimes. Such flaws can affect the structural integrity of the part. Thus, it is important to know the "fracture toughness" of a structural part, or its ability to resist cracks. NASA has long experience in developing fracture toughness tests for aerospace hardware. Since 1960, NASA-Lewis has worked closely with the American Society for Testing & Materials. Lewis and NASA-funded industrial contractors have made many important contributions to test procedures, now recommended by ASTM, for measuring fracture toughness.