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TWI Holds Successful Fracture Toughness Testing Course

Thu, 07 November, 2019

A successful two-day fracture toughness testing course was held at TWI’s headquarters near Cambridge on 30-31 October.

The course, designed for anyone carrying out, analysing or specifying fracture toughness tests, was delivered by Dr Philippa Moore, who has been on the BSI and ISO committees for fracture toughness testing since 2012, and Matthew Haslett, who has worked in fracture integrity management at TWI for over seven years and lectures on fracture-related subjects.

Philippa and Matthew began by providing a background to fracture mechanics testing and introduced common national and international standards such as BSI, ASTM and ISO. There was then a discussion of the selection and production of fracture mechanics test specimens, including CTs, SENBs and SENTs, along with the procedure and instrumentation for carrying out the tests, with both single point toughness and tearing resistance curves being covered.

Post-test analysis was also covered during the course, which included the fitting of R-curves, the examination of fracture faces and post-test metallography. The classroom sessions concluded with a discussion on reporting test results and common pitfalls.

Aside from the classroom-based sessions there was a tour of TWI’s fracture testing facilities at the end of the first day as well as a test demonstration on each day of the course.  

The course was well-received by the attendees who agreed that it was well delivered and that the lecturers were both friendly and knowledgeable, as one noted, “It was a really good experience, I learned a lot in a short time, got to expand my knowledge and learned where I can go and search if I need to look at something specific.”

The course is due to run again in 2020 with dates and more information to follow.

Philippa Moore delivering the Fracture Toughness Testing course
Philippa Moore delivering the Fracture Toughness Testing course
Matthew Haslett addresses the course attendees
Matthew Haslett addresses the course attendees
The tour of TWI's facilities
The tour of TWI's facilities

For more information please email:


contactus@twi.co.uk