| Creator | A. F. Liu, Rockwell International |
|---|---|
| Date | 1974 |
| Source type | NASA Contractor Report |
| Report | NASA-CR-134596 / SD73-SH-0171-VOL-1 |
| Archive accessed | 21 September 2026 |
| Subjects | fracture control; fail-safe structure; safe-life design; crack growth; residual strength; nondestructive evaluation; space vehicles |
What this record is.
A systematic treatment of fracture-control design for space-vehicle structures. It identifies primary load-carrying elements, fracture-critical parts, safe-life and fail-safe capability, crack-growth behaviour and procedures intended to preserve structural integrity in the presence of flaws.
Why it was retained.
Retained as a period engineering reference for the distinction between pristine strength and useful behaviour after damage. It provides vocabulary and real design precedent for structures intended to retain residual strength, arrest cracks or tolerate known classes of failure rather than requiring an undamaged state.
Working classification 700.40:10 is provisional and denotes structural integrity / damage-tolerance material pending a larger reference sample. The source supports engineering principles and terminology; it does not establish direct scaling to Station structures.
Source locations
NASA Technical Reports Server record →Internal links
Referenced by: not yet assigned.
Related Archive records: none yet assigned.
Research notes / extracted claims: not yet accessioned.