Griffith, Alan Arnold

Griffith, Alan Arnold (1893-1963), was known as The Father of Fracture Mechanics and Bubble Griffith, the first for his classic work in fracture mechanics and the role of flaws and the second for his work on soap films. He was a British aeronautical engineer who worked at RoUs-Royce from 1939 to 1960 designing turbojet engines. 

Pressure on resources had materials science improving its products in leaps and bounds - not just metals but also the earlier polymers and natural fibres. The concept of fracture mechanics had been introduced during the First World War by the aeronautical engineer Alan Arnold Griffith (1893-1963) to explain brittle failures. The microscopic behaviour of materials, the way cracks propagated from surface flaws, led to the development of a particular palette of structural materials suited to severe conditions - elastic and ductile, with reserves of energy absorption when approaching failure point. 

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