Several developments in aerospace structures over the years have gained prominent and widespread use throughout the community. The first of which would be the use of commercial finite element codes. This gives credence to the emphasized course concepts listed above. Second, fracture mechanics is one of the most vital tools in the analysis of aircraft structure damage tolerance and durability. Thus, in exposing undergraduate students to this, they'll have already seen such techniques when they come upon them again. Third, advanced composite materials are now widely used in aircraft. As a result, knowledge of traditional materials will not be very useful in these areas and it is in line to get familiar with the various properties of these materials, as well.

As a result of these developments, the constant elasticity approach is used, multidimensional relationships are stressed, and displacement (as opposed to stress or strain) is the key in deriving governing equations. Griffth's concept of strain energy release rate will be utilized, as well.^[2]

Contributed by radsam.a