Spring 2027

Fracture Mechanics

Intro to fracture mechanics for linear/nonlinear materials, covering stress intensity factors, J-integral, energy release rate, and crack growth criteria for design.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Curt Bronkhorst3.0/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Walter Drugan

A historical student rated the difficulty level as 5 out of 5, indicating a very demanding workload, though no specific details were provided.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe mechanisms for initiation and growth of flaws in materials

  • Derive the fields of stresses, strains, and displacements near a crack

  • Predict crack growth using concepts of energy release rate and stress intensity factors

  • Analyze the effects of plasticity and nonlinearity on crack propagation

  • Evaluate the use of fracture mechanics concepts and equations in a research manuscript

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(E M A 303 or M E 306), graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students

  • take one
EMA 519

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Curt Bronkhorst

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.60/5 from 10 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 2.78 GPA, 22.2% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.12 GPA, 53.8% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CURT BRONKHORST is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WALTER DRUGAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 400

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Walter Drugan

The course was rated moderately in quality but highly in difficulty by a past student who provided no specific comments.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 3.48 GPA, 70.8% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2022: 2.78 GPA, 22.2% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.12 GPA, 53.8% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Walter Drugan

A historical student rated the difficulty level as 5 out of 5, indicating a very demanding workload, though no specific details were provided.

Past student reviews · Walter Drugan

Feedback on the teaching experience was sparse, with the only available review containing no comments regarding instructor methods or classroom dynamics.

Topics

  • Crack stress and deformation fields, stress intensity factors, and crack tip plastic zones
  • Fracture toughness testing, energy release rate, and J-integral
  • Criteria for crack growth initiation/stability and application to design

Skills

  • Describing flaw initiation and growth mechanisms
  • Deriving stress, strain, and displacement fields near cracks
  • Predicting crack growth using energy release rate and stress intensity factors
  • Analyzing effects of plasticity and nonlinearity on crack propagation
  • Evaluating fracture mechanics concepts in research manuscripts

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
EMA 519 · Spring 2027

Fracture Mechanics

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:346:006613",
    "course_id": "EMA 519",
    "course_uid": "course_7ee8ba567494d71b90ead2e4",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "006613",
    "source_subject_id": "346",
    "title": "Fracture Mechanics",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "153b9475c7517113060827913ef5856d2b62658d698e4a1aac63e3aad28b5e1b",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}