by the demand of the particular test that is being performed on the specimen. The vast majority of the tests are carried out on either compact or three-point flexural test configuration. For the same characteristic dimensions, compact configuration takes a lesser amount of material compared to three-point flexural test. Material orientation Orientation of fracture is important because of the inherent non-isotropic nature of most engineering materials. Due to this, there may be planes of weakness within the material, and crack growth along this plane may be easier compared to other direction. Due to this importance ASTM has devised a standardized way of reporting the crack orientation with respect to forging axis. The letters L, T and S are used to denote the longitudinal, transverse and short transverse directions, where the longitudinal direction coincides with forging axis. The orientation is defined with two letters the first one being the direction of principal tensile stress and the second one is the direction of crack propagation. Generally speaking, the lower bound of the toughness of a material is obtained in the orientation where the crack grows in the direction of forging axis. Pre-cracking For accurate results, a sharp crack is required before testing. Machined notches and slots do not meet this criterion. The most effective way of introducing a sufficiently sharp crack is by applying cyclic loading to grow a fatigue crack from a slot. Fatigue cracks are initiated at the tip of the slot and allowed to extend until the crack length reaches its desired value. The cyclic loading is controlled carefully so as to not affect the toughness of the material through strain-hardening. This is done by choosing cyclic loads that produce a far smaller plastic zone compared to plastic zone of the main fracture. For example, according to ASTM E399, the maximum stress intensity Kmax should be no larger than 0.6 during the initial stage and less than 0.8 when crack approaches its final size. In certain cases grooves are machined into the sides of a fracture toughness specimen so that the thickness of the specimen is reduced to a minimum of 80% of the original thickness along the intended path of crack extensions. The reason is to maintain a straight crack front during R-curve test. The four main standardized tests are described below with KIc and KR tests valid for linear-elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) while J and JR tests