The necessity of having windows on any building’s façade is not questionable. However, not every window is suitable for any building. The selection of an adequate window must include the analysis of various factors—the most important ones are the type of window (e.g., single or double glazing); filling gas in cavities (e.g., air, argon or some other gas); and placing, i.e., orientation of a window on a façade (facing north, south, or east, etc.). The research presented in this paper is dealing with the calculation of the window thermal loading for the cities of Kragujevac and Bor in Serbia and Žilina in Slovakia. These three cities were selected because they belong to different climate regions, according to the Köppen–Geiger climatic classification. The first two cities in Serbia belong to the same region Cf with difference only in the category of summer—Kragujevac Cfa and Bor Cfb—while the third city—Žilina in Slovakia—belongs to the Dfb region. The calculated thermal loading through the window was obtained as a sum of the thermal loading due to the heat conduction and thermal loading due to the solar radiation. The objective was to find the optimal window construction and orientation of a building’s façade for each of these cities, by varying the type of the window, its frame material and the filling gas. The results show that for the first two cities in Serbia, there is a difference in the window frame material in the optimal window construction, while for the third city (Žilina in Slovakia), the results are the same as for the second city (Bor in Serbia) despite the fact that they belong to different climate regions (Cfb and Dfb, respectively). These results support the fact that the climate affects the optimal window construction for any city/region in the world.

In the automotive industry, spot-welding is the most common method of joining components. Thus, determining the service life of spot-welds is of great importance in designing assemblies or structures. It is well-known that lately there has been a trend in the industry toward reducing the fuel consumption and harmful gasses emissions, as well as the weight of structures with the application of the lightweight materials, like aluminum alloys. In this paper, research is presented on the behavior of a spot-weld between the plates made of the two dissimilar materials—aluminum alloy and steel. In addition, the influence of the plates’ thickness and the weld nugget’s diameter on welds’ service life is presented. In this analysis, a concept of the interface crack between the two linear elastic materials was applied. Obtained results show that the plates’ thickness and the nugget’s size, as well as the working load, impose significant influences on the service life of a spot-weld between the two dissimilar materials.

To design a residential or commercial building with high energy performance that would be economical at the same time, an analysis was performed that relates these two aspects of the problem. The first aspect is focused on evaluation of the thermal performance of a multi-layered wall in order to achieve the lowest energy consumption for heating and cooling. The second aspect of the analysis covered the choice of materials (type, thickness and price) so that the building has the lowest possible construction costs, but the best achieved thermal comfort. The three types of external walls with the same structure were analyzed in this paper. The lowest and highest values of the layer thickness offered by the manufacturer were chosen and their dynamic characteristics for the heat transfer were calculated. The following step was to perform optimization of the objective function, which was defined by the unit price of the material per mass of the material, that is, the economical aspect was provided. The genetic algorithm method was used to obtain the optimal thickness of the external wall layers that provided the best dynamic characteristics for the heat transfer in the defined conditions.

A problem of a dynamically growing crack, which is approaching an interface between the two elastic isotropic materials at an arbitrary angle, is considered in this paper. That crack could behave in three ways: (i) it can arrest at contact with the interface, (ii) it can deflect into the interface and continue to propagate along it or (iii) the crack can penetrate the interface and continue to propagate in the material across it. The competition between the latter two cases can be estimated by considering the ratio of the energy release rates necessary for the crack penetrating the interface and for the crack deflecting into the interface. A concept that the criterion for the dynamic crack growth in homogeneous solids could be based on the static stress field, with addition of the stress intensity factor dependent on time, is used here to explain the behavior of the crack approaching the interface in dynamic loading conditions. Obtained results enable comparison of the interface dynamic fracture toughness to the fracture toughness of the base material (without the interface), to determine whether the incoming crack would deflect into or would penetrate the interface. If the ratio between the dynamic fracture toughness of the interface and the dynamic fracture toughness of the material into which the crack continues to propagate was less than the ratio of the dynamic release rates for the deflecting and penetrating crack, the incoming crack would deflect into the interface. If the case was reversed, the crack would cross the interface and continue to propagate in the material across it. Comparison of results for the load phase angle dependence on the crack tip propagation speed and on the approaching angle, obtained by this criterion and by the maximum stress direction criterion, proves the validity of the energy release rate concept adopted in this analysis.

The bridge elements are subjected to the low-amplitude cyclic loading, causing the fatigue as the main problem that limits the carrying capacity and remaining working life of a structure. Identifying the parts prone to fatigue, inspection control, preventive maintenance, successful reinforcing and repair plans, secure the satisfying characteristics of a bridge during its working life. For a new structure is important that elements subjected to fatigue are so designed to avoid the danger of the fatigue fracture. The fracture mechanics represents a useful tool for analyzing the fatigue crack growth in steel elements. The relevant parameters for the remaining working life estimate are the load level and frequency and the stress concentration. A method, based on the Paris' law, for predicting the remaining fatigue working life of steel bridges, is proposed and verified on an actual bridge. The considered bridge was found to be safe against the fatigue fracture, both for the present and the future increased load, since it was verified that it has the reserve with respect to fatigue life. Based on obtained results, one can conclude that the fatigue working life of a bridge and its elements can be estimated based on application of the LEFM (linear elastic fracture mechanics) concept.