The strain energy release rate (or simply energy release rate) is the energy dissipated during fracture per unit of newly created fracture surface area. This quantity is central to fracture mechanics because the energy that must be supplied to a crack tip for it to grow must be balanced by the amount of energy dissipated due to the formation of new surfaces and other dissipative processes such as plasticity. For the purposes of calculation, the energy release rate is defined as where is the potential energy available for crack growth, is the work associated with any external forces acting, and