Past exam of the materials science course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / Paper 1 / 6 / b / Solution

The maximum recoverable elastic energy per initial volume is the area under the linear stress–strain curve up to failure:Using ${\sigma }_f=C\sqrt{E{G}_c}$ gives $u_f=C^2{G}_c/2$, so maximize $G_c$ for the fixed geometry. $G_c$ has units of energy per crack area, while $u_f$ has energy per specimen volume; the geometric factor supplies the necessary inverse length. The cancellation of $E$ is why the strain-maximizing index from (a) is not appropriate here.