Unfractured

Unfractured is an adjective used to describe something that has not been fractured or cracked. It denotes a state of integrity, whether referring to a physical object, a geological formation, or a specimen in science. The term is formed with the prefix un- and the past participle fractured, and it is commonly used in technical as well as everyday language to indicate the absence of fractures, fissures, or breaks.

In geology and geotechnical engineering, unfractured rock or rock mass refers to material without visible fractures, joints, faults, or brecciation. Such material typically exhibits higher strength and different hydrogeological properties than fractured rock, and it may be treated as a baseline in studies of stress, permeability, or stability. In practice, most natural rock masses contain fractures to some degree, so truly unfractured intervals are limited to large, intact blocks or experimental samples.

In medicine, unfractured describes a bone or other structure that has not sustained a fracture. In reporting and imaging, the term helps distinguish normal, intact anatomy from a fracture, and radiographs may label no fracture or unfractured to indicate absence of a break; however, some injuries such as hairline cracks or stress fractures may be difficult to detect on X-ray.

In materials science and engineering, unfractured can describe a specimen that has not developed cracks prior to testing or as a comparison to fractured states. It is often used when discussing fracture toughness, crack initiation, or failure analysis, where the transition from unfractured to fractured material marks the onset of failure.

Etymology and related terms: unfractured is the negation of fractured, with synonyms including intact, undamaged, whole, unbroken; related concepts include fracture, fracture toughness, and crack propagation.