fracture strength

The University of
Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Dentistry Department of Oral and
Craniofacial Sciences is seeking a postdoctoral fellow with expertise in
mechanical and chemical analytical testing of mineralized tooth
structure.  The candidate must be proficient with technologies such as
AFM-nanoindentation, scanning acoustic microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy,
and FTIR spectroscopy and possibly assist in numerical analyses from these

What boundary conditions would allow failure to occur in the gauge length and not at or near the clamps? One is not allowed (in suggesting ways of overcoming stress concentation at the clamps) to create defects in the nanotube or nanowire, to configure the region where failure will occur.  Thus, it is not possible (or is it?)  to create an analog of dog-bone specimens by, e.g., milling away part of the nanowire with a focused ion beam, etc., because this creates defects in the nanowire.