Microfracture
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
In the context of engineering, microfractures were cracks or breaches in the hull of a starship that could widen over time if something aggrivated it. The term also has a medical context.
The structural integrity of a material was diminished when microfractures were present. This could have dangerous, even deadly, consequences when the deterioration occurred in a ship's hull or other structure which provided containment, shelter, or life support, or in a living tissue. However, under certain conditions, a limited amount of microfracturing could be tolerable. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")
Some microfractures could be sealed by an engineering team, yielding a temporary or permanent repair. Other microfractures required the rebuilding or replacement of the structure. (ENT: "Desert Crossing"; VOY: "Caretaker")
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[edit] Causes
While approaching a second Sphere in the Expanse, Enterprise suffered microfractures on it's hull due to gravitational anomalies (ENT: "Exile")
Microfractures could result from torsional stress damage or from weakening of stress-bearing material by some environmental condition. (TNG: "Rascals")
The Caretaker's displacement wave which transported the USS Voyager from the Badlands to the Delta Quadrant caused several microfractures to the ship's warp core. (VOY: "Caretaker")
Duranium alloys could be vulnerable to certain silicon-based parasites, which consumed the material. The weakened duranium could microfracture under stresses that normally would be within tolerances. (VOY: "The Disease")
Theta radiation could degrade hull materials, yielding microfractures when stress levels were normal. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")
Gravimetric distortions created violent stresses that caused damage beginning with microfractures and ultimately yielding total structural failures, if not mitigated by escaping the distortion. (ENT: "Exile"; VOY: "The Fight")
Proton bursts caused great stress on a ship's hull, leading to many microfractures. (VOY: "Deadlock")
High warp core pressure, near critical levels, could microfracture the dilithium matrix. (VOY: "Twisted")
Microfractures could occur in warp nacelles, accumulating over time until maintenance became necessary. (VOY: "Nightingale")
A physical injury to a living being could damage the skeleton with microfractures. (VOY: "Repression")
[edit] Effects
Microfractures left un-repaired could widen to become full hull breaches. (VOY: "Deadlock")
EPS conduits could experience power drains if microfractures were present. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
In 2369, the shuttlecraft Fermi was destroyed when an energy anomaly caused molecular deterioration and microfractures in the bulkhead. A plasma conduit at the Tyrus VIIa Particle Fountain Project exploded, due to an undetected microfracture. (TNG: "Rascals", "The Quality of Life")
In 2375, Varro saboteurs aboard the generational ship destabilized the warp reaction when their synthetic parasites caused microfractures. (VOY: "The Disease")
In 2377, Ensign Tabor died from cranial microfractures and other injuries caused by a physical assault. (VOY: "Repression")
[edit] Prevention
A vessel's structural integrity field could provide enough reinforcement to prevent microfractures or to preserve integrity when microfractures were already present. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")
Twenty-second century hull plating was some protection against hull stresses which could cause microfractures, as was trellium. (ENT: "Anomaly", "Exile")
Compensation for a microfractured dilithium matrix was possible, in order to avoid warp engine problems. (VOY: "Twisted")
A metallurgical scan was one way to discover microfractures. (TNG: "Phantasms")
