Mechanics and Mechanisms of Fracture

Abstract

Mechanics and Mechanisms of Fracture: An Introduction concerns itself with the fracture behavior of engineering materials and the tools one can use to account for it when analyzing designs and investigating failures. The book begins with a review of stress analysis and its application in progressively more realistic scenarios, building to a cracked part with small scale (primary elastic) yielding at the crack tip. It then covers deformation and fracture, metal fatigue, and the metallurgical aspects of high-temperature creep, stress-corrosion, corrosion-fatigue, and hydrogen-embrittlement. In later chapters, it demonstrates the use of fracture mechanics in problems of greater complexity, including that of a cracked metal part with large scale (nonlinear elastic-plastic) yielding at the crack tip. Although the book focuses primarily on metals, the final two chapters provide information on the mechanical behavior of ceramics, glasses, and polymers and the fracture mechanics of fiber-reinforced composites. The book can serve as a desk reference or self-study guide and is intended for readers with little or no prior training in solid mechanics. For information on the print version, ISBN 978-0-87170-802-1, follow this link.