Foreword

Abstract

Extract This book on fracture mechanics will serve as a monograph for professionals in the field of engineering materials, solids, and structures, and as a text for graduate students and aspiring professionals. The book approaches the subject of fracture mechanics from the collected and vast perspectives, experiences, and contributions of the authors with the fracture of quasibrittle materials such as concrete and fiber-reinforced composites, and natural materials such as ice and rock, which traditionally receive second shrift in most texts on fracture mechanics. The book is a notable contribution to fracture mechanics in many respects, including a chapter that considers probabilistic interpretations of fracture data and a chapter that analyzes and discusses an excellent set of practical applications that clearly illustrate the importance of size effects in fracture. Basic aspects of fracture mechanics are introduced and covered in the book, with extensive and well-chosen problems at the end of each chapter for students using the book as a text. In many of the topics, particularly those relevant to quasibrittle materials, the book brings the reader in contact with the most recent published research. One of the analytical approaches that receives prominent attention in the book owing to the manner in which many quasibrittle materials fail is cohesive zone modeling. The book will be an essential addition to the library of practitioners of fracture mechanics for coverage of these aspects alone. While many books lose steam towards the end, not this book. The penultimate chapter titled “Quasibrittle Size Effect Analysis in Practical Problems” deals with nine excellent current examples, including my two favorites: structural failure of the Malpasset Dam and tensile fracture of sea ice.