Introduction to Fracture Mechanics

Introduction to Fracture Mechanics presents an introduction to the origins, formulation and application of fracture mechanics for the design, safe operation and life prediction in structural materials and components. The book introduces and informs the reader on how fracture mechanics works and how it is so different from other forms of analysis that are used to characterize mechanical properties. Chapters cover foundational topics and the use of linear-elastic fracture mechanics, involving both K-based characterizing parameter and G-based energy approaches, and how to characterize the fracture toughness of materials under plane-strain and non plane-strain conditions using the notion of crack-resistance or R-curves.Other sections cover far more complex nonlinear-elastic fracture mechanics based on the use of the J-integral and the crack-tip opening displacement. These topics largely involve continuum mechanics descriptions of crack initiation, slow crack growth, eventual instability by overload fracture, and subcritical cracking.

Prof. Robert O. Ritchie is the H.T. & Jessie Chua Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California in Berkeley; he is also Senior Materials Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received M.A., Ph.D. and Sc.D. degrees in materials science all from Cambridge University. He is known for his research into the mechanics and mechanisms of fracture and fatigue of a broad range of engineering and biological materials. He is a foreign member of the Royal Society and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Dr. Dong Liu is a Lecturer at the University of Bristol and she is the head of Experimental Mechanics of Advanced Materials (EMAM) Group. Her expertise lies in the multiple length-scale damage and fracture of nuclear and aerospace materials, not only in laboratory environments but also in their actual service conditions. Dr. Liu joined the University of Bristol as Lecturer in July 2018 from Oxford University (2015-2018) where she held an independent 1851 Exhibition Royal Commission Fellowship (Brunel) and an EPSRC postdoctoral research fellowship. Dr. Liu was also awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Mansfield College (2016-2018) while at the University of Oxford.

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