When asked to start teaching a course on engineering fracture mechanics, I realized that a concise textbook, giving a general oversight of the field, did not exist. The explanation is undoubtedly that the subject is still in a stage of early development, and that the methodologies have still a very limited applicability. It is not possible to give rules for general application of fracture mechanics concepts. Yet our comprehension of cracking and fracture beha viour of materials and structures is steadily increasing. Further developments may be expected in the not too distant future, enabling useful prediction of fracture safety and fracture characteristics on the basis of advanced fracture mechanics procedures. The user of such advanced procedures m\lst have a general understanding of the elementary concepts, which are provided by this volume. Emphasis was placed on the practical application of fracture mechanics, but it was aimed to treat the subject in a way that may interest both metallurgists and engineers. For the latter, some general knowledge of fracture mechanisms and fracture criteria is indispensable for an apprecia tion of the limita tions of fracture mechanics. Therefore a general discussion is provided on fracture mechanisms, fracture criteria, and other metal lurgical aspects, without going into much detail. Numerous references are provided to enable a more detailed study of these subjects which are still in a stage of speculative treatment.

Fracture mechanics is a vast and growing field. This book develops the basic elements needed for both fracture research and engineering practice. The emphasis is on continuum mechanics models for energy flows and crack-tip stress- and deformation fields in elastic and elastic-plastic materials. In addition to a brief discussion of computational fracture methods, the text includes practical sections on fracture criteria, fracture toughness testing, and methods for measuring stress intensity factors and energy release rates. Class-tested at Cornell, this book is designed for students, researchers and practitioners interested in understanding and contributing to a diverse and vital field of knowledge.

"Analytical Fracture Mechanics should prove to be a valuable resource to both the new student and the experienced researcher in fracture mechanics. It is recommended." — Applied Mechanics Review One of the central concerns of engineering is the failure of materials. Addressing this concern, fracture mechanics — an interdisciplinary subject spanning mechanical, civil, and materials engineering, applied mathematics, and physics — predicts the conditions under which such failure will occur due to crack growth. This valuable self-contained text by an expert in the field supplements standard fracture mechanics texts by focusing on analytical methods for determining crack-tip stress and strain fields. Following a comprehensive 120-page introduction — which provides all the background necessary for understanding the remaining chapters — the book is organized around a series of elastoplastic and hydrogen-assisted crack-tip problems and their solutions. The first chapter presents the only proven solution technique for the second order nonlinear partial differential equation governing a mode I elastoplastic crack problem. Other chapters deal with plastic zone transitions, environmental cracking, and small-scale yielding versus exact linear elastic solutions. One of the excellent features of this book is the clarity with which groups of problems are presented and related to each other. Another is the careful attention it gives to the various modes of fracture (I, II, and III) and to showing the circumstances under which information from a solution for one mode may be used to infer information in another mode. For this edition, the author has added a new appendix, "Stress Across an Elastoplastic Boundary of a Mode I Crack: Parabolic to Hyperbolic Plasticity Transition."

From a leading expert in fracture mechanics, this text provides new approaches and new applications to advance the understanding of crack formation and propagation.

Theoretical treatments of fracture mechanics abound in the literature. Among the first books to address this vital topic from an applied standpoint was the first edition of Practical Fracture Mechanics in Design. Completely updated and expanded to reflect recent developments in the field, the second edition of this valuable reference concisely revi