This book covers both theoretical and practical aspects of fracture mechanics and integrates materials science with solid mechanics.

An International Conference on the Application of Fracture Mechanics to Ma terials and Structures was held at the Hotel Kolpinghaus in Freiburg, West Ger many, June 20-24, 1983. It was attended by more than 250 participants from different countries which include Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Republic of Germany, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People's Republic of China, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, USSR and Yugoslavia. Conference Co-Chairmen were Professor G. C. Sih, Lehigh University, Bethle hem, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. , Dr. E. Sommer, Fraunhofer-Institut fur Werkstoff mechanik, Freiburg, FRG and Professor W. Dahl, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, FRG. Dr. Wenrich, as the representative of the Land Baden-WUrttemberg, delivered the opening address with the remarks that International Conferences can serve the means to further enhance the technology development of a country. He empha sized that the Federal Republic of Germany is presently in need of strengthening the engineering manpower in order to keep her in a competitive position. The Conference was officially cast off with the leading plenary lectures that under lined the theme of the technical lectures for the first day. This pattern was observed for the five-day meeting. The interplay between material and design re quirements was the theme and emphasized in many of the technical presentations that amounted to approximately ninety (90) papers.

Covering a wide variety of topics in dynamic fracture mechanics, this volume presents state-of-the-art experimental techniques and theoretical analysis on dynamic fracture in standard and exotic materials. Written by world renowned researchers, this valuable compendium contains eleven chapters on crack initiation, crack propagation, crack arrest, crack-stress wave interactions, and experimental, analytical and numerical methods in dynamic fracture mechanics. Contents: Modeling Dynamic Fracture Using Large-Scale Atomistic Simulations (H-J Gao & M J Buehler); Dynamic Crack Initiation Toughness (D Rittel); The Dynamics of Rapidly Moving Tensile Cracks in Brittle Amorphous Material (J Fineberg); Optical Methods for Dynamic Fracture Mechanics (H V Tippur); On the Use of Strain Gages in Dynamic Fracture (V Parameswaran & A Shukla); Dynamic and Crack Arrest Fracture Toughness (R E Link & R Chona); Dynamic Fracture in Graded Materials (A Shukla & N Jain); Dynamic Fracture Initiation Toughness at Elevated Temperatures with Application to the New Generation of Titanium Aluminides Alloys (M Shazly et al.); Dynamic Fracture of Nanocomposite Materials (A Shukla et al.). Readership: Researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in fracture mechanics and materials science.

The International Conference on Fracture Mechanics Technology Applied to Material Evaluation and Structure Design was held in Melbourne, Australia, from August 10 to 13, 1982. It was sponsored jointly by the Australian Fracture Group and Institute of Fracture and Solid Mechanics at Lehigh University. Pro fessor G. C. Sih of Lehigh University, Drs. N. E. Ryan and R. Jones of Aeronau tical Research Laboratories served as Co-Chairmen. They initiated the organiza tion of this international event to provide an opportunity for the practitioners, engineers and interested individuals to present and discuss recent advances in the evaluation of material and structure damage originating from defects or cracks. Particular emphases were placed on applying the fracture mechanics tech nology for assessing interactions between material properties, design and opera tional requirements. It is timely to hold such a Conference in Australia as she embarks on technology extensive industries where safeguarding structures from pre mature and unexpected failure is essential from both the technical and economical points. view The application of system-type approach to failure control owes much of its success to fracture mechanics. It is now generally accepted that the discipline, when properly implemented, provides a sound engineering basis for accounting in teractions between material properties, design, fabrication, inspection and op erational requirements. The approach offers effective solutions for design and maintenance of large-scale energy generation plants, mining machineries, oil ex ploration and retrieval equipments, land, sea and air transport vehicles.