Fracture: An Advanced Treatise, Volume VII: Fracture of Nonmetals and Composites examines the fracture of nonmetals and composites. The text of this treatise has been designed so that the reader may acquire pertinent information by self-study. Most chapters have been written in detail and, insofar as possible, have been made to fill a significant gap by also providing, when appropriate, the details of complicated and involved mathematical derivations in appendixes. Whenever possible, only a level of college calculus on the part of the reader has been assumed. Numerical examples showing the engineering applications have been included; also, photographs and drawings have been greatly utilized. The book opens with a review of the fracture behavior of glass. This is followed by separate chapters on the fracture of polymeric glasses; mechanics of the fracture process in rock, with emphasis on the engineering viewpoint; the fracture behavior of simple, single-phase ceramics; and empirical information about, and our level of understanding of, fracture in polycrystalline ceramics. Subsequent chapters deal with the fracture of elastomers; molecular mechanical aspects of the isothermal rupture of elastomers; failure mechanics of fibrous composites; fracture mechanics of composites; fracture and healing of compact bones; and fracture of two-phase alloys; and fracture of lake ice and sea ice.

Advances in Research on the Strength and Fracture of Materials: Volume 3Bs—Applications and Non-Metals contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Fracture, held at the University of Waterloo, Canada, in June 1977. The papers review the state of the art with respect to testing of fracture in a wide range of non-metals such as ceramics, glass, composites, polymers, biomaterials, and concrete. This volume is divided into five sections and opens by discussing the role of acoustic emission in fracture toughness testing and the relation between static and dynamic fracture toughness of structural steels. The reader is then introduced to methods for determining stress-intensity factors of simplified geometries of structural parts; stress analysis of pressure vessels by thermal shock; the fracture toughness of constructional steels in cyclic loading; and fracture processes and fracture toughness in powder forged steels. The remaining chapters explore the influence of low-cycle damage on fracture toughness; fracture of structural alloys at temperatures approaching absolute zero; fracture mechanisms in Si-Al-O-N ceramics; propagation and bifurcation of cracks in quartz; and the effect of pressure and environment on the fracture and yield of polymers. This monograph will be a useful resource for metallurgists, materials scientists, and structural and mechanical engineers.