Since the beginning of the century the technological desire to master the fracture of metals, concrete or polymers has boosted research and has left behind an overwhelming amount of literature. In a field where it seems difficult to say anything simple and new, the editors and authors of this book have managed to do just that.The approach to fracture taken here was not conceived by mechanical engineers or material scientists. It is essentially the by-product of exciting developments that have occurred in the last ten to fifteen years within a branch of theoretical physics, called statistical physics. Concepts such as ``percolation'' and ``fractals'', as models for the properties of fracture are not often considered by engineers. A particular aim of this volume is to emphasize the fundamental role disorder plays in the breaking process.The main scope of the volume is pedagogical and is at the same time an overview of fracture mechanics for physicists and an introduction to new concepts of statistical physics for mechanics and engineers. To this end the first half of the book consists of introductory chapters and the second half contains the results that have emerged from this new approach.

The investigation of phenomena involving fractals has gone through a spectacular development in the last decade. Many physical, technological and biological processes have been shown to be related to and described by objects with non-integer dimensions. The physics of far-from-equilibrium growth phenomena represents one of the most important fields in which fractal geometry is widely applied. During the last couple of years considerable experimental, numerical and theoretical information has accumulated concerning such processes. This book, written by a well-known expert in the field, summarizes the basic concepts born in the studies of fractal growth and also presents some of the most important new results for more specialized readers. It also contains 15 beautiful color plates demonstrating the richness of the geometry of fractal patterns. Accordingly, it may serve as a textbook on the geometrical aspects of fractal growth and it treats this area in sufficient depth to make it useful as a reference book. No specific mathematical knowledge is required for reading this book which is intended to give a balanced account of the field.

This book provides the first truly comprehensive study of damage mechanics. All concepts are carefully identified and defined in micro- and macroscopic scales. In terms of the methods and observation scales, the main part of the book is divided into three chapters. These chapters consider the stochastic models applied to atomistic scale, micromechanical models (for arbitary concentrations of defects) on microscopic scale and continuum models on the macroscopic scale. It is intended for people who are doing or planning to do research in the mechanics and material science aspects of brittle deformation of solids with heterogeneous microstructure.

This is a collection of papers on Fragmentation Phenomena. It includes reviews and reports on the latest developments in fragmentation of soft matter and materials (polymers, colloids, cells, droplets and rocks), fragmentation of microscopic objects (atomic clusters and nuclei), general topics and theoretical approaches. The book addresses students and young scientists as well as researchers in theoretical and experimental aspects of fragmentation phenomena.

Questions of size effect and scaling on the integrity of structures have been around since at least the time of Leonardo da Vinci. Bazant (civil engineering and materials science, Northwestern U.) sketches the history of size effect studies before exploring size effect on fracture and crack mechanics in a number of materials. He explores applications of the known size effect law for the measurement of material fracture properties and the modeling of the size effect by the cohesive crack model, nonlocal finite element models, and discrete element models. Applications to quasibrittle materials, including concrete, fiber composites, sea ice, rocks, and ceramics are presented. The role of size effect in some famous structural catastrophes is then examined. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

A modern up-to-date introduction for readers outside statistical physics. It puts emphasis on a clear understanding of concepts and methods and provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications.

Over the past two decades percolation theory has been used to explain and model a wide variety of phenomena that are of industrial and scientific importance. Examples include characterization of porous materials and reservoir rocks, fracture patterns and earthquakes in rocks, calculation of effective transport properties of porous media permeability, conductivity, diffusivity, etc., groundwater flow, polymerization and gelation, biological evolution, galactic formation in the universe, spread of knowledge, and many others. Most of such applications have resulted in qualitative as well as quantitative predictions for the system of interest. This book attempts to describe in simple terms some of these applications, outline the results obtained so far, and provide further references for future reading.