This title presents the fundamental elements and theories in fracture and damage analysis, plus the recent research and advances in the development of the analytical and practical approaches required to assess the materials damage and the durability of structures.

The First African InterQuadrennial ICF Conference “AIQ-ICF2008” on Damage and Fracture Mechanics – Failure Analysis of Engineering Materials and Structures”, Algiers, Algeria, June 1–5, 2008 is the first in the series of InterQuadrennial Conferences on Fracture to be held in the continent of Africa. During the conference, African researchers have shown that they merit a strong reputation in international circles and continue to make substantial contributions to the field of fracture mechanics. As in most countries, the research effort in Africa is und- taken at the industrial, academic, private sector and governmental levels, and covers the whole spectrum of fracture and fatigue. The AIQ-ICF2008 has brought together researchers and engineers to review and discuss advances in the development of methods and approaches on Damage and Fracture Mechanics. By bringing together the leading international experts in the field, AIQ-ICF promotes technology transfer and provides a forum for industry and researchers of the host nation to present their accomplishments and to develop new ideas at the highest level. International Conferences have an important role to play in the technology transfer process, especially in terms of the relationships to be established between the participants and the informal exchange of ideas that this ICF offers.

Engineering materials are routinely subjected to fatigue loading in a wide variety of applications in the aeronautical, automotive, nuclear plant, petroleum and transportation industries. Contemporary fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack propagation methodologies are discussed while problems in the area of crack closure, loading spectra and multiaxial loading are addressed from both analytical and experimental aspects.

Fracture, fatigue, and other subcritical processes, such as creep crack growth or stress corrosion cracking, present numerous open issues from both scientific and industrial points of view. These phenomena are of special interest in industrial and civil metallic structures, such as pipes, vessels, machinery, aircrafts, ship hulls, and bridges, given that their failure may imply catastrophic consequences for human life, the natural environment, and/or the economy. Moreover, an adequate management of their operational life, defining suitable inspection periods, repairs, or replacements, requires their safety or unsafety conditions to be defined. The analysis of these technological challenges requires accurate comprehensive assessment tools based on solid theoretical foundations as well as structural integrity assessment standards or procedures incorporating such tools into industrial practice.

Containing the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computational Ballistics, this book presents new ideas and advanced developments in the field of study of Computational Ballistics. Ballistic studies include applications as varied as the study of the structural and control behavior of rockets and communication satellites; bird strike effects on commercial aircraft, terrorist attacks and automobile crack worthiness modelling. Many basic problems of ballistics are similar to those in other fields of applications, such as combustion, heat conduction, in-flight structural behaviour, trajectory related issues, contact, impact, penetration, structural response to shock waves and many others.A valuable contribution to its field, this text will be of interest to researchers involved in the different areas of computational ballistics and their relationship between computational methods and experiments. Notable topics include: Systems and Technolog; Combustion and Heat Transfer; Propellants; Fluid Dynamics; Fluid Flow and Aerodynamics; In-Flight Structural Behaviour and Material Response; Guidance and Control; Perforation and Penetration Mechanics; Fluid-structure Interaction; Experimental Mechanics/ballistic and Field Testing; High Rate Loads; Composite Material; Shock and Impact.

This book provides practicing engineers, researchers, and students with a working knowledge of the fatigue design process and models under multiaxial states of stress and strain. Readers are introduced to the important considerations of multiaxial fatigue that differentiate it from uniaxial fatigue.

This book features most of the papers presented at the International Conference on Computational Ballistics 2005. The contents stress the importance and possibilities of numerical simulation on internal, external and terminal ballistics, to describe, analyse, predict and subsequently reduce the experimental requirements in ballistics.