The principal objective of this book is to relate the random distributions of defects and material strength on the microscopic scale with the deformation and residual strength of materials on the macroscopic scale. To reach this goal the authors considered experimental, analytical and computational models on atomic, microscopic and macroscopic scales.

This book derives from the invited IUTAM Symposium in September 1993. The contributions discuss recent advances in fracture mechanics studies of concrete, rock, ceramics and other brittle disordered materials at micro and structural levels. It draws together research and new applications in continuum, damage and fracture mechanics approaches.

This book derives from the invited IUTAM Symposium in September 1993. The contributions discuss recent advances in fracture mechanics studies of concrete, rock, ceramics and other brittle disordered materials at micro and structural levels. It draws together research and new applications in continuum, damage and fracture mechanics approaches.

The book explores the two opposite natural trends of composite systems: (i) order and structure emerging from heterogeneity and randomness, and (ii) instability and chaos arising from simple nonlinear rules. Providing insights into the rapidly growing field of complexity sciences, the book focuses on the role of complexity in fracture mechanics. It firstly discusses the occurrence of self-similarity and fractal patterns in deformation, damage, fracture, and fragmentation of heterogeneous materials and the apparent scaling of the nominal mechanical properties of disordered materials, as well as of the time-to-failure after fatigue and creep loading. Then the book addresses criticality in the acoustic emissions from damaged structures and tectonic faults. Further, it examines the snap-back instability in the structural behavior of relatively large composite structures in the framework of catastrophe theory, and lastly describes the transition toward chaos in the dynamics of cracked elements.

The main scope of this Cargese NATO Advanced Study Institute (June 5-17 2000) was to bring together a number of international experts, covering a large spectrum of the various Physical Aspects of Fracture. As a matter of fact, lecturers as well as participants were coming from various scientific communities: mechanics, physics, materials science, with the common objective of progressing towards a multi-scale description of fracture. This volume includes papers on most materials of practical interest: from concrete to ceramics through metallic alloys, glasses, polymers and composite materials. The classical fields of damage and fracture mechanisms are addressed (critical and sub-critical quasi-static crack propagation, stress corrosion, fatigue, fatigue-corrosion . . . . as well as dynamic fracture). Brittle and ductile fractures are considered and a balance has been carefully kept between experiments, simulations and theoretical models, and between the contributions of the various communities. New topics in damage and fracture mechanics - the effect of disorder and statistical aspects, dynamic fracture, friction and fracture of interfaces - were also explored. This large overview on the Physical Aspects of Fracture shows that the old barriers built between the different scales will soon "fracture". It is no more unrealistic to imagine that a crack initiated through a molecular dynamics description could be propagated at the grain level thanks to dislocation dynamics included in a crystal plasticity model, itself implemented in a finite element code. Linking what happens at the atomic scale to fracture of structures as large as a dam is the new emerging challenge.

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.