The book is focused on constitutive description of mechanical behaviour of engineering materials: both conventional (polycrystalline homogeneous isotropic or anisotropic metallic materials) and non-conventional (heterogeneous multicomponent anisotropic composite materials). Effective material properties at the macro-level depend on both the material microstructure (originally isotropic or anisotropic) as well as dissipative phenomena occurred on fabrication and consecutive loading phase (hardening) resulting in irreversible microstructure changes (acquired anisotropy). The material symmetry is a background and anisotropy is a core around which the book is formed. In this way a revision of classical rules of enhanced constitutive description of materials is required.

Continuum Mechanics of Anisotropic Materials(CMAM) presents an entirely new and unique development of material anisotropy in the context of an appropriate selection and organization of continuum mechanics topics. These features will distinguish this continuum mechanics book from other books on this subject. Textbooks on continuum mechanics are widely employed in engineering education, however, none of them deal specifically with anisotropy in materials. For the audience of Biomedical, Chemical and Civil Engineering students, these materials will be dealt with more frequently and greater accuracy in their analysis will be desired. Continuum Mechanics of Anisotropic Materials' author has been a leader in the field of developing new approaches for the understanding of anisotropic materials.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the theory and applications of the mechanics of transversely isotropic elastic materials. There are many reasons why it should be written. First, the theory of transversely isotropic elastic materials is an important branch of applied mathematics and engineering science; but because of the difficulties caused by anisotropy, the mathematical treatments and descriptions of individual problems have been scattered throughout the technical literature. This often hinders further development and applications. Hence, a text that can present the theory and solution methodology uniformly is necessary. Secondly, with the rapid development of modern technologies, the theory of transversely isotropic elasticity has become increasingly important. In addition to the fields with which the theory has traditionally been associated, such as civil engineering and materials engineering, many emerging technologies have demanded the development of transversely isotropic elasticity. Some immediate examples are thin film technology, piezoelectric technology, functionally gradient materials technology and those involving transversely isotropic and layered microstructures, such as multi-layer systems and tribology mechanics of magnetic recording devices. Thus a unified mathematical treatment and presentation of solution methods for a wide range of mechanics models are of primary importance to both technological and economic progress.

This book presents a modern and unconventional introduction to anisotropy. The first part presents a general description of Anisotropic Elasticity theories while the second part focuses on the polar formalism: the theoretical bases and results are completely developed along with applications to design problems of laminated anisotropic structures. The book is based on lectures on anisotropy which have been held at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.

The book presents interesting examples of recent developments in this area. Among the studied materials are bulk metallic glasses, metamaterials, special composites, piezoelectric smart structures, nonwovens, etc. The last decades have seen a large extension of types of materials employed in various applications. In many cases these materials demonstrate mechanical properties and performance that vary significantly from those of their traditional counterparts. Such uniqueness is sought – or even specially manufactured – to meet increased requirements on modern components and structures related to their specific use. As a result, mechanical behaviors of these materials under different loading and environmental conditions are outside the boundaries of traditional mechanics of materials, presupposing development of new characterization techniques, theoretical descriptions and numerical tools. The book presents interesting examples of recent developments in this area. Among the studied materials are bulk metallic glasses, metamaterials, special composites, piezoelectric smart structures, nonwovens, etc.

This multiauthor volume provides a useful summary of current knowledge on the application of fracture mechanics to composite materials. It has been written to fill the gap between the literature on fundamental principles of fracture mechanics and the special publications on the fracture properties of conventional materials, such as metals, polymers and ceramics.The data are represented in the form of about 420 figures (including diagrams, schematics and photographs) and 80 tables. The author index covers more than 500 references, and the subject index more than 1000 key words.

Elasticity is a property of materials which returns them to their original shape after forces applied to change the shape have been removed. This advanced text explores the problems of composite or anisotropic materials and their elasticity.