Abstract

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.
The book can be considered a configuration of the enormous effort on the study of mechanical behavior of brittle materials, that the Author has spent in the last decades....Krajcinovic analyzes the connections between the methods of statistical physics, associated to the finer structure of the material, and the possibility to indicate common basis of continuum constitutive theory in terms of self-consistent and effective field models. In a certain sense, he establishes the standard local model at least at the present state of the knowledge in the context of the internal variable approach for brittle solids....General review appendices are at the end of the book. They deal with unusual arguments in continuum mechanics as percolation theory or multifractal formalism. Their presence make the book self-sufficient to the reader....An enormous list of references (more than 700) brings to completion the book and indicates the way for further careful considerations....With this book, once more Dusan Krajcinovic proves to be a master in his research field.
Meccanica