Abstract

By the detailed analysis of the modern development of the mechanics of deformable media can be found the deep internal contradiction. From the one hand it is declared that the deformation and fracture are the hierarchical processes which are linked and unite several structural and scale levels. From the other hand the sequential investigation of the hierarchy of the deformation and destruction is not carried out.

The book’s aim is filling this mentioned gap and investigates the hot topic of the fracture of non-ideal media. From the microscopic point of view in the book we study the hierarchy of the processes in fractured solid in the whole diapason of practically used scales. According the multilevel hierarchical system ideology under “microscopic” we understand taking into account the processes on the level lower than relative present strata. From hierarchical point of view the conception of “microscopic fracture” can be soundly applied to the traditionally macroscopic area, namely geomechanics or main crack propagation. At the same time microscopic fracture of the nanomaterials can be well-grounded too. This ground demands the investigation on the level of inter-atomic interaction and quantum mechanical description.

The important feature of the book is the application of fibred manifolds and non-Euclidean spaces to the description of the processes of deformation and fracture in inhomogeneous and defected continua. The non-Euclidean spaces for the dislocations’ description were introduced by J.F. Nye, B.A. Bilby, E. Kröner, K. Kondo in fiftieth. In last decades this necessity was shown in geomechanics and theory of seismic signal propagation. The applications of non-Euclidean spaces to the plasticity allow us to construct the mathematically satisfying description of the processes. Taking into account this space expansion the media with microstructure are understood as Finsler space media. The bundle space technique is used for the description of the influence of microstructure on the continuum metrics. The crack propagation is studied as a process of movement in Finsler space. Reduction of the general description to the variational principle in engineering case is investigated and a new result for the crack trajectory in inhomogeneous media is obtained. Stability and stochastization of crack trajectory in layered composites is investigated.

The gauge field is introduced on the basis of the structure representation of Lie group generated by defects without any additional assumption. Effective elastic and non-elastic media for nanomaterials and their geometrical description are discussed. The monograph provides the basis for more detailed and exact description of real processes in the material. The monograph will be interesting for the researchers in the field of fracture mechanics, solid state physics and geomechanics. It can be used as well by the last year students wishing to become more familiar with some modern approaches to the physics of fracture and continual theory of dislocations. In Supplement, written by V.V.Barkaline, quantum mechanical concept of physical body wholeness according to H. Primas is discussed with relation to fracture. Role of electronic subsystem in fracture dynamics in adiabatic and non-adiabatic approximations is clarified. Potential energy surface of ion subsystem accounting electron contribution is interpreted as master parameter of fracture dynamics. Its features and relation to non-euclidean metrics of defected solid body is discussed. Quantum mechanical criteria of fracture arising are proposed.