Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials

Rating:
Summary: Strong on Fracture, weaker on Deformation details
Review: I bought this book for a one-credit course at Virginia Tech and hardly ever used it. That, I believe, chiefly reflects excellent teaching methodology and not insufficiency of this book.

Back in Switzerland, I took a big, long course in deformation and fracture mechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and all of a sudden this book came in handy for extra illustrations and alternative explanations. While it is particularly excellent when treating fracture and devotes much space to this subject, deformation mechanics are often simplified or contain omissions in the derivation. Unfortunately, my course went into further detail than Dr. Hertzberg's book, so for the interesting details on deformation (e.g. a good explanation of the Lüders Bands) I must search elsewhere.

However, readers will appreciate the last chapter of case studies, which is instructive and sometimes even humorous (though it might require black humor to find a bursting tank of molasses funny).

In short, if you're into things that break, this book will make you happy. If you want to know what happens before, this book will help, but won't by any means be exhaustive.

Rating:
Summary: Strong on Fracture, weaker on Deformation details
Review: I bought this book for a one-credit course at Virginia Tech and hardly ever used it. That, I believe, chiefly reflects excellent teaching methodology and not insufficiency of this book.

Back in Switzerland, I took a big, long course in deformation and fracture mechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and all of a sudden this book came in handy for extra illustrations and alternative explanations. While it is particularly excellent when treating fracture and devotes much space to this subject, deformation mechanics are often simplified or contain omissions in the derivation. Unfortunately, my course went into further detail than Dr. Hertzberg's book, so for the interesting details on deformation (e.g. a good explanation of the Lüders Bands) I must search elsewhere.

However, readers will appreciate the last chapter of case studies, which is instructive and sometimes even humorous (though it might require black humor to find a bursting tank of molasses funny).

In short, if you're into things that break, this book will make you happy. If you want to know what happens before, this book will help, but won't by any means be exhaustive.