Principles of Fracture Mechanics

Rating:
Summary: Principles of Fracture Mechanics
Review: "Principles of Fracture Mechanics" is the most concise yet complete survey on the equations and history of fracture mechanics I have found. Professor Sanford does an excellent job explaining how complex analysis is used to derive many of the equations governing the fracture of metals, without bogging the reader down in the mathematical details. I found the book to be enlightening. After reading it, I also found myself wishing I could have taken a course in fracture mechanics from Professor Sanford when I was in college.

Rating:
Summary: Principles of Fracture Mechanics
Review: "Principles of Fracture Mechanics" is the most concise yet complete survey on the equations and history of fracture mechanics I have found. Professor Sanford does an excellent job explaining how complex analysis is used to derive many of the equations governing the fracture of metals, without bogging the reader down in the mathematical details. I found the book to be enlightening. After reading it, I also found myself wishing I could have taken a course in fracture mechanics from Professor Sanford when I was in college.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Teacher
Review: Alright, I've haven't read the final book. I do have an unfinished version that Professor Sanford distributed when I took this class from him at the U of Maryland. The initial version was excellent. I had tried to slog through other presentations on fracture mechanics and had gotten lost in the details.

Rather than just presenting the stress intensity factor and other concepts, he gave a good historical development of just where these quantities came from and why anyone would or should use them to predict time to failure.