This book consists of a collection of lectures prepared for a short
course on "Fracture Mechanics Methodology" sponsored by the Advisory
Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD), part of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The course was organized jointly by
Professor George C. Sih of the Institute of Fracture and Solid Mechanics
at Lehigh University in the United States and Professor Luciano Faria
from Centro de Mecanica e de Materiais das Universidade de Lisboa in
Portugal. It was held in Lisbon from June 1 to 4, 1981. Dr. Robert
Badaliance from the McDonnell Aircraft Company in St. Louis and Dr.
Oscar Orringer from the Depart- ment of Transportation in Cambridge are
the other US lecturers while Professor Carlos Moura Branco from Portugal
also lectured. The audience consisted of engineers from the Portuguese
industry with a large portion from the aeronautical sector and others
who are particularly interested to apply the fracture mechanics
discipline for analyzing the integrity of structural components and
fracture control methods. Particular. emphases were given to the
fundamentals of fracture mechanics as applied to aircraft structures.