Advances in technology are demanding ever-increasing mastery over the
materials being used: the challenge is to gain a better understanding of
their behaviour, and more particularly of the relations between their
microstructure and their macroscopic properties.
This work, of which this is the first volume, aims to provide the means
by which this challenge may be met. Starting from the mechanics of
deformation, it develops the laws governing macroscopic behaviour -
expressed as the constitutive equations - always taking account of the
physical phenomena which underlie rheological behaviour. The most recent
developments are presented, in particular those concerning
heterogeneous materials such as metallic alloys, polymers and
composites. Each chapter is devoted to one of the major classes of
material behaviour.
As the subtitles indicate, Volume 1 deals with micro- and macroscopic
constitutive behaviour and Volume 2 with damage and fracture mechanics.
A third volume will be devoted to exercises and their full solutions
complementing the content of these two first volumes.
Most of the chapters end with a set of exercises, to many of which
either the full solution or hints on how to obtain this are given; each
volume is profusely illustrated with explanatory diagrams and with
electron-microscope photographs.
This book, now in its second edition, has been rigorously re-written,
updated and modernised for a new generation. The authors improved the
existing material, in particular in modifying the organisation, and
added new up-to-date content. Understanding the subject matter requires
a good knowledge of solid mechanics and materials science; the main
elements of these fields are given in a set of annexes at the
end of the first volume. The authors also thought it interesting for the
readers to give as footnotes some information about the many scientists
whose names are attached to theories and formulae and whose memories
must be celebrated.
Whilst the present book, as well as Volume 2, is addressed primarily to
graduate students, part of it can be used in undergraduate courses; and
it is hoped that practising engineers and scientists will find the
information it conveys useful. It is the authors' hope also that
English-speaking readers will want to learn about the aspects of French
culture, and more particularly of the French school of micromechanics of
materials, which this treatment undoubtedly displays.
