New book on "Probabilistic Mechanics of Quasibrittle Structures: Strength, Lifetime, and Size Effect" by Zdeněk P. Bažant (Northwestern University) and Jia-Liang Le (University of Minnesota), Cambridge University Press 2017
Quasibrittle materials are becoming increasingly important for modern engineering. They include concretes, fiber composites, tough (coarse-grained) or toughened ceramics, rocks (including shale), sea ice, wood, carton, stiff soils, rigid foams, glass, bone, dental and biomaterials, as well as all brittle materials on the micro or nano scale. Their salient feature is that the size of fracture process zone is non-negligible compared to the structural dimensions.