Fracture of brittle solids - by Brian Lawn

The aim of this book is to present fracture mechanics in the context of the “material revolution”, particularly in ceramics. The reasons that I like it are the following.

1.It is simple but rich. I didn’t learn fracture mechanics before. This is the first book

of fracture mechanics I read. It is good for beginners because it focuses on physical

concepts but not complicated mathematics. Although it focuses on brittle materials, it

covers most of the basic and important ideas of fracture mechanics. So you can get an

integrated picture of fracture mechanics after reading it. It is also condensed. If you

read it carefully, you will find some historical arguments were clearly clarified.

 2.The way this book was organized is similar to this course. It follows a progression from

scientific fundamentals to engineering designs. As Zhigang mentioned in the beginning of

this class, the aim of this course is not only to teach us fracture mechanics but also the

way to do research. It is important to know in what historical background a theory was

developed and how this theory directed engineering applications. All these trigger our

thought of our own research.

3.The most important reason I like this book is it covers an important topic – indentation

fracture. It is relative to my research topic – using indentation to characterize

mechanical properties of gels. So far we have not touched fracture yet, but it is an

interesting topic to think about.