Customer Reviews

Fracture Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications, Second Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two specific things about this book keep me from rating it higher:

1- The book has a lot of errors. For instance, the polynomial equations for the stress concentration factors (K_I) in chapter 2 are labeled incorrectly. The diagrams for Center Cracked Tension and Double Edge Notched Tension are reversed. There are also other errors, but to list them all here would be pointless.

2- The problem set is close to worthless. Of the 600 page book, there are 18 pages of problems, or less than 100 total problems. The problems are not even that difficult. The "derivations" in the problem sets hardly require more than 2-3 lines of work, and very little deep thought. In other words, the problems are superficial.

Because of the lack of good problems and the errors (in fact, one of the problems seems to have an error in the difference between compliance and stiffness), I wouldn't feel comfortable using this book as a reference. No doubt, it does provide an excellent introduction or overview of fracture mechanics in general, but I would not feel comfortable with this book as my main source of information. There are also few examples with solutions to motivate learning. A good teacher is necessary to go beyond the basics of this text.

This book covers most of the fundamental topics in fracture mechanics. I recommend it to my undergraduate students. It is very easy to understand. This book is a fundamental source in fracture mechanics. It is a classic book recommended by numerous bibliographies regarding this field of study.

This book is a must for mechanical engineers who work in the field of fracture mechanics. It covers the subjects entirely.It is very easy to understand. this book is a fundamental source in fracture mechanics

I'm currently writing my thesis, this book is perfect for anyone dealing with any kind of material that needs a fracture mechanics book. Just pure and simply perfect.

I think that this book is a must have for anyone in the field of fracture and fatigue. I own all three editions and I am mostly happy with all of them. That being said there are some major drawbacks that should be recognized.

1. As others have pointed out there are many typos in the equations. I learned of some of these typos the hard way. I had to go back to the original journal papers in some cases to find the correct form of the equations...after much wasted time and confusion.
2. Each edition seems to drop information on certain topics.
3. This book is not a stand alone book, which is ok, but the author should do a better job of pointing the reader to the most useful references and noting where he is skipping steps. This point is especially important to recognize when working through the derivations of K, J and CTOD.

This book covers most of the fundamental topics in fracture mechanics. However, it lacks derivations of the equations, and the illustrations are a very crude. This book is probably appropriate for undergraduate level work, but not for graduate level.

when the proff. don't say and discuss the importent topics in the class,this book gives you all what you need to understand what is going on.. note:Anderson is talking aver nice way about HRR-field..but he did not give the exp. proof for this theory...