Customer Reviews

Mechanical Behavior of Materials (3rd Edition)

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Professor Dowling has done a remarkable job in presenting his material. "Mechanical Behavior of Materials" is pedagogically solid, enabling comfortable self-study for engineering students or practicing engineers. The coverage of deformation, static failure, and fatigue failure analyses are comprehensive, and yet sufficiently detailed to be applied in practice. Individual chapters are devoted to each of the three major fatigue analysis techniques, i.e., stress, strain, and fracture mechanics methods. Each are clearly and thoroughly explained, along with their applications and limitations. Also covered are a host of standard testing procedures, material properties for all major classes, plasticity, creep, relaxation, and material damping (a rarity). Altogether, Professor Dowling's book stands out as an exceptional example of what an engineering text should be. It is a very fine successor to an earlier, and still worthwhile work called "Stress, Strain, and Strength" by the late Professor Robert Juvinall. Another useful book, is "Metal Fatigue in Engineering", by Fuchs and Stephens.

I am working as a practicing engineer and in the file of stress analyis of pressure vessels and piping. To properly understand the requirements of ASME Boiler and Pressure vessel code, particularly the 2007 edition of the code, where knowledge of stress and strain controlled fatigue as well as fracture mechnaics approach is necessary, there is no better book than professor Dowling's book. It covers things in a very simple , lucid style and in a self contained way, so that reader need not look for other references to brush up related things. The approach is physical rather than highly mathematical. The only thing I miss after reading this book is not having studied under the tutelege of Professor Dowling.

This book is outstanding in its technical content and writing clarity. I actually had the pleasure to learn the material from Professor Dowling himself and his clear method of teaching is reflected in his writing. The book provides a solid theoretical and practical foundation on failure criteria, fracture mechanics and the mechanics of fatigue. In my case, I went on and studied several of the topics presented in the book in more detail but Professor Dowling's book is still my number one reference.
Professor Dowling has actually worked in the industry and the examples and exercises are real problems made with real data.
The only problem I have with the book is that I can't keep it on my shelf as my coworkers keep borrowing it.
Some might argue that the book price is high but this book is one of those you can't put a price tag on. If you really think of it economically, the book is a great investment (a no brainer).

This book is really comprehensive. In this book you can find almost all you need to know about materials behavior, starting from the most classical approaches until the newest theories and some hints for further readings and studies. Every mechanical engineer should have this book on his bookshelf!

This is one must have book for engineers who want to have one deep understanting of the fatigue process. Very intersting to people involved with aeronautics and also automotive parts/systems design, subjected to fatigue stresses.

I would highly recommend this book. If you're into mech testing and fracture mechanics, it's hard to go wrong. I've got the 2nd ed.