Materials in Mechanical Extremes
Fundamentals and Applications

This book explores the underlying principles of materials under extreme pressures, providing a toolbox for assessing/predicting their behaviour in real-world applications.

Neil Bourne (Author)

9781107023758, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 May 2013

539 pages, 225 b/w illus. 25 tables
25.3 x 17.8 x 2.8 cm, 1.21 kg

'… intense and highly original … suitable for all with an interest in the dynamic response of materials.' The Aeronautical Journal

This unified guide brings together the underlying principles, and predictable material responses, that connect metals, polymers, brittle solids and energetic materials as they respond to extreme external stresses. Previously disparate scientific principles, concepts and terminology are combined within a single theoretical framework, across different materials and scales, to provide all the tools necessary to understand, and calculate, the responses of materials and structures to extreme static and dynamic loading. Real-world examples illustrate how material behaviours produce a component response, enabling recognition – and avoidance – of the deformation mechanisms that contribute to mechanical failure. A final synoptic chapter presents a case study of extreme conditions brought about by the infamous Chicxulub impact event. Bringing together simple concepts from diverse fields into a single, accessible, rigorous text, this is an indispensable reference for all researchers and practitioners in materials science, mechanical engineering, physics, physical chemistry and geophysics.

1. Extremes
2. A basic analytical framework
3. Platforms to excite a response
4. Tools to monitor response
5. Metals
6. Brittle materials
7. Polymers
8. Energetic materials
9. Anatomy of an asteroid impact.

Subject Areas: Materials science [TGM], Mechanical engineering [TGB], Physical chemistry [PNR], Geophysics [PHVG], Condensed matter physics [liquid state & solid state physics PHFC]