Rupture Models

Abstract

The damage and fracture of materials are technologically of enormous interest due to their economic and human cost. They cover a wide range of phenomena like the cracking of glass, aging of concrete, the failure of fiber networks in the formation of paper and the breaking of a metal bar subject to an external load. Failure of composite systems are of utmost importance in naval, aeronautics and space industries [596]. By the term composite, we refer to materials with heterogeneous microscopic structures and also to assemblages of macroscopic elements forming a super-structure. Chemical manufacturing and nuclear power plants suffer from cracking due to corrosion either of chemical or radioactive origin, aided by thermal and/or mechanical stress.