Table of Contents

FRACTURE OF HOMOGENEOUS MATERIALS Defects and weak points in solids Predicting the propagation of cracks Fracture energy vs surface energy Predicting the trajectory of cracks Dissipative process and damage during fracture MICROSCOPIC MECHANISMS OF FAILURE OF MATERIALS The cleavage of crystals The "brittle" fracture of glass The plasticity of metals The crazing of polymers FRACTURE AND MICROSTRUCTURE The crack as a magnifying lens of material defects Brittle fracture as a depinning transition Interaction between crack, microstructure and damage: basic mechanisms Fracture and damage in heterogeneous materials: some theoretical approaches FRACTURE DYNAMICS: FROM VERY SLOW CRACK PROPAGATION TO DYNAMIC FRACTURE Subcritical crack growth Waves and cracks: the dynamic fracture mechanics Effect of material disorder: from the crackling noise in lab experiments to earthquakes CRACK SHAPES AND FRACTURE PATTERNS Instability and oscillation in the trajectory of cracks Heterogeneous materials: the roughness of cracks and fracture surfaces Fracture pattern in crack interaction problems INTERFACIAL CRACKS AND THIN FILM ADHESION: FROM THE GECKO TO THE ADHESIVE TAPE How sticking works Adhesive systems in nature Peeling dynamics: the stickslip instability Heterogeneous adhesives: new avenues to improve the stickiness of adhesives FROM FRACTURE TO FRAGMENTATION Networks of cracks and fracture of thin plates The fragmentation of solids

About the Author

Elisabeth Bouchaud is a senior researcher at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). She obtained her academic degrees from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Paris XI University. She has done pioneering work in using concepts of statistical physics in fracture mechanics. She has received numerous scientific awards, among them the Onsanger Professorship and Medal in 2010. Laurent Ponson is a research associate at the Institut de Mecanique d'Alembert at the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He obtained his academic degrees from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Ecole Polytechnique in condensed matter physics. He worked as a post-doctoral scholar in the mechanics department of the California Institute of Technology before joining the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He has brought several experimental and theoretical arguments showing that material failure could be interpreted as a depinning transition, concept issued from the statistical physics of disordered systems.