Strength of Materials

The strength of a material refers to the material''s ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. The applied stress may be tensile, compressive, or shear. A material''s strength is dependent on its microstructure. The engineering processes to which a material is subjected can alter this microstrucure. This book provides a variety of material strength research including an extensive overview on the state of the art ceramic composite material BIOLOX delta which, since 2001, has successfully implanted more than 500,000 artificial hip joints. Due to the unique strength and toughness of this material, the risk of fracture has been substantially reduced when compared to conventional ceramic materials. Several different aspects of ionomer research from a physical property standpoint is discussed as well, including the history and current trends in ionomer research and a discussion on the immediate needs in this field. Furthermore, particle modelling (PM) as an innovative particulate dynamics based modelling approach is examined as a robust tool for simulating fracture problems of solids under extreme loading conditions, including situations of collapse, impact, blasting or high strain rate tension/compression. This book includes research on the ability of particle modelling to correctly predict dynamic fragmentation of materials with good accuracy.