Quasibrittle (or brittle heterogeneous) materials are becoming increasingly important for modern engineering. They include concretes, rocks, fiber composites, tough ceramics, sea ice, bone, wood, stiff soils, rigid foams, glass, dental and biomaterials, as well as all brittle materials on the micro or nano scale. Their salient feature is that the fracture process zone size is non-negligible compared to the structural dimensions. This causes intricate energetic and statistical size effects and leads to size-dependent probability distribution of strength, transitional between Gaussian and Weibullian. The ensuing difficult challenges for safe design are vanquished in this book, which features a rigorous theory with detailed derivations yet no superfluous mathematical sophistication; extensive experimental verifications; and realistic approximations for design. A wide range of subjects is covered, including probabilistic fracture kinetics at nanoscale, multiscale transition, statistics of structural strength and lifetime, size effect, reliability indices, safety factors, and ramification to gate dielectrics breakdown.

Many modern engineering structures are composed of brittle heterogenous, or quasibrittle, materials. These include concrete, composites, tough ceramics, rocks, cold asphalt mixtures, and many brittle materials at the microscale. Understanding the failure behavior of these materials is of paramount importance for improving the resilience and sustainability of various engineering structures including civil infrastructure, aircraft, ships, military armors, and microelectronic devices. Designed for graduate and upper-level undergraduate university courses, this textbook provides a comprehensive treatment of quasibrittle fracture mechanics. It includes a concise but rigorous examination of linear elastic fracture mechanics, which is the foundation of all fracture mechanics. It also covers the fundamental concepts of nonlinear fracture mechanics, and introduces more advanced concepts such as triaxial stress state in the fracture process zone, nonlocal continuum models, and discrete computational models. Finally, the book features extensive discussion of the various practical applications of quasibrittle fracture mechanics across different structures and engineering disciplines, and throughout includes exercises and problems for students to test their understanding.