Probabilistic Mechanics of Quasibrittle Structures

Zdenek P. Bazant received his PhD from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1963.He joined Northwestern University, Illinois in 1969, where he has been W. P. Murphy Professor since 1990 and simultaneously McCormick Institute Professor since 2002, and Director of the Center for Geomaterials (1981-7). He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of London, as well as the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic, the Italian National Academy, the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering, the Istituto Lombardo, Milan, the Academia Europaea, London, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Bazant is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Concrete Institute, and RILEM (International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures), Paris. He has received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class, 7 honorary doctorates, ASME Timoshenko, Nadai and Warner Medals, the ASCE von Karman, Newmark, Biot, Mindlin and Croes Medals and Lifetime Achievement Award, the Society of Engineering Science William Prager Medal, and the RILEM L'Hermite Medal, among others. He is the author of Scaling of Structural Strength (2002), Inelastic Analysis of Structures (with Milan Zirásek, 2001), Fracture and Size Effect in Concrete and Other Quasibrittle Materials (with Jaime Planas, 1997), Stability of Structures (with Luigi Cedolin, 2010) and Concrete at High Temperatures (with Maurice F. Kaplan, 1996). In 2015, ASCE established ZP Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention. He is one of the original top 100 ISI Highly Cited Scientists in Engineering (www.ISIhighlycited.com). Jia-Liang Le is currently Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He obtained his Bachelor (First Class Honors) in civil engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2003, a Master of Engineering from NUS in 2005, and a PhD in structural mechanics from Northwestern University, Illinois in 2010. He received the Undergraduate Faculty Award from the University of Minnesota, the Best Paper Award of the 48th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium, and the 2015 Young Investigator Award from the US Army Research Office. His research interests include fracture mechanics, probabilistic mechanics, scaling, and structural reliability. He has authored three book chapters and more than forty refereed journal articles.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Review of classical statistical theory of structural strength and structural safety, and of classical fundamentals; 3. Review of fracture mechanics and deterministic size effect in quasibrittle structures; 4. Failure statistics of nanoscale structures; 5. Nano-macro scale bridging of probability distributions of static and fatigue strengths; 6. Multiscale modeling of fracture kinetics and size effect under static and cyclic fatigue; 7. Size effect on probability distributions of strength and lifetime of quasibrittle structures; 8. Computation of probability distributions of structural strength and lifetime; 9. Indirect determination of strength statistics of quasibrittle structures; 10. Statistical distribution and size effect on residual strength after sustained load; 11. Size effect on reliability indices and safety factors; 12. Crack length effect on scaling of structural strength and type 1 to 2 transition; 13. Effect of stress singularities on scaling of structural strength; 14. Lifetime of high-k gate dielectrics and its analogy with failure statistics of quasibrittle structures.

'This new book provides a welcome addition to the very sparse collection of contemporary books that genuinely move the field of mechanics and materials forward. It does so by major steps of progress and consolidation, not just by incremental change. And its beneficial effects are not limited to mechanics and materials. … Virtually all work is supported by experimental verification. There is an unusually large, detailed and illuminating summary of past work and references. Much of it is from the senior author's voluminous and well received contributions to the research literature. As is evident, this is a research oriented book. It is not for beginners. But for those interested in the topic and determined to diligently pursue it, then this book will prove to be an invaluable and indispensable resource. The authors seem to have been committed to work on some of the very hardest problems in existence and their progress is nothing short of remarkable.' Richard M. Christensen, Meccanica