Preface
This book is an outgrowth of my research in the broad field of fracture mechanics over a period of twenty years, the past fifteen years of which I have spent focusing on a subbranch of the discipline—that is, fracture mechanics of concrete. My late decision to focus on this field of study was motivated by two factors, namely, a surging demand for crack analysis in structural concrete and a keen personal interest in the subject. Compared with other mature engineering disciplines, fracture mechanics of concrete is still a developing field that is wonderfully rich in scope and diversity and full of challenging issues to be studied.
In recent years a wide range of models and applications have been proposed for crack analysis, and an impressive ...