DAMAGE AND FRACTURE OF HETEROGENEOUS MATERIALS:

The efficiency of many technological processes, particularly, in mining and civil engineering, depends essentially on the damage and fracture processes in tool and work materials (rocks), which are typically very heterogeneous. Damage and fracture of heterogeneous non-plastic materials are very complex processes, and are influenced by many nonlinear and random factors at both macro- and microlevel.
In this book the general problems related to destruction of heterogeneous materials are examined, and physical mechanisms of destruction, traditional and advanced methods of damage and fracture modelling and the practical application of models of material destruction on the improvement of drilling efficiency are detailed.
This book is designed for specialists, working in the areas of strength of materials and mining technology, scientists, professionals and graduate students. The following subjects are considered:

• Physical mechanisms of the destruction of highly heterogeneous materials,
• Advanced methods of mathematical modelling of damage and fracture in heterogeneous materials; fractal models, stochastic methods, fuzzy sets, entropy and information: description of methods, state-of-art reviews and applications,
• Fractal crack growth and damage evolution near the crack tip; determination of the fractal dimension of fracture surface,
• Damage localization and heterogenization of damaged materials: stochastic and fuzzy approaches,
• Sintering and service properties of tools from sintered composites,
• Interface in sintered composites: fractality and effect on the strength,
• Dynamical system theory in modelling of composite tool wear,
• Cutting and drilling: mechanisms of fracture, cutting forces and energy consumption, and ways to improve the efficiency,
• Improvement and design of complex tool: general approach and practical recommendations