Atomistics of Fracture

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Introductory Lectures

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. General Overview: Atomistics of Environmentally-Induced Fracture

      • R. M. Latanision

      Pages 3-38

   3. General Overview: Atomistics of Surface Reactions

      • T. E. Fischer

      Pages 39-64

   4. Fracture -- Applying the Breaks

      • A. R. C. Westwood, J. R. Pickens

      Pages 65-91

3. Tutorial Lectures on Fracture of Materials

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

      PDF

   2. The Ideal Strength of Solids

      • N. H. Macmillan

      Pages 95-165

   3. Physics of Fracture

      • Robb Thomson

      Pages 167-207

   4. Mechanics of Fracture

      • J. F. Knott

      Pages 209-240

   5. Fractography

      • Regis M. N. Pelloux

      Pages 241-251

4. Tutorial Lectures on Surface Reactivity and Bonding

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 253-253

      PDF

   2. Molecular Orbitals and the Atomistics of Fracture

      • M. E. Eberhart, K. H. Johnson, R. P. Messmer, C. L. Briant

      Pages 255-280

   3. Cohesion and Decohesion in the Metallic Bond

      • D. G. Pettifor

      Pages 281-307

   4. Theory of Chemisorption on Transition Metals in Relation with Heterogenous Catalysis

      • F. Cyrot-Lackmann

      Pages 309-335

   5. Relations between Fracture and Coordination Chemistry

      • George M. Whitesides

      Pages 337-362

   6. Hydrogen Adsorption on Metal Surfaces

      • Klaus Christmann

      Pages 363-389

   7. Adsorption on Metal Surfaces: Some Key Issues

      • J. W. Gadzuk

      Pages 391-420

   8. Interactions between Adsorbed Species and Strained Crystals

      • E. D. Shchukin

      Pages 421-423

5. Tutorial Lectures on Interfaces

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 425-425

      PDF

   2. Nonequilibrium Surface and Interface Thermodynamics

      • John W. Cahn

      Pages 427-431

It is now more than 100 years since certain detrimental effects on the ductility of iron were first associated with the presence of hydrogen. Not only is hydrogen embrittlement still a major industri­ al problem, but it is safe to say that in a mechanistic sense we still do not know what hydrogen (but not nitrogen or oxygen, for example) does on an atomic scale to induce this degradation. The same applies to other examples of environmentally-induced fracture: what is it about the ubiquitous chloride ion that induces premature catastrophic fracture (stress corrosion cracking) of ordinarily ductile austenitic stainless steels? Why, moreover, are halide ions troublesome but the nitrate or sulfate anions not deleterious to such stainless steels? Likewise, why are some solid metals embrit­ tled catastrophically by same liquid metals (liquid metal embrit­ tlement) - copper and aluminum, for example, are embrittled by liquid mercury. In short, despite all that we may know about the materials science and mechanics of fracture on a macroscopic scale, we know little about the atomistics of fracture in the absence of environmental interactions and even less when embrittlement phe­ nomena such as those described above are involved. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that physical chemists and surface chemists also have interests in the same kinds of interactions that occur on an atomic scale when metals such as nickel or platinum are used, for example, as catalysts for chemical reactions.

• Potential
• chemistry
• dynamics
• mechanics
• surfaces
• thermodynamics

• Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

  R. M. Latanision

• Martin Marietta Laboratories, Baltimore, USA

  J. R. Pickens

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