Introduction

Abstract

The ever-increasing industrial demand for more sophisticated machine components — in the sense of both materials and applications — calls for a considerable degree of ingenuity on the part of the designer and can easily stretch his resources to almost the limit. This demand can be fulfilled only if there is a thorough understanding of a material’s properties, and therefore of its capability, combined with a high degree of expertise in using the theoretical approach. This, in turn, calls not only for actual knowledge of the subject under consideration but also, and most importantly, for considerable versatility of mind to allow exploration of the existing possible methods of solution and, eventually, selection of the best.