This book consists of a collection of lectures prepared for a short course on "Fracture Mechanics Methodology" sponsored by the Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD), part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The course was organized jointly by Professor George C. Sih of the Institute of Fracture and Solid Mechanics at Lehigh University in the United States and Professor Luciano Faria from Centro de Mecanica e de Materiais das Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal. It was held in Lisbon from June 1 to 4, 1981. Dr. Robert Badaliance from the McDonnell Aircraft Company in St. Louis and Dr. Oscar Orringer from the Depart- ment of Transportation in Cambridge are the other US lecturers while Professor Carlos Moura Branco from Portugal also lectured. The audience consisted of engineers from the Portuguese industry with a large portion from the aeronautical sector and others who are particularly interested to apply the fracture mechanics discipline for analyzing the integrity of structural components and fracture control methods. Particular. emphases were given to the fundamentals of fracture mechanics as applied to aircraft structures.
