Fracture and Crack Propagation in FGM Materials: From Theory to Simulation

How does a material break when its nature changes with every millimeter?Functionally graded materials were born from a simple idea: to withstand both heat and impact, one should not layer a ceramic and a metal, but transition from one to the other without ever creating a boundary. Today, they are found in aerospace, dental implants, thermal barriers, and many other fields. But their strength is also their enigma: when a crack forms within them, it no longer follows a straight line. It hesitates, bifurcates, allows itself to be attracted by a hole, repelled by an inclusion, deviated by heat.This book shows how fracture mechanics, combined with finite element simulation, makes it possible to predict step by step the path of a crack in these new kinds of materials and to confront each prediction with experimental evidence. From theoretical foundations to algorithms, including the criteria governing bifurcation, it offers both the curious reader and the engineer comprehensive access to a domain where the reliability of tomorrow's structures is concretely at stake.