Book excerpt: All the answers you need to understand, diagnose, and avoid composite material failures in a single guide. This book spotlights every aspect of fracture and failure in polymer, ceramic, and metal matrix materials, putting the latest data at your fingertips. From crack initiation to crack growth, from notch-size effect to damage-tolerant design, here is quality and safety assurance and support you can count on from international leaders in the field. You get: The latest testing and analysis procedures Detailed data on the complete range of causes of fractures and failures in a broad range of materials Engineering confidence levels and their determination Design criteria for materials and applications Specific case studies in aerospace, construction, and medical engineering More