Electronic Basis of the Strength of Materials

This book relates the complete set of strength characteristics of constituent atoms to their electronic structures. These relationships require knowledge of both the chemistry and physics of materials. The book uses both classical and quantum mechanics, since both are needed to describe these properties, and begins with short reviews of each. Following these reviews, the three major branches of the strength of materials are given their own sections. They are: the elastic stiffnesses; the plastic responses; and the nature of fracture. This work will be of great value to academic and industrial research workers in the sciences of metallurgy, ceramics, microelectronics, and polymers. It will also serve well as a supplementary text for the teaching of solid mechanics. Most, if not all materials scientists/engineers engaged in research are familiar with J.J. Gilman. After all, he is the co-author (with W. G. Johnston) of the classic paper on dislocation dynamics, a requisite building block of dislocation theory. We are also familiar with his work at Allied, where he led a pioneering R&D effort that took metallic glasses from a laboratory curiosity to a viable technology (currently successfully industrialized in Japan). These two contributions alone would suffice to put him in the pantheon of materials. However, Gilman’s restless and innovative mind has probed into many other areas, and the literature contains a cornucopia of creative contributions, ranging from kinking to dislocation multiplication mechanisms to deformation mechanisms in metallic glasses to detonation mechanisms in explosives. He also conined the term 'inventivity'. It is a measure of creativity, as it applies to viable technologies. It is indeed a pleasant surprise to review the latest creative work of Gilman: Electronic Basis of the Strength of Materials. Descartes, in the 17th century (Discours de la Méthode), separated and emphasized two aspects of research: analysis and synthesis. The second should periodically follow the first, if one is to gain a profound, unified understanding of a field. This book is a remarkable expression of synthesis and represents an impressive accomplishment. It connects bonding with elasticity, plasticity, and fracture of materials. It does this at a level that can be comfortably assimilated by a graduate student, avoiding unnecessary esoteric convolutions of theory and explaining basic facts that are avoided in other textbooks. The book is well suited for a graduate text, and indeed students will gain a new insight into the mechanical response of materials. As Gilman states in the foreword, this book is the first to relate the complete set of strength characteristics to the electronic structure. This part is completely ignored in continuum mechanics, where the properties are elusive and mysterious parameters that are mathematically operated on. Atoms are not even mentioned. In the conventional mechanical behavior of materials treatments, atoms form the foundation for the mechanisms. Gilman takes us one step further in the dimensional scale: electrons are the starting point. He uses Heisenberg’s Principle and the principle of polarizability as cornerstones of his vision. From there, he obtains bulk and shear moduli (in elastic deformation) and explains key aspects of plastic deformation, strength, and fracture. Throughout the book, historical aspects of importance are interjected, helping the reader to understand the flow of ideas and seminal developments. Book Review I Applied Rheology Vol.14/6.qxd 27.12. 2004 8:36 Uhr Seite 328