11R4. Advances in Dynamics and Impact Mechanics. - Edited by CA Brebbia (Wessex Inst of Tech, UK) and GN Nurick (Univ of Cape Town, S Africa). WIT Press, Southampton, UK. Distributed in USA by Comput Mech, Billerica MA. 2003. 293 pp. ISBN 1-85312-928-3. $165.00.
Reviewed by AE Bogdanovich (3TEX Inc, 109 MacKenan Dr, Cary NC 27511).
This collection of eleven papers written by different authors from Bulgaria, India, Poland, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, United Kingdom, Norway, Japan, and Hong Kong is unified by the topics of advanced dynamic modeling, analysis, and experimental characterization of metallic, composite, and concrete structures. The book can be of significant interest for researchers, engineers, and graduate-level students who work in the areas of structural dynamics, computational mechanics, solid mechanics, finite element analysis, crashworthiness, impact, stress wave propagation, dynamic buckling, failure and damage analysis, and experimental dynamics. Specialists in composite materials, reinforced concrete, and sandwich structures can also find useful information in some chapters of the book.
Specific topics addressed in the book include:
Dynamic elastic-plastic buckling of metal tubes having circular and square cross-sections.
Axisymmetric plastic deformation and buckling of cylindrical metal tubes.
Crushing analysis of ship structures.
Crushing under impact of composite sandwich structures with unconventional (corrugated and tubular) cores.
Dynamic crashworthiness analysis of multi-body systems.
Progressive collapse simulation of polymeric composite sandwich beams.
Dynamic analysis of square plates under blast loading.
Ballistic penetration and perforation of relatively thick steel plates.
Dynamic analysis of large-scale civil engineering structures under low-velocity impact.
Dynamic deformation and failure analysis of a free-flying beam hit by a deformable projectile.
Deformation and failure analysis of prestressed concrete beams under impact loading.
Importantly, the presented analytical and numerical studies are supported, in most of the book chapters, by appropriate experimental work, which is primarily aimed at verification and validation of the obtained numerical results. At the same time, many of the presented experimental results are of substantial independent interest.
Among the most popular analysis tools implemented in many chapters of this book are commercial codes LS-DYNA and ABAQUS (explicit and implicit). Some of the authors used MSC. Dytran, specialized code DAMAGE and other specialty analysis programs. It is worth emphasizing that the performed finite element analysis studies addressed mainly complex, two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems. A lot of attention is paid in the book to the development and implementation of advanced material models and evaluation of their adequacy to the actual dynamic behavior of metals and other materials of interest. Numerical results, experimental data, and their mutual comparison provide valuable information for practical applications and future research studies. The quality of illustrations and tables is good, overall.
Along with insightful studies of specific theoretical and experimental problems, the book provides an excellent overview of recent accomplishments in structural dynamics and impact mechanics. Part of the book’s present results has already been published in journal articles and conference papers, while another part contains previously unpublished information. In either case, collecting under one cover eleven high-quality articles devoted to a number of modern, complex, and practically important structural dynamics problems was a worthwhile idea realized into a very useful book.
One significant deficiency of Advances in Dynamics and Impact Mechanics is that it does not have a subject or author index. Also, a unified summary of the presented research efforts and some recommendations for future research, written by the book editors, would give a better conclusion of the book.
Without reservation this reviewer recommends that this book should be purchased by libraries and also by those individuals whose work and/or education is related to theoretical and experimental studies of various engineering materials and structures exposed to impact and other types of dynamic loading.
