ES247: Fracture Mechanics, Fundamentals and Applications. 3rd Edition

The book I recommend for reading is Fracture mechanics: fundamentals and applications, by T.L.Anderson, 3rd edition, 2005. I first saw this book on the top list of reading materials of Brown U. When I have it I found so pleasent to read through it. Here is the short-list of its content

Chapter 1: Introduction: History and overview

Chapter 2:Fundamental concepts: linear elastic fracture mechanics

Chapter 3: Elastic-plastic mechanics

Chapter 4: Dynamic and time-dependent fracture

Chapter 5: Material behavior: Fracture mechanics in metals

Chapter 6: Fracture mechanics in nonmetals (engineering plastics, polymers, fiber-reinforced plastics, ceramics)

Chapter 7: Fracture toughness testing of metals

Chapter 8: Fracture testing of nonmetals.

Chapter 9: Applications to structures (Design)

Chapter 10: Fatigue crack propogation

Chapter 11: Environmetally assisted cracking in metals

Chapter 12: Computational fracture mechanics

 From the table, we can see it's really a rich book. This might be one reason it appeals a wide audience, and is adopted as the textbook in many universities. I particularly like this book in person as following

1. It contains a big volume of hand-drawing figures by the author, to clearly explain the concepts and wordings. (I appreciate this much since I found most difficult to draw a clear picture in my experience).

2. NO sophisticated mathematic development. Instead it put the necessary derivations in the appendix, so the readers will not be distracted (or scared) by tedious complex analysis. 

3. Great integral of material science and mechanics. A few sentences quoted from the preface "... I have attempt to integrate materials science and solid mechanics to a much greater extent compared to those in other fracture mechanics texts. Although continuum theory has proved to be a very powerful tool in fracture mechanics, one cannot ignore microstructural aspects. Continuum theory can predict the stresses and strains near a crack tip, but it is the material's microstructure that determines the critical conditions for fracture". 

4. This text is a fantastic complement to the course. I was surprized Zhigang does not have it yet, but this book essentially has the same contexts in the class.