Mechanical Properties of Porous Solids

Discovering accurate relations between microstructureand elastic properties of porous/microcracked solidsalways was a challenging task in material science. In the book these relations are investigated on anexample of sintered hydroxyapatite and Fontainebleausandstone. It is shown that isolated pores ofirregular shapes may be approximated, with goodaccuracy, by the spheroidal ones. Several commonlyused approximate schemes are applied to predicteffective Young's and shear moduli of a material withspheroidal pores. The microstructural information(average shapes of pores) required for adequatemodeling of the isotropic elastic properties isidentified; if this information is utilized, theusual effective media schemes provide satisfactorypredictions of the effective elastic properties. Anattempt was made to recover the information aboutevolution of microstructure from the experimentallymeasured elastic moduli.The book addresses researchers, graduate andpostgraduate students, as well as engineers, in thefields of micromechanics of solids and materials science. MS in Electric Power Engineering, St. Petersburg StatePolytechnic University (Russia);PhD in Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University (USA);Project Engineer at Nations Petroleum USA Ltd., California.