|
|
Exploring traditional, innovative, and revolutionary issues in the minerals,
metals, and materials fields. |
VISIT THE
JOM COVER GALLERY
JOM HOME PAGE
TABLES OF CONTENTS
HTML-ENHANCED ARTICLES
MATERIAL MATTERS
MATERIALS RESOURCE
CENTER
JOM TECHNICAL DIRECTORY
TMS WEBCAST HOME
PROFESSIONAL PREFACE
SUBJECT INDEXES
TECHNICAL EMPHASIS
CALENDAR
AUTHOR'S KIT
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM
BOOK REVIEWS
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
RESERVE A CLASSIFIED
SUBSCRIPTIONS
SINGLE ISSUE PURCHASES
LETTER TO EDITOR
|
|
05/6/2004 -
Electronic Basis of the Strength of Materials (2003)
by John Gilman
ISBN 0-521-62005-8. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 2003. Hardcover. 290 pages. $95.
Most, if not all materials scientists/engineers engaged in research are familiar with Prof. 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, Prof. 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 coined the term “Inventivity.” It is a measure of creativity, as it applies to viable technologies. This reviewer has also spent a considerable number of hours reading a book entitled Micromechanics of Flow in Solids (McGraw Hill, unfortunately out of print).
It is indeed a pleasant surprise to review the latest creative work of Professor 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. Prof. 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.
We welcome this significant addition to the materials library and applaud Prof. Gilman for his erudite and helpful contribution.
|
| | The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society's JOM Book Review Program pages are
maintained with News Update 1.1 |
|
|
