PLASTIC-DEFORMATION AND FRACTURE OF SOLIDS AT THE MESOSCALE LEVEL

Physical mesomechanics treats a solid under loading as a multilevel sy stem where micro-, meso- and macrolevels are selfconsistent. The eleme nt base for the scale levels of plastic deformation of a solid is offe red which allows to describe any kind of plastic flow as a combination of definite elements of this element base. Special attention is paid to description of fragmentation of a solid under loading as the main m echanism of plastic flow at the mesolevel. Fracture is the final stage of solid fragmentation when its scale changes from meso- to macroleve l. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.