Introduction and Scope

As in any textbook dealing with the response (namely mechanical) behavior of materials—here assumed far from rupture conditions—one starts in Chap. 2 by recalling the classical concepts of instantaneous elasticInstantaneous elastic, delayed elasticDelayed elastic and viscousViscous responses, as resulting from the absence or presence, to varying degrees, of time dependencyTime dependency, whose practical realizations may be found in very rigid solids (like common glass, ceramics and many metals at sufficiently low temperatures and stresses, well below yield or rupture), most polymers (both solid and as melts), and many liquids at room temperatureTemperature, respectively. Then the text specifies the general contents of every chapter of the book and the breath of the analyses presented.