Summary

The focus of this book is on load-bearing materials. Taken literally, this would first include virtually every solid material. A coat of paint, for example, is both protective and aesthetic, but it can also carry loads when things impinge on it or when its substrate is strained. Secondly, liquids and gases such as the fluid in a shock absorber, or the air in a car tyre, are also load bearing. The text however, confines itself primarily to solid materials and their use in applications whose principal purpose is to carry loads, such as the materials in bridge building.