Glass: Mechanics and Technology (2nd edition)

Book Preface

It has been seven years since this book was published in October 2007. On revising the original edition, I have benefitted from the first edition as a textbook, from comments from colleagues, students and readers. In this period, a lot of new material has been published; this second edition of Glass adds these results of new research and research and development in the field. A new International Journal of Applied Glass Science has been launched to provide further “source of information dealing with the application of glass science and engineering across the entire material spectrum” (Fuller and Steen, Int. J. Appl. Glass Sci. 1, 1 [2010]). In fact, the mechanics of glass attracts much interest both from academia and industry and further emphasizes the focus of the present project (see also the Preface of first edition and Introduction). Much insight has been gained meanwhile on the relationship between mechanical response and structure in terms of Poisson ratio, fragility and network connectivity (see Chapters 5 to 7 and Appendix I) as well as on the brittle nature of glass fracture (Chapter 7). The development of smartphones, tablet PCs and televisions with touch screen technology shows how important are the design and resistance of thin flexible glass. From 2010, several companies have been developing chemically strengthened thin aluminosilicate glasses for these applications (see Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 12). There has also been interest in elevated temperature response (contact resistance and thin-film stress evolution; see Chapters 8 and 12 and Appendix L) as it is of utmost importance in the processing of functionalized glass articles (Chapters 10 and 12). Further historical perspectives are proposed (Chapter 3) and help getting insights into the industrial steps. For the preparation of this second edition, I should like to acknowledge again support from Wiley VCH, in particular, R. Weber and L. Fenske.

This book is dedicated to my wife, sons and parents.

Futuroscope-Chasseneuil Eric Le Bourhis
August 2014
XV