"Not only does this book give you comprehensive information on experimental techniques, it also gives you the fundamentals of elasticity that are necessary. This is important because even before you measure stresses or strains, you need to know what they are likely to be (normal, shear,+/- etc). Apart from this, it is the best reference for photoelastic and optical methods of stress analysis. Excellent and a must have for any one interested in mechanics. Falls in the category of Timoshenko's and Cook's books for quality and usefulness." This favorable review convinced us to maintain the availability of the book, and to revise the text and publish a fourth edition in the near future. It also convinced us to publish the reprinted version of the 3rd edition in paperback and to markedly lower the cost of the textbook.

Part I Elementary Elasticity and Fracture Mechanics

Chapter 1 Stress
Chapter 2 Strain and the Stress-Strain Relationships
Chapter 3 Basic Equations and Plane-Elasticity Theory
Chapter 4 Elementary Fracture Mechanics

Part II Strain-Measurement Methods and Related Instrumentation

Chapter 5 Introduction to Strain Measurements
Chapter 6 Electrical Resistance Strain Gages
Chapter 7 Strain Gage Circuits
Chapter 8 Recording Instruments
Chapter 9 Strain Analysis Methods

Part III Optical Methods of Stress Analysis

Chapter 10 Basic Optics
Chapter 11 Moiré Methods
Chapter 12 Theory of Photoelasticity
Chapter 13 Applied Photoelasticity: Two- and Three-Dimensional Stress Analysis
Chapter 14 Optical Methods for Determining Fracture Parameters

Part IV Coating Methods

Chapter 15 Coating Methods: Photoelastic Coatings and Brittle Coatings

Part V Applications of Statistics

Chapter 16 Statistical Analysis of Experimental Data
Index