ABSTRACT
It is necessary to have a good knowledge of the fundamentals of continuum mechanics and the theory of elasticity to understand fracture mechanics. This chapter is written with this in mind. The first part of the chapter (section 1.2) is devoted to the derivation of the basic equations of elasticity; in the second part (section 1.3), these basic equations are used to solve some classical boundary value problems of the theory of elasticity. It is very important to comprehend the first chapter fully before trying to understand the rest of the book.
