9522730 Rashid This project is to study the formation of new free surfaces in solid continua. Examples of such surfaces occur in fracture and fatigue, in material removal processes in manufacturing and in tearing of thin sheets. A new theoretical construct is proposed for study which seeks to overcome a weakness in classical fracture mechanics. An "exclusion region" is proposed inside which no conventional material response model applies. The conditions for the advancement of the separation front is flexible in form and ideas on behavior at the microscopic level attending rupture are naturally represented. ***
