Mécanique des grandes transformations / Paul Rougée

Bibliogr. p. [397]-402. Index

This book presents a paradox: its clearly announced purpose is to clarify matters in a field of knowledge that is sometimes marked by confusion and inaccuracies, but it does so in a format and language that are not suitable to many students and researchers in the field, so that, in some sense, it condemns itself to a restricted lectureship. Furthermore, while the subject of finite deformations (contrary to the author, we use the standard vocabulary) is amongst those of interest to scientists studying single-crystal physics, engineers interested in metal forming, and rheologists, the methods and vocabulary used in the exposition are foreign to most of these readers, and this will create an additional difficulty. The reason for that is not so much the geometrical background to whom many applied scientists have become used to in the last decades, but rather is – in our opinion – the unnecessary use of many abbreviations, metaphors, and neologisms (with a more or less English structure, not supported by correctly written French). The general tune of the book is that the author, who claims to have understood better than others, will explain to us what we “clearly” cannot grasp without his aid. This tune is rather unpleasant and is not always appropriate for the presentation which has its own shortcomings and is not as transparent as the author wants us to believe. ... (Zentralblatt)