Review by Professor Jongschaap
Arthur S. Lodge     |     home
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Review 2
The present book..... is not just another textbook on molecular network theory of elastomer elasticity but quite exceptional and remarkable.  It covers in a complete and self contained fashion not only the main subject but also the underlying tools-vector and tensor analysis, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics - and it achieves this formidable task in just about 150 pages without any concessions to high standards of rigor and completeness.

.....Chapters 3 and 4 on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are..... remarkable in the sense that the fundamentals of these disciplines are not just summarized, but really derived from first principles.  In that sense the book also provides a nice and concise introduction to these fields.

.....Chapters 5 and 6 finally cover the main subject of the book.  This starts with a discussion of statistical mechanics of rubber-like network based upon the theory of James and Guth.  First, seven basic assumptions of the theory are stated explicitly, then in a few well defined stages expressions for the configuration integral and the free energy of the network are derived.  In Chap. 6, the results are applied to elastomers for which constitutive equations are derived and particular properties are discussed with special attention to characteristic and unusual behavior in large elastic recovery.....

....In conclusion I can say that, because of its scientific content and brilliant style, the book can be highly recommended not only to the intended audience of students in theoretical chemistry, physics, material science, or engineering but also to professional scientists in these fields.


R. J. J. Jongschaap
Twente University of Technology
P.O.Box 217
Enschede 7500
The Netherlands
r.j.j.jongschaap@tn.utwente.nl