Designing vehicles, machines and other mechanical structures so they are safe and reliable requires a guarantee that failure will not occur. Engineers should understand the mechanical behaviour of materials including the mechanisms underlying different types of failures such as fracture and fatigue. The book opens with a survey of different phenomena and mechanisms that may damage or destroy a structure and then moves on to linear elastic fracture mechanics. Stress analysis, fracture criteria, energy considerations and the like are also examined. Also, various fatigue phenomena are discussed in detail. The text concludes with fatigue under multi-axial loading. This is an excellent overview for mechanical engineering students and professionals on failure mechanisms that may occur in mechanical systems. Both theoretical explanations and worked examples as well as end of chapter exercises problems offer solid reinforcement for this critical topic.