For a brief period during the latter part of World War II, N. F. Mott, then professor of physics at the University of Bristol, later knighted and a Nobel laureate, undertook the theoretical description of the statistical fragmentation of bodies subjected to intense impulsive loads. Some of his most innovative ideas on the micromechanical and molecular aspects of fracture are included in his subsequent publications. But it is Motts original publications where the seminal theoretical concepts from which numerous later modeling efforts and engineering formulae emerged. Mott's presentation is...

For a brief period during the latter part of World War II, Nevill F. Mott led a theoretical group at Fort Halstead in the United Kingdom that tackled scientific issues related to pressing war-time concerns. Among later awards and honors, Mott was knighted and a recipient of the Nobel Prize. While at Fort Halstead, he undertook an effort to theoretically describe the statistical fragmentation of munitions subjected to intense explosive loading. Mott's original internal reports contain seminal theoretical concepts on the physics and statistics of dynamic fracture and fragmentation, which have...