Most materials used in contemporary life and industry areheterogeneous (composites) and multicomponent, possessing a rich andcomplex internal structure. This internal structure, ormicrostructure,plays a key role in understanding and controlling the continuumbehavior, or macroscopic, of a wide variety of materials. The modelingprocess is a critical tool for scientists and engineers studying theanalysis and experimentation for the micromechanics and behavior ofthese materials."Heterogeneous Media" is a critical, in-depth edited survey of themajor topics surrounding the modeling and analysis of problems inmicromechanics of multicomponent systems, including conceptual andpractical aspects. The goal of this extensive and comprehensive surveyis to provide both specialists and nonspecialists with anauthoritative and interdisciplinary perspective of current ideas andmethods used for modeling heterogeneous materials behavior and theirapplications.Topics and Features:* all chapters use interdisciplinary modeling perspective forinvestigating heterogeneous media*Five chapters provide self-containeddiscussions, with background provided*Focuses only upon most importanttechniques and models, fully exploring micro-macrointerconnections*extensive introductory survey chapter onmicromechanics of heterogeneous media*microstructure characterizationvia statistical correlation functions*micro-scale deformation of porespace*wave fields and effective dynamical properties*modeling of thecomplex production technologies for composite materialsThe book is ideal for a general scientific and engineering audienceneeding an in-depth view and guide to current ideas, methods and