EURODYMAT 1994

EURODYMAT 1994
4th International Conference on Mechanical and Behaviour of Materials under Dynamic Loading
J. Phys.  IV France  – Vol. 04 - C8
Oxford, United Kingdom - September 26-30, 1994


This is the first International Conference to be organised by the DYMAT Association since it became a fully European Association following the changes to its Statutes at the 1991 General Assembly. It is particularly appropriate, therefore, that this conference should be held at Oxford, emphasising as it does the bringing together of the two previous series of major international conferences in Europe on the theme of the Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Materials - the DYMAT Conferences, on Mechanical and Physical Behaviour of Materials under Dynamic Loading, held in 1985, 1988 and 1991, and the Oxford Conferences, on Mechanical Properties of Materials at High Rates of Strain, held in 1974, 1979, 1984 and 1989.

In bringing together these two series of Conferences some changes have had to be made to each of them. In the Oxford tradition four leading experts in the field of Dynamic Properties of Materials have been invited to open the four major sections of the Conference and all contributed papers submitted for publication in the Proceedings have been refereed. This has required a considerable effort on the part of many referees, to whom we are very gratefUl, but it should ensure that Proceedings will be of a very high quality. It also entailed very much more work than I had anticipated in my own office and I must acknowledge the invaluable support I have received from Muriel Ranivoalison, not oniy for her secretarial skills but also for her abillties as a native French speaker.

To conform with the DYMAT tradition the length and timing of the Conference has been changed, from 3 days at Easter, typical of the Oxford Conference, to 5 days in the autumn, the practice of previous DYMAT Conference. It had also been intended to maintain the DYMAT tradition of producing the Proceedings for delegates to receive at the start of the Conference. However the increase in the length of the Conference compared with the previous Oxford series and the corresponding increase in the number of papers that could be accepted meant the work of refereeing was almost doubled. Consequently it proved impossible to meet the required deadlines for publlshing by the date of the Conference so this book of Abstracts is all that will be available during the Conference. The present plan is to publish the Proceedings by the end of November and, with the refereeing procedure now almost completed (this is being written in mid-August), we are well on schedule to meet this date.

A striking feature of this Conference compared with all those which preceded it has been the considerable interest shown by delegates from Eastern Europe and, in particular, from the various States of the previous USSR. I have read many interesting manuscripts submitted from these countries and we hope very much that they will be able to send a good number of delegates to present these papers. Their presence can only expand and improve on the opportunities that the Conference will provide for scientists, engineers and industrialists working on problems associated with the dynamic loading of materials to exchange information and share experiences both in relation to the overall macroscopic response of materials and in relation to the microscopic mechanisms which control this behaviour.

We look forward with confidence to EURODYMAT 94 in the hope that it will break new ground in our chosen field of interest and be of the greatest benefit to all those who participate.