I am pleased to report to you on the progress that ESIS is making. In mid September, the Executive Committee (ExCo) met in Berlin, hosted by Dietmar Klingbeil, the National Representative of Germany. In addition to a fine meeting, we enjoyed excellent German food and beer. The attendees included Jaroslav Pokluda and Stefano Beretta, the two vice-presidents, Guiseppe Ferro, the treasurer, James Marrow, the new secretary, Wolfgang Brocks, publications manager, Dietmar Klingbeil, liaison to other organizations, Robert Goldstein, chairman of ECF19 in Kazan, Zhiliang Zhang, chairman of ECF20 in Trondheim, and Antonio Martin-Meizoso, who attended as a guest.

Following my opening remarks welcoming the attendees, Robert Goldstein reported on progress regarding plans for ECF19 in Kazan, Russia. The main topics include: 

• fracture mechanics-current state; fracture processes under the action of physical fields and chemically active media; 
• evaluation of residual lifetime, risk and safety analysis; 
• fracture diagnostics and monitoring; 
• fracture mechanics and metrology of strength and fracture resistance characteristics of structural materials accounting for their multiscale structure (from nano- to macroscale); 
• fracture mechanics application in different fields of industry; 
• case histories; fracture mechanics in design and technology; 
• computational fracture mechanics; fracture mechanics of geomaterials and natural objects. 

A preliminary list of invited peakers includes Ellias Aifantis, Wolfgang Brocks, Alberto Carpinteri, Emmanuel Gdoutos, Bhushan Karihaloo, Georgy Karzov, Otmar Kolednik, Meinhard Kuna, Toshihiko Kuwabara, Antonio Martin-Meizoso, Boris Margolin, Steve McDaniels, Yukitaka Murakami, H.M. Nykyforchyn, Yury Petrov, Reinhard Pippan, Jaroslav Pokluda, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Robert Ritchie, Siegfried Schmauder, Dov Sherman, Andrey Shanyavskiy, Yu Shouwen and Jesus Toribio. Quite a number of special sessions are planned, as well as mini-symposia. There are direct international flights to Kazan, as well as 14 daily flights from Moscow. The conference will be held at the Korston Hotel and Mall. It should be noted that Russia requires entry visas from many countries. For EU countries, the procedure takes from 10 days to two weeks. For other countries, it may take up to five weeks. After registering for the conference, you will receive a letter of invitation from the conference chairman. So please take care of these details sufficiently early. We look forward to welcoming everyone at Kazan. Plans for ECF20 in Trondheim, Norway are also in progress. At the next Council meeting in Kazan, we will decide on the venue for ECF21. 

Plans for ECF20 in Trondheim, Norway are also in progress. At the next Council meeting in Kazan, we will decide on the venue for ECF21. Bids for that meeting are welcomed.

Last August, we signed a contract with Elsevier continuing our close relationship with them until the end of 2013. We hope that at that time the contract will be extended. The journals which are affiliated with ESIS include:

Engineering Fracture Mechanics (EFM), International Journal of Fatigue (IJFat) and Engineering Failure Analysis (EFA). I would like to encourage you to publish in these journals. In 2010, the following special issues were published: three from ECF17, Microstructurally Based Fracture Mechanics in EFM (77 (2) p. 183), EFA (17 (3) p. 595) and IJFat (32 (6) p. 871; and International Conference on Crack Paths 2009, in EFM (77 (11) p. 1617). In 2011, there are Meso-Mechanical Modelling of Fatigue and Fracture in EFM (78 (3) p. 451), Damage Tolerance of Railway Axles in EFM (78 (5) 713) and ICMFF Multiaxial Fracture in EFM (78 (8) p.1515); ICMFF Multiaxial Fatigue Models in IJFat (33 (8), p. 929). Please peruse them if they are in your area of interest.

I am also pleased to mention our blog in which Wolfgang Brocks reviews different papers from Engineering Fracture Mechanics. This information may be found through our web site at  www.structuralintegrity.eu or from the direct link www.imechanica.org/blog/23810 Wolfgang has reviewed three papers and we have had over 3,600 people look at the reviews. I would like to encourage you to read these interesting pieces and respond.

In 2010, ESIS had over 500 members. You can now register to be a member of ESIS online. There are three possibilities: individual, corporate and through your national organization. Please renew your ESIS membership soon for 2011.

Another important aspect of ESIS is our Technical Committees. These include: TC-1: Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics; TC-2: Micromechanisms; TC-3: Fatigue of Engineering Materials and Structures with a Sub-Committee on Multiaxial Fatigue; TC-4: Polymers and Polymer Composites; TC 5: Fracture Dynamics; TC 6: Ceramics; TC 8: Numerical Methods; TC 9: Concrete; TC 10: Environmental Assisted Cracking; TC 11: High Temperature Mechanical Testing; TC 12: Probabilistic Interpretation of Mechanical Property Data; TC 24: Integrity of Railway Structures. There are many interesting activities and meetings taking place within the TCs. Many of our special technical publications are a result of TC activities. I would like to encourage all of you to look at our web site and join a TC which is close to your area of expertise. If you are interested in starting a new TC, please contact me and we will try to arrange it with the necessary approval.

As our liaison representative, Dietmar Klingbeil is organizing various activities together with ASTM. One of them is our presence at the Workshop on Verification and Validation of Solid Mechanics and Life Prediction Software, May 9, 2012, Phoenix, AZ. Please contact Dietmar for details.

Antonio Martin-Meizoso and Liviu Marsavina have agreed to work with us to raise money for ESIS. One of the ideas is for the TCs to obtain support from COST. Antonio made a presentation at the ExCo meeting in Berlin. He and Liviu will extend these ideas and present them to interested people at a special meeting in Kazan.

Finally, I want to encourage you all to come to Kazan to present your research results at ECF19. Kazan is a vibrant city that is growing with a tremendous investment by the Russian government, and is a leading science center of the Russian Academy of Science.

 

Prof Leslie Banks-Sills
ESIS President