"Symposium Transsonicum" was founded by Klaus Oswatitsch four decades ago when there was clearly a need for a systematic treatment of flow problems in the higher speed regime in aeronautics. The first conference in 1962 brought together scientists concerned with fundamental problems involving the sonic flow speed regime. Results of the conference provided an understanding of some basic tran sonic phenomena by proposing mathematical methods that allowed for the de velopment of practical calculations. The "Transonic Controversy" (about shock free flows) was still an open issue after this meeting. In 1975 the second symposium was held, by then there was much understanding in how to avoid shocks in a steady plane flow to be designed, but still very little was known in unsteady phenomena due to a lack of elucidating experiments. A third meeting in 1988 reflected the availability oflarger computers which allowed the numerical analysis of flows with shocks to a reasonable accuracy. Because we are trying to keep Oswatitsch's heritage in science alive especially in Gottingen, we were asked by the aerospace research community to organize another symposium. Much had been achieved already in the knowledge, techno logy and applications in transonics, so IUT AM had to be convinced that a fourth meeting would not just be a reunion of old friends reminiscing some scientific past. The scientific committee greatly supported my efforts to invite scientists ac tively working in transonic problems which still pose substantial difficulties to ae rospace and turbomachinery industry.

This volume contains the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Elastohydrodynamics and Microelastohydrodynamics held in Cardiff from 1-3 September 2004. It contains 31 articles by leading researchers in the field. The symposium focused on theoretical, experimental and computational issues in elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) both in relation to smooth surfaces and in situations where the film is of the same order or thinner than the surface roughness (micro-EHL). The last IUTAM Symposium in this general area of contact of deformable bodies was in 1974. The emphasis in the Symposium was upon fundamental issues such as: solution methods; lubricant rheological models, thermal effects; both low and high elastic modulus situations; human and replacement joints; fluid traction; dynamic effects, asperity lubrication and the failure of lubrication; surface fatigue and thermal distress under EHL conditions. The book will be useful to those active in basic elastohydrodynamics research who wish to gain an up-to-date understanding of the subject from leading experts in the field.

This book collects peer-reviewed lectures of the IUTAM Symposium on the 100th anniversary of Boundary Layer research. No other reference of this calibre, on this topic, is likely to be published for the next decade. Covers classification, definition and mathematics of boundary layers; instability of boundary layers and transition; boundary layers control; turbulent boundary layers; numerical treatment and boundary layer modelling; special effects in boundary layers.

Integrating macroscopic properties with observations at lower levels, this book details advances in multiscale modelling and analysis pertaining to classes of composites which either have a wider range of relevant microstructural scales, such as metals, or do not have a very well-defined microstructure, e.g. cementitious or ceramic composites. The IUTAM symposia proceedings provide a platform for extensive further discussion and research.

This volume offers edited papers presented at the IUTAM-Symposium Topological design optimization of structures, machines and materials - status and perspectives, October 2005. The papers cover the application of topological design optimization to fluid-solid interaction problems, acoustics problems, and to problems in biomechanics, as well as to other multiphysics problems. Also in focus are new basic modelling paradigms, covering new geometry modelling such as level-set methods and topological derivatives.

The interest of the applied mechanics community in chaotic dynamics of engineering systems has exploded in the last fifteen years, although research activity on nonlinear dynamical problems in mechanics started well before the end of the Eighties. It developed first within the general context of the classical theory of nonlinear oscillations, or nonlinear vibrations, and of the relevant engineering applications. This was an extremely fertile field in terms of formulation of mechanical and mathematical models, of development of powerful analytical techniques, and of understanding of a number of basic nonlinear phenomena. At about the same time, meaningful theoretical results highlighting new solution methods and new or complex phenomena in the dynamics of deterministic systems were obtained within dynamical systems theory by means of sophisticated geometrical and computational techniques. In recent years, careful experimental studies have been made to establish the actual occurrence and observability of the predicted dynamic phenomena, as it is vitally needed in all engineering fields. Complex dynamics have been shown to characterize the behaviour of a great number of nonlinear mechanical systems, ranging from aerospace engineering applications to naval applications, mechanical engineering, structural engineering, robotics and biomechanics, and other areas. The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics grasped the importance of such complex phenomena in the Eighties, when the first IUTAM Symposium devoted to the general topic of nonlinear and chaotic dynamics in applied mechanics and engineering was held in Stuttgart (1989).

Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium held in Cracow, Poland, 24-27 September 2002