The papers from these proceedings address experimental and analytical methods for the characterization and analysis of modern composite and adhesive systems. They have been produced to provide understanding that can be used to design safe, reliable engineering components.

Composite material systems are the basis for much of the natural world around us and are rapidly becoming the basis for many modern engineering components. A controlling feature for the general use of such systems is their damage tolerance, durability and reliability. The present book is a comprehensive cross section of the state of the art in the field of the durability of polymer-based, composite, and adhesive systems. As such, it is of special value to researchers concerned with the frontier of the field, to students concerned with the substance of the subject, and to the applied community concerned with the finding methodologies that make it possible to design safe and durable engineering components using material systems.

This set of conference papers on composite materials systems covers such topics as: general aspects and methods; fatigue behaviour; damage; accelerated testing; influence of water on the properties; and specific systems and structures.

This proceedings covers the general problem related to the damage initiation and development, the failure criteria and the specific aspects related to fatigue, creep behaviour, moisture diffusion and the problem of the joining systems.

This book contains 31 papers presented at the symposium on "Recent Advances in Composite Materials" which was organized in honor of Professor Stephanos A. Paipetis. The symposium took place at Democritus University of Thrace, in Xanthi, Greece on June 12-14, 2003. The book is a tribute to Stephanos A. Paipetis, a pioneer of composite materials, in recognition of his continuous, original diversified and outstanding contributions for half a century. The book consists of invited papers written by leading experts in the field. It contains original contributions concerning the latest developments in composite materials. It covers a wide range of subjects including experimental characterization, analytical modeling and applications of composite materials. The papers are arranged in the following six sections: General concepts, stress and failure analysis, mechanical properties, metal matrix composites, structural analysis and applications of composite materials. The first section on general concepts contains seven papers dealing with composites through the pursuit of the consilience among them, computation and mechatronic automation of multiphysics research, a theory of anisotropic scattering, wave propagation, multi-material composite wedges, a three-dimensional finite element analysis around broken fibers and an in situ assessment of the micromechanics of large scale bridging in ceramic composites.