This book presents contributions on the current problems in a number of topical areas of nonlinear dynamics and physics, written by experts from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA, and France. The book is dedicated to Professor Leonid I. Manevitch, an outstanding scholar in the fields of Mechanics of Solids, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Polymer Physics, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Addresses behaviour of materials under extreme mechanical conditions and of failure in terms of non-linear continuum mechanics and instability theory.

Providing a modern and comprehensive coverage of continuum mechanics, this volume includes information on "variational principles"--Significant, as this is the only method by which such material is actually utilized in engineering practice.