High Performance Structures and Materials V (Wit Performance Structures and Materials V)

Emerging materials and techniques continue to appear and offer important applications in engineering and include improvements over conventional materials. The important application of modern materials, particularly for structural repair, has reached a stage of maturity that allows designers to increase the useful life of many structures. These materials, techniques and applications are addressed in High Performance Structures and Materials V, just published by WIT Press. The book contains the edited versions of the papers presented at the Fifth International Conference on High Performance Structures and Materials (HPSM) being held in Tallinn, Estonia, in July, 2010. The biennial conference series began in 2002, originating from a series of meetings on Computer Aided Design of Composite Materials that were organized by the Wessex Institute of Technology until 2000; when it was felt necessary to broaden the type of materials under consideration and essential to relate them to advances in structural design and the interaction between structures and materials. An important evolution of the Conference was also to address the increasing emphasis on durability, sustainability and re-use of structural materials, responding to the need to look into the environmental performance of materials and structures. The Conference also addresses new optimization techniques and construction processes, among other emerging topics.