This book contains 15 fully peer-reviewed Invited Papers which were presented at the 13th Biennial European Conference on Fracture and is a companion to the CD-ROM http: //www.elsevier.com/locate/isbn/008043701xProceedings.

The organisers of the ECF 13 opted from the very beginning for an application-orientated conference, and consequently, this book contributes to the understanding of fracture phenomena, and disseminates fracture concepts and their application to the solution of engineering problems to practitioners in a wide range of fields.

The fields covered in this book can be broadly classified into: elastic-plastic fracture mechanics, fracture dynamics, fatigue and interactive processes, failure, structural integrity, coatings and materials, with applications to the following industrial sectors: transport, aerospace engineering, civil engineering, pipelines and automotive engineering.