General

The Fifth International Conference on the Fundamentals Fracture (ICFF) will be held at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, USA on August 17 through August 21, 1977 under the primary sponsorship of the National Institute for Mechanics and Materials of the University of California at San Diego (IMM). IMM is supported by the National Science Foundation. Support is also provided by NASA, AFOSR and NIST.

The general goals of the conference will be the same as its predecessors (the most recent conference was held at Urubandai, Japan): to provide a vehicle for the presentation and discussion of current research and future challenges in fracture science, and to provide an opportunity for its practitioners to renew acquaintances and develop new collaborations with others in the international community. Although the focus is on the fundamental aspects of fracture, the target group includes those working in the disciplines of Mechanics, Metallurgy, Ceramics, Polymer Science, Physics and Chemistry.

Due to the current climate for support for international conferences of this type, attendees are asked to provide as much of their own financial support to attend the conference as possible, and to this end, the registration fee will be kept to a minimum. The Program and Planning Committee may be able to assist with overseas travel on the basis of applications made at the time of Abstract submission, and to a lesser extent with travel of US participants.

Program

Each of the four days of the Conference will be devoted to one of the following topics, in the order given.

Ductile/Brittle Transitions, Toughness and Dislocation Shielding
Intrinsic Ductility and Atomic Aspects of Fracture
Chemical Effects and Interfacial Fracture
Crack Dynamics

Each session will be a mixture of papers presented verbally, and papers presented as posters. A poster will be available for viewing on the day of the topic to which it corresponds, and there will be time on the program for verbal discussion and questions. Verbal presentations will be uniformly placed in 20 minute slots. Each author is asked to limit the presentation to 15 minutes to leave time for some discussion.

Extended Abstracts Submission

We will publish both verbal and poster papers (without distinction) in a booklet to be distributed at the time of the conference. Thus, the booklet will serve both the function of being the primary program and agenda for the conference, and as the only formal record of the proceedings. For this purpose, we request that you prepare an extended abstract of your paper (verbal and/or poster), and send it to arrive at NIST no later than June 15, 1997. Because of printing time constraints, this must be considered an absolutely firm date. The best way to submit this material to us is by means of a TEX, LATEX, or REVTEX document by email to the local committee ([email protected]). Otherwise, you will have to send your paper to us by ordinary mail in your favorite format. Length should be not more than 2 pages. Figures, if included, must fit within the required length. Font size is recommended to be pica typewriter size or 12 point font in TEX, single spaced. Page size should be the American standard, 21.5 by 28 mm. Text submitted on larger sized pages should be truncated so it fits the 21.5 by 28 mm size page which it will ultimately be printed on.

Registration and Attendance

The registration fee is $170 per attendee, and will include lunches, coffee breaks and a banquet on August 19. Although a limited number of attendees not authoring a poster or verbal paper may be permitted, in general, participants at the conference will be expected to present such a paper. The total attendance will be held to less than 150 in order to make possible an interactive atmosphere.

The Gaithersburg Hilton will be the Conference Hotel. The Gaithersburg Econolodge, with cheaper accomodations will also be available. Registration materials are available from one of the local Committee members. The deadline for registration is July 15, 1997.

Information and Queries

For additional information and queries, please contact either of the following Local Committee members, whose addresses are given here .

Program and Planning Committee members and addresses appear here , International Steering Committee members and addresses appear here .

Deadlines

Relevant deadlines appear here