70 participants from 12 countries. The leitmotif of this Symposium brought together scientists working on singularity-dominated local fields in various branches of continuum mechanics, covering traditional solid and liquid behaviour as well as that of more complex non-linear materials; non-linearities arise either from the constitutive equations for the material or from the presence of interfaces or both. The scientific committee invited speakers who presented 34 papers in 12 sessions. Topics covered in the lectures included near tip fields of cracks, notches and wedges; flow around comers, wedges and cones; interfacial phenomena; moving contact lines in multiphase systems; cusps in fluid interfaces and shocks and localization. There was a general consensus among the participants that singularities induced by non-linearities provide a challenging and currently important area of research in mechanics, engineering and applied mathematics. Presentation and discussions during the symposium initiated further studies of problems in these interesting areas. This volume contains 30 full length papers, submitted by the lecturers after the symposium and reviewed to the standards of international scientific periodicals. It is our pleasure to acknowledge the efficient and tireless help of Mrs. Alice Goodman and Mr. Gideon Wachsman of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Technion. David Durban Anthony Pearson Haifa Cambridge April 1998 IX International Scientific Committee C. Atkinson (UK) G. I. Barenblatt (USA) H. -c.

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