Both natural and artificial materials possess innate or deformation induced oriented microsctructures. These anisotropies influence, in a complex and intricate manner, the macroscopic behaviour of the material, and may lead to failure. The IUTAM/ICM Symposium "Yielding, Damage, and Failure of Anisotropic Solids" brought together specialists in the mechanics of solids, materials scientists, and engineers, to evaluate the present state of knowledge, and to stimulate unifying approaches to work in the field. This volume contains 50 contributions presented at that symposium. Four well-defined general lectures report on the present state of knowledge in specific areas: damage phenomena in statically or cyclically loaded unidirectional fibre composites and their laminates; the anisotrophy and failure modes of granular materials; crack tip fields in ductile crystals; and the application of tensor functions in the formulation of yield criteria, flow rules, and hardening in transversely isotropic and orthotropic plasticity.
Eighteen invited lectures, and twenty-eight communications, written by leading experts, are grouped into four sections, dealing with specific topics: anisotropic hardening and induced anisotrophy; anisotropic behaviour at large deformation; anisotropic damage; and yielding, fracture, and failure of anisotropic materials. Together these sections present the theoretical, experimental and numerical aspects of yielding, damage, and failure of anisotropic soils, rocks, granular materials, metals, composites, and laminates.