Mechanical Engineering, an engineering discipline borne of the needs of the in­ dustrial revolution, is once again asked to do its substantial share in the call for industrial renewal. The general call is urgent as we face profound issues of pro­ ductivity and competitiveness that require engineering solutions, among others. The Mechanical Engineering Series features graduate texts and research mono­ graphs intended to address the need for information in contemporary areas ofme­ chanical engineering. The series is conceived as a comprehensive one that covers a broad range of concentrations important to mechanical engineering graduate education and re­ search. We are fortunate to have a distinguished roster ofconsulting editors on the advisory board, each an expert in one ofthe areas ofconcentration. The names of the consulting editors are listed on the next page of this volume. The areas of concentration are applied mechanics, biomechanics, computational mechanics, dynamic systems and control, energetics, mechanics ofmaterials, processing, ther­ mal science, and tribology. Frederick A. Leckie,the series editor for applied mechanics, and I are pleased to presentthis volume in the Series: Nonlinear Computational Structural Mechan­ ics: New Approaches and Non-Incremental Methods of Calculation, by Pierre Ladeveze. The selection of this volume underscores again the interest of the Me­ chanical Engineering series to provide our readers with topical monographs as well as graduate texts in a wide variety of fields.

Translated by: J.G. Simmonds