This volume records the Symposium on 'Anisotropy, Inhomogeneity and Nonlinearity in Solid Mechanics', held at the University of Nottingham from 30th August to 3rd September 1994, sponsored by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and held in conjunction with the In- ternational Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics. The advent of composite materials, together with their widespread use in recent years, has provided a powerful stimulus for advances in several somewhat ne- glected areas of solid mechanics. Exploitation of fibre-reinforced solids and laminates has rekindled interest in the theory and application of anisotropic elasticity and motivated study of many aspects of material inhomogeneity. The need to understand fibre-matrix interactions, especially in modelling metal- matrix composites and the forming of thermoplastic components has fostered advances in plasticity and viscoelasticity theory, to describe phenomena such as deformation-induced inhomogeneity and anisotropy.
Plasticity and flow of granular media are also intrinsically nonlinear, giving rise, for example, to highly anisotropic and strongly localized effects, such as shear bands. Most materials contain impurities. These inclusions, even if microscopically isotropic, cause macroscopic anisotropy in an 'effective-medium' theory. Dy- namic behaviour is even more complex, since wave propagation reveals both attenuation and dispersion effects. Increased interest in finer-scaled compos- ites (nanotechnology and superlattices) and ultra-high frequency techniques continue to reveal new effects, due to inhomogeneity and microstructure. An example included here is lattice-induced dispersion for certain surface waves of relatively long wavelength.