Contained in the volume are the papers presented at an International Symposium on Advanced Technology for Design and Fabrication of Composite Materials and Structures. The Symposium was organized by Consorzio per la Ricerca e l'Educazione Permanente; Institute of Fracture and Solid Mechanics, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania USA; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale del Politecnico di Torino; and Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aeronautica e Spaziale del Politecnico di Torino. It was held at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, May 24-28, 1993. The support from the various organizations is acknowledged as follows: * Consiglio N azionale delle Ricerche * ALENIA SP AZIO * AGUST A * CIRA * AERMACCHI * Centro Ricerche FIAT * ALENIA (formerly AERITALIA) * Collegio Costruttori Edili della Provincia di Torino As new knowledge is being accumulated on the design and fabrication of advanced composite systems in different sectors of the world, there is the need not only to exchange new ideas but also to disseminate the information from the researchers to the users.
The theme of this Symposium is particularly relevant to the automobile, marine, aerospace and construction industry where the competitive edge lies on improved processing and/or manufacturing of the products. Technological advances have been and will continue to depend strongly on the development of new materials and their effective use in design. Empirical trial-and- error methods could no longer be considered economically feasible when applied to usage-specific materials such as composites.