This award provides funds to partially support the travel of five U.S. authors and symposium organizers to participate in the 11th international Congress on Fracture (ICF) that will be held during March 20-25, 2005 in Turin, Italy. The participants will include a diverse group of 5 faculty members, from US universities, who have played key roles in organizing two mini-symposia and several technical sessions on various topics ranging from failure analysis of geomaterials and high-performance cementitious materials to micro- and nano- mechanics of materials and structures.
As fracture and failure analysis is a central component of the design in various branches of civil and mechanical engineering, the integrating nature of this conference provides a unique forum for civil and mechanical engineers to exchange ideas and to learn from the methodologies developed by other investigators which may have useful applications in their respective field of research.
The broader impacts of this group travel fund is to allow rapid and timely dissemination of the recent research findings by the US participants in a unique international forum, which in turn may lead to future research collaborations with the Italian scientists and engineers participating in the 11th International Congress on Fracture.
