Materials with Complex Behaviour: Modelling, Simulation, Testing, and Applications

Common engineering materials reach in many demanding applications such as automotive or aerospace their limits and new developments are required to ful ll increasing demands on performance and characteristics. The properties of ma- rials can be increased for example by combining different materials to achieve better properties than a single constituent or by shaping the material or c- stituents in a speci c structure. Many of these new materials reveal a much more complex behavior than traditional engineering materials due to their advanced str- ture or composition. Furthermore, the classical applications of many engineering materials are extended to new ranges of applications and to more demanding en- ronmental conditions such as elevated temperatures. All these tendencies require in addition to the synthesis of new materials, proper methods for their m- ufacturing and extensive programs for their characterization. In many elds of application, the development of new methods and processes must be acc- plished by accurate and reliable modeling and simulation techniques. Only the interaction between these new developments with regards to manufacturing, m- eling, characterization, further processing and monitoring of materials will allow to meet all demands and to introduce these developments in safety-relevant applications. The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computational Engineering and Experimenting, ACE-X 2009, was held in Rome, Italy, from 22 to 23 June 2009 with a strong focus on the above mentioned developments.