The shock and impact behaviour of structures presents challenges to researchers, not only because of its obvious time-dependent aspects, but also because of the difficulties in specifying the external dynamic loading characteristics and in obtaining the full dynamic properties of materials. Thus it is important to recognise and fully utilise the contributions and understanding emerging from the theoretical, numerical and experimental studies, as well as investigations into material properties under dynamic loading conditions.

Of interest to engineers from civil, military, nuclear, offshore, aeronautical, transportation and other backgrounds, the topics covered include: Impact and Blast Loading Characteristics; Protection of Structures from Blast Loads; Energy Absorbing Issues; Structural Crashworthiness; Hazard Mitigation and Assessment; Behaviour of Steel Structures; Behaviour of Structural Concrete; Material Response to High Rate Loading; Seismic Engineering Applications; Interaction Between Computational and Experimental Results; Innovative Materials and Material Systems; Fluid Structure Interaction.