SUSI XIII contains the proceedings of the 13th International Conference in the successful series of Structures under Shock and Impact. Since the first meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1989) the conference has brought together the research works of scientists and engineers from a wide range of academic disciplines and industrial backgrounds that have an interest in the structural impact response of structures and materials.

The shock and impact behaviour of structures is a challenging area, not only because of the obvious time-dependent aspects, but also due to the difficulties in specifying the external dynamic loadings, boundary conditions and connection characteristics for structural design and hazard assessment, and in obtaining the dynamic properties of materials. Thus, it is important to recognise and utilise fully the contributions and understand the emerging theoretical, numerical and experimental studies on structures, as well as investigations into the material properties under dynamic loading conditions. Any increased knowledge will enhance our understanding of these problems and thorough forensic studies on the structural damage after accidents will lead to improved design requirements.

The range of topics in this very active field is ever expanding. The following list of topics gives an idea of the wide number of applications covered: Impact and Blast Loading; Response of Buildings to Blast; Computational and Experimental Results; Dynamic Analysis of Composite Structures; Energy Absorbtion; Seismic Behaviour.