Photomechanics 2006

The international conference ‘Photomechanics 2006’ was held from 10 to 12 July 2006 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. It was organised by the LaMI research group from the Blaise Pascal University and the French Institute for Advanced (IFMA) and took place at IFMA. It was the first international version of a French series of conferences named ‘Photomécanique’ launched in 1995 by Prof. Berthaud. The event attracted 127 delegates from 17 countries. The main objective of the conference was to provide an international forum for academics and practitioners to promote the new possibilities offered by full-field measurement techniques such as moiré interferometry, speckle, digital image correlation, infrared thermography, etc. and to discuss their impact on the mechanical characterisation of materials and structures. Launched with the above objective, the conference attracted 101 abstracts, of which 56 were selected for oral presentation. These presentations were organised in 14 sessions, running either in single- or in double-session formats. The sessions were classified according to the type of applications of full-field measurement techniques rather than the type of techniques themselves. The topics covered fracture mechanics, micromechanics, localisation, identification, thermomechanics, structural applications, plasticity, residual stresses, NDTI, 3D measurements, damage and fatigue as well as benchmarking and practical calibration of techniques. Twenty-seven posters were presented in a separate 2-h lively session. Three invited lectures were given by K. Ravi-Chandar from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, on ‘Photomechanics in Dynamic Fracture and Friction Studies’; by F. Hild, from ENS Cachan, France on ‘Digital Image Correlation, from Measurement to Identification’; and by E. Patterson from Michigan State University, USA on the ‘Development of an International Standard for Optical Strain Measurement’. The oral presentations and posters were collected on a CDRom which was distributed at the conference. A selection of papers was made by the Scientific Committee and some authors were invited to submit full-length papers for a special issue of Strain. They have undergone the usual refereeing process with at least two reviewers each. The resulting special issue contains 12 papers and reflects the broad scope of the conference. Based on the success of Photomechanics 2006, a second international conference will take place in Loughborough, UK, from 7 to 9 July 2008. Further details are available at the following URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/photomechanics/. We would like to take the opportunity here to thank all the people who made ‘Photomechanics 2006’, and this special issue, a success: the authors, the members of the Scientific and Organizing Committees, and our sponsors Association Française de Mécanique, the British Society for Strain Measurement, the Institute of Physics, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Associazione Italiana per l'Analisi delle Sollecitazioni, the European Society for Experimental Mechanics, the Society for Experimental Mechanics, the Blaise Pascal University, the French Institute for Advanced Mechanics, the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research, the French Ministry of Defence, The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Fédération de Recherche 2856 TIMS, the LaMI Research Group, the Groipement de Recherche CNRS 2519, the Ecole Doctorale Sciences pour l'Ingénieur, Airbus UK, CEDIP Infrared Systems, EADS, Michelin, and Saint-Gobain. We now look forward enthusiastically to Photomechanics 2008.