Acta Mechanica. Supplementa – serie

Wind erosion has such a pervasive influence on environmental and agricultural matters that academic interest in it has been continuous for several decades. However, there has been a tendency for the resulting publications to be scattered widely in the scientific litera­ ture and consequently to provide a less coherent resource than might otherwise be hoped for. In particular, cross-reference between the literature on desert and coastal morphology, on the deterioration of wind affected soils, and on the process mechanics of the grain/air­ flow system has been disappointing. A successful workshop on "The Physics of Blown Sand", held in Aarhus in 1985, took a decisive step in collecting a research community with interests spanning geomorphology and grain/wind process mechanics. The identification of that Community was reinforced by the Binghampton Symposium on Aeolian Geomorphology in 1986 and has been fruitful in the development of a number of international collaborations. The objectives of the pre­ sent workshop, which was supported by a grant from the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, were to take stock of the progress in the five years to 1990 and to extend the scope of the community to include soil deterioration (and dust release) and those beach processes which link with aeolian activity on the coast.

Wind erosion has such a pervasive influence on environmental and agricultural matters that academic interest in it has been continuous for several decades. However, there has been a tendency for the resulting publications to be scattered widely in the scientific litera­ ture and consequently to provide a less coherent resource than might otherwise be hoped for. In particular, cross-reference between the literature on desert and coastal morphology, on the deterioration of wind affected soils, and on the process mechanics of the grain/air­ flow system has been disappointing. A successful workshop on "The Physics of Blown Sand", held in Aarhus in 1985, took a decisive step in collecting a research community with interests spanning geomorphology and grain/wind process mechanics. The identification of that Community was reinforced by the Binghampton Symposium on Aeolian Geomorphology in 1986 and has been fruitful in the development of a number of international collaborations. The objectives of the pre­ sent workshop, which was supported by a grant from the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, were to take stock of the progress in the five years to 1990 and to extend the scope of the community to include soil deterioration (and dust release) and those beach processes which link with aeolian activity on the coast.

On December 2-5, 1991, a Symposium on Thermal Stresses, Dynamics and Stability honoring Professor Bruno A. Boley on the occasion of his 65th birthday was held in Atlanta, Georgia during the Winter Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The papers presented during the Symposium by some of Professor Boley's former students and colleagues cover those areas of applied mechanics where most of his contributions have been made over the years. These papers have been written in tribute to Professor Boley's distinguished scientific career and out of genuine affection and respect for him. The present volume consists of those Symposium papers that belong to the areas of Dynamics and Stability and constitute recent advances in the field. A special issue of the Journal of Thermal Stresses has been reserved for publication of the Symposium papers on Thermal Stresses, under the editorship of Professor R. B. Hetnarski. The present volume begins with a biographical sketch and bibliography of Professor Boley, along with a list of his doctoral students. Thirteen papers on dynamics and stability follow. The first four papers deal with wave propagation and vibration studies in solids and structures. The next two papers study wave propagation in fluids, while the seventh paper is concerned with the dynamic response of random media. Two papers dealing with structural vibrations exhibiting instability and one dealing with dynamic buckling delamination are presented next. The last three papers are concerned with instability in solids and structures.