Special Section on Damping of Shape Memory Alloys, Composites, and Foams

The papers collected in this special issue are the outcome of a workshop held on May 10–11, 2005, at Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, rance. The workshop brought together 24 participants, 15 from the EU and 9 from the U.S., to share their approach and the current tate-of-the art in the area of damping of advanced materials such as shape-memory alloys SMA , polymer composites, and foams. A rofound understanding of the mechanical properties of these new materials remains a technological barrier that can only be overcome y cross-disciplinary efforts between areas such as constitutive multiscale modeling, micromechanical and phenomenological modeling, xperimental characterization, ultrasonics, and vibrations. The workshop was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the niversité Paul Verlaine de Metz, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Laboratoire de Physique Mécanique des Matériaux CNRS MR7554, and the Conseil Régional de Lorraine, France.