The Third IUTAM Symposium on Creep in Structures was held at Leicester University in September 1980 thereby continuing the tradition of a ten yearly review of progress in structural creep initiated by the previous symposia held at Stanford University in 1960 and Chalmers University in 1970. The thirty eight papers and their discussions cont­ ained in this volume testify to the vigour of research into the creep of structures at the present time. During the last ten years a gradual change of emphasis has occurred in creep research from studies of deformation and stability towards the description of continuum damage and creep crack propagation. At the same time design techniques have developed based upon reference stress techniques and bounding theorems, and a continued interest has been maintained in the development of constitutive equations and in stability studies. All these developments are reflected in the compos­ ition of the papers in the volume and in the discussions and reviews.

Historical Survey of the Development of Creep Mechanics from its Beginnings in the Last Century to 1970.- Advances in Creep Mechanics.- Mechanical Description of Viscoplastic and Damage Behaviour Under Variable Temperature in Presence of Microstructural Instabilities.- The ?0 Approach to Creep and Fracture of Metals and Alloys.- A Critical Examination of Steady State Creep.- On Constitutive Relations and Failure Criteria of an Austenitic Steel Under Cyclic Loading at Elevated Temperature.- The Creep of Moderately Thick Shells of Revolution Under Axisymmetrical Load.- Practical Aspects of Model Creep Work.- Review of Session I.- Some Observations on Reference Stresses, Skeletal Points, Limit Loads and Finite Elements.- Representation of Constitutive Equations in Creep Mechanics of Isotropic and Anisotropic Materials.- The Continuous Field of Damage and its Influence on the Creep Process in Concrete Under Tensile Loading.- Tensor Functions Approach to Creep Laws after Prestrain.- Generalised Structural Models in Creep Mechanics.- Bounding Structural Deformation due to Combined Creep and Plasticity.- On the Creep Modified Shakedown Limit.- High Temperature Problems Associated with the Design of the Commercial Fast Reactor.- Review of Session II.- Creep Buckling - A General View of the Phenomena.- The Creep Buckling of Shells.- Design Limits for Creep Buckling of Structural Components.- Review of Session III.- Dilatational Creep of Rock-like Solids.- Deformation Kinetics of Concrete.- Creep Fracture by Void Growth.- Creep Deformation and Rupture Under Non-Proportional Loading.- Creep Fracture in Nimonic 80A under Triaxial Tensile Stressing.- A Continuum Theory of Creep and Creep Damage.- Mechanisms for the Growth of Intergranular Creep Cavities.- Creep Crack Propagation inTerms of Continuous Damage Mechanics.- Review of Session IV.- Creep-Fatigue Failure in High Temperature Alloys.- The Extension of a Macroscopic Crack at Elevated Temperature by the Growth and Coalescence of Microvoids.- Crack Growth Under Conditions of Creep and Damage.- Creep Crack Growth and Cavitation Damage.- Finite Element Analysis and Experimental Investi-gation on Creep Crack Propagation.- Creep Crack Growth.- History of Loading Effects on Creep Crack Growth in 1/2% Cr, 1/2% Mo, 1/4% V Steel.....- Application of Non-Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics to Aged Type 316L Stainless Steel.- Creep Recovery and Hardening Effects on the Stress Field Near a Crack Tip Under Variable Loads.- An Assessment of Techniques of Analysis of Creep Crack-Growth Test-Record by J-Integral.- Review of Session V.