The eighth conference had the theme “Current Developments and Perspectives in Experimental Mechanics”. It was held in a large Congress Centre in Amsterdam under the auspices of the TNO (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), concurrently with an IMEKO conference on “Measurement of Force and Mass”; joint registration for the two conferences was possible. Although there were delegates from 21 different countries, the attendance figure (Table 2) was lower than expected, possibly as a result of a nearly coincident international conference on photoelasticity in Japan. Delegates enjoyed the attractions of Amsterdam and greatly appreciated the Civic Reception organised for them. There were visits to the tulip fields and to Delft, organised by the wife of the Conference Chairman, which were also most enjoyable.
A soft-back proceedings volume [8], containing 68 papers, was available to delegates. Foremost amongst the countries of origin were Germany (12 papers), the USA (10), and the UK (9). There were 16 papers from Eastern Europe, including 5 from the CSSR and 4 each from Poland and Roumania, but none from the Far East or Australasia. The papers were presented in English, the conference language, in single session sequence, with joint opening and closing sessions for the PCSA and IMEKO conferences. Poster sessions held in the “lounge” area of the centre on the mornings of the second and third days of the conference proved to be a successful innovation.
The titles of the 19 sessions provide an indication of the principal topics covered. Three sessions were devoted to “Grating techniques”, covering mainly moiré work but with papers also on holographic interferometry and the method of caustics. Another paper on caustics appeared in a “Various subjects” session. Two sessions were given to “Photoelasticity” and one to “Strain gauges and instrumentation”. Also, as a clear sign of a major development in the field, a session of 5 papers (4 from the UK) was devoted to “Thermoelasticity”. All 4 papers in the “Fracture mechanics” session originated in the USA. Topics included in the three sessions on “Analysis of various problems” included a study of adhesively bonded trusses and the collision resistance of inland LPG carriers. There appeared to be no work on residual stresses and there was only one biomechanics paper (on the forces in the human body during a jumping take-off). There was a significant finite element content in 6 papers and, notably, an account of the use of the boundary element method, applied in conjunction with experimental work.