ECF23: 23 rd European Conference on Fracture

The International European Conference on Fracture (ECF23) was organized from 27 June to 1 July 2022. ECF started out in 1973 in France, as the 1st European Colloquium on Fracture, and rapidly become a reference event focused on Fracture Mechanics and Structural Integrity related topics. It has been traveling around Europe, and the previous event was held in Belgrade in 2018. It has the mission to promote research focused on topics related to all fracture phenomena, structural integrity and monitoring, contributing for the improvement of the reliability of systems, through focused R&D in applied mechanics.

This conference was the twentieth edition of a globally recognized event in the field of structural mechanics. The importance of the event required us to apply for its organization in 2014 in its edition in Trondheim, Norway. Since then, it has passed through Catania and Belgrade, now having Funchal as its destination in 2022, after the postponement due to the pandemic situation in 2020. A Summer School was also included in this organization from the 25th to the 26th of June, held at the premises of the Rectory of the University of Madeira. This first event was mainly dedicated to young students and researchers, who can enjoy the experience of renowned speakers and exchange experiences with each other.

Despite all difficulties related to the pandemic, the scientific community response was outstanding: a total of 505 delegates from 40 countries attended the event. A total of 616 abstracts were submitted, and 457 were accepted for oral presentations, divided in 96 parallel sessions, and 71 for Poster presentations. Apart from the publication of the proceedings in Procedia Structural Integrity, special issues in Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, International Journal of Fatigue and Engineering Failure Analysis were also offered. In the two days prior to the ECF23 conference, a Summer School on Fracture Mechanics and Structural Integrity took place, and four well known Lecturers attracted the presence of 90 delegates.