The first newsletter published by IA-FraMCoS.
NEWSLETTER 1・JANUARY1993 FraMCoS INTERNATIONAl ASSOCIATION OF FRACTURE MECHANICS FOR CONCRETE AND CONCRETE STRUCTURES FOUNDED IN 1991. INCORPORA TED IN THE ST ATE OF IlllNOIS: USA LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT It is my greatest pleasure to initiate the first newsletter of our newly formed International ， in short， Association of Fracture Mechanics for Concrete and Concrete Structures FraMCoS. Ours is a rapidly developing new field， which will most likely have profound consequences for the way concrete s 凶 cturesare designed and analyzed. The research activity in this field surged dramatically auring the last decade and may be expected to continue increasing for many years until， hopefully， the su同ectof concrete fracture mechanics in particular and the design of concrete structures in general will become as clear and rational as ， for example， the analysis of elastic frames. That field， close to the heart of civil engineering， had slow beginnings marred by disagreements and was the object of major research efforts for about 100 years until a satisfactory status was reached shortly after the middle of this century. In our field ， likewise， we may anticipate a lengthy period of fruition ， which needs to be aided by regular convening of conferences to critically appraise the advances and chart the further course. Our new Association ， whose main practical objective is the organizing of major periodic international conferences on the subject ， is trying to foster this development.