Continuum Models and Discrete Systems

The volume contains the text of many general lectures presented at the sixth international symposium on "Continuum Models and Discrete Systems" which was held on the campus of the University of Bourgogne, Dijon, France from June 25th to the 29th 1989.;The structure of this present volume directly reflects the way in which the symposium was divided up. This division acted as a guide to the entire symposium but also covers many of the cases where the microstructure related to the discrete system has a prevailing influence and manifests itself in a sensible manner on the macro scale. Clearly, semi-dilute and concentrated fluid suspensions, grain-like structures, deformable solids which are perfect or defective at the crystalline or poly-crystalline level, composites of various types presenting an ordered or random structure, entered directly into the subject matter of the symposium. The effects thus covered in material science are extremely large.;Therefore, this interest has fostered the development of new appropriate techniques in applied mathematics. These include cell automata theory, asymptotic and stochastic homogenization techniques, techniques in non-linear dispersive wave theory, thermodynamically admissable geometrical approaches, coherent structures due to scale effects and the combination or composition of these with other effects.