Welcome to the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Fracture and Strength (APCFS 2024) to be held in Matsue, Japan in November 2024.

The purpose of this series of conference, APCFS, is to promote research and development in the field of fracture and strength of engineering materials in the Asia-Pacific region. APCFS was first held in Tsuchiura, Japan in 1993. According to the preface to the proceedings of APCFS 1993, there were two preceding conferences for APCFS; one was Asian Pacific Congress on Strength Evaluation (APCS) in Sendai, Japan 1984, Seoul, Korea 1986, Yokohama, Japan 1989, Beijing, China 1991 and the other was KSME/JSME Joint Conference on Fracture and Strength in Seoul, Korea 1990.

APCFS was co-organized by the three parties from Japan, Korea and China since 1993, namely, the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers–Materials and Mechanics Division (JSME–MMD), the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers–Materials and Fracture Division (KSME–MFD), and the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society–Institute of Materials for Mechanical Engineering (CMES–IMME). Afterwards the Australian Fracture Group (AFG) joined to co-organize APCFS in 2014. The conference was held every 2 or 3 years in the following cities:

  1st：Tuchiura, Japan, 1993
  2nd：Kyungju, Korea, 1996
  3rd：Xi’an, China, 1999
  4th：Sendai, Japan, 2001 in conjunction with ATEM
  5th：Jeju, Korea, 2004
  6th：Sanya, China, 2006
  7th：Yokohama, Japan, 2009 in the name of APCMM
  8th：Busan, Korea, 2012 in the name of APCFS-MM
  9th：Sydney, Australia, 2014 in conjunction with SIF
10th：Toyama, Japan, 2016
11th：Xi’an, China, 2018
12th：Jeju, Korea, 2020
13th：Adelaide, Australia, 2022 in conjunction with SIF

This is the 14th of APCFS and, counting from its predecessor, APCS, the 18th. It is also held as the 2024 Materials and Mechanics Conference of JSME–MMD. On behalf of JSME–MMD, I cordially invite you to Matsue to interact with many colleagues in the field of fracture and strength of engineering materials.

Matsue is the capital city of Shimane prefecture and has many beautiful sites to visit nearby: for example, Matsue castle (Japanese national treasure), Izumo Taisha Shrine (One of the oldest shrines in Japan), Shinji-ko and Nakaumi (Lakes of beautiful scenery), Tamatsukuri Onsen (One of the oldest hot springs in Japan). In the mountains, there are many remains of traditional ironworks using “tatara” furnaces, that should be interesting to the colleagues working on engineering materials. It should be also mentioned that November is one of the best seasons in Matsue and its suburbs to enjoy the beautiful autumn leaves and delicious crabs.

Sincerely,