Book excerpt: Variational Methods in the Mechanics of Solids contains the proceedings of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Symposium on Variational Methods in the Mechanics of Solids, held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on September 11-13, 1978. The papers focus on advances in the application of variational methods to a variety of mathematically and technically significant problems in solid mechanics. The discussions are organized around three themes: thermomechanical behavior of composites, elastic and inelastic boundary value problems, and elastic and inelastic dynamic problems. This book is comprised of 58 chapters and opens by addressing some questions of asymptotic expansions connected with composite and with perforated materials. The following chapters explore mathematical and computational methods in plasticity; variational irreversible thermodynamics of open physical-chemical continua; macroscopic behavior of elastic material with periodically spaced rigid inclusions; and application of the Lanczos method to structural vibration. Finite deformation of elastic beams and complementary theorems of solid mechanics are also considered, along with numerical contact elastostatics; periodic solutions in plasticity and viscoplasticity; and the convergence of the mixed finite element method in linear elasticity. This monograph will appeal to practitioners of mathematicians as well as theoretical and applied mechanics.