This theme was devoted to the computations in the area of geomaterials (soils, rocks, concrete) dynamics. Spectacular advances have appeared in this topic during the two last decades due to the parallel development of computing power and of constitutive relation’s refinement.

Inside this wide topic, 7 sub-themes have been defined:

A total of 40 oral presentations and over 60 poster presentations have been retained for this topic and distributed in the previous subtopics.

In order to introduce the theme and to illustrate the main advances in the area of non-linear modelling in geomaterials dynamics, two keynote lectures have been given:

• "Stabilised mixed finite elements for soil-water interaction problems" by Pr. Manuel Pastor (Cedex and University of Madrid);
• "An integrated modelling strategy for the simulation of civil engineering structures subjected to seismic loading" by Dr. Pierre Pégon (Ispra, Italy).

Besides the different oral contributions and poster presentations, two round tables have been organised on two important questions in modern earthquake engineering:

• "Visco-elasticity versus elasto-plasticity in geomaterials dynamics", chaired by Pr. Félix Darve (Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France) ;
• "Damage indicators for seismic loading", chaired by Pr. Jean-Marie Reynouard (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France).

In conclusion, we can point out that the European scientific and technological community in earthquake engineering appears as particularly active in structural non-linear modelling and in developing non-linear constitutive models for applications in dynamics. Adequate modelling can more and more accurately approach dynamic degradation by plastic or damage strains as it was evident by the content of the sessions. As one of the perspectives inverse techniques for models identification should be developed in the future.

Reported by F. Darve