Recent progress in the study of nonlinear wave propagation has been influenced by developments in mechanics, acoustics, hydro dynamics, plasma physics and many other fields of physics. This vast field of research has also given rise to fascinating mathe matical ideas: the inverse scattering method and the technique of exterior differential forms being just some to be mentioned. Obviously the theory of nonlinear waves may be interpreted as an interdisciplinary study with the mechanics of continuous media as a theoretical basis. This was the starting point of the proposal to the General Assembly of the IUTAM to hold an IUTAM Symposium on this topic, made by the USSR National Committee of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR. Actually the IUTAM Symposium on Nonlinear Deformation Waves was the third meeting of such kind to be held in Tallinn. In 1973, the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR and Gorky State University or~anized a national Symposium on Nonlinear and Thermal Effects in Transient Wave Propagation. In 1978, the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR organized another national Symposium on Nonlinear Deformation Waves with partici pants from several other countries. The participants of this Symposium in their final resolution expressed a wish that a similar meeting of definitely international type should take place again in Tallinn in 1982.

Inhalt
1 Analytical Methods and Evolution Equations.- Recent developments of the reductive perturbation method.- Energy integrals in the theory of shock wave stability.- Solitons in active media.- The evolution equations in the theory of nonlinear waves.- An approach to constrained thermoelastic solids: internal constraint responses and wave propagation.- Asymptotic approach to some nonlinear wave problems.- On non-linear waves in liquid-filled elastic tubes.- Nonlinear waves in gas-filled elastic tubes.- Propagation of non-uniform shock waves over large distances.- The propagation of finite-amplitude edge waves.- Iterated compatibility relations and nonlinear'wave propagation.- Equations of nonlinear geometrical acoustics.- Some exact solutions of Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation for plane, cylindrical and spherical waves.- 2 Waves in Hereditary and Plastic Media.- Deformation waves in nonlinear hereditary media.- The analysis of the strain wave processes and fracture of the structural elastic-viscoplastic elements.- Nonlinear inelastic deformation waves in polymers and metals.- Attenuation of strong shock waves in laminate materials.- Application of a multiparameter group of transformations to an impact problem of a non-linear viscoelastic rod.- Shock wave propagation in a viscoelastic rod.- Nonlinear wave propagation in plastic fracturing materials A constitutive modeling and finite element analysis.- Adiabatic elastic/visco-plastic plane waves in a rod at finite strain.- Dynamics of two-dimensional thermoviscoelastic waves in laminated media.- Representing shear band damage at high strain rates.- 3 Inverse Problems.- Detection of deformation waves in solids.- Asymptotic analyses of the pulse shape evolution and of the inverse problem of acoustic evaluation in caseof the nonlinear hereditary medium.- Parameter identification of mechanical-mathematical models using the data obtained by following an experimental wave method.- On the use of ultrasonic velocity measurements for the study of stress waves in.solids.- Numerical analysis of Hopkinson split pressure bar test.- Nonlinear deformation waves in the previously stressed elastic media.- 4 Nonlinear Acoustics.- Spectral interactions in nonlinear acoustics A review.- Asymptotic description of nonlinear interaction of surface and bulk waves.- Experimental determination of the nonlinear properties of elastic solids.- Acoustic emission and damage accumulation in solids.- Higher-order acoustic nonlinearity parameters of fluids.- 5 Combined Fields and Applications.- On non-linear interaction of solid particles with a sound wave in viscous liquid.- Wave propagation in elastic membranes.- Non-linear behaviour of soils under dynamic loading.- Nonlinear effects, accompanying seismic waves propagation.- Nonlinear elastic surface waves.- About influence of nonlinear magnetoelastic effects on wave propagation in an elastic electroconducting medium.- Nonlinear elastic waves generated by electric solitons in ferroelectric crystals.- Deformation and thermal wave in a long rod caused by thermal shock, taking into account large temperature differences and the modified law of heat conduction.- Acceleration waves in nonlinear generalized thermoelasticity.- Solitary waves in density stratified fluids.- On propagation of waves containing discontinuities.- Workshop on applications in nonlinear wave propagation.- The list of unpublished reports.