Jacques Besson is Research Director at the CNRS, France, where he conducts research into damage and fracture modeling of metallic materials. Frédéric Lebon is Professor of Solid Mechanics at Aix-Marseille University and the Mechanics and Acoustics Laboratory (LMA), France. Eric Lorentz is a senior expert at EDF R&D, France, where he conducts studies on damage modeling, applied to the performance of power generation structures.