• Amine Benzerga
• Christian Brandl
• Vincent Chiaruttini, Onera, Université Paris-Saclay
• Enrique Martinez
• Ryan Sills
• Ashley Spear
• Aurélien Vattré

Discontinuities, such as interfaces (e.g., grain boundaries, heterophase interfaces), structural defects (e.g., dislocations, disconnections, voids, second-phase inclusions), and cracks, determine the overall thermodynamic and mechanical response of materials and structures subjected to external loadings. A wide range of theoretical approaches have been proposed for evolving discontinuities, but the development of predictive modeling capabilities for investigating their influence in materials and structures is still far from complete. At present, the diversity of computational approaches, along with the considerable improvement in experimental techniques for mapping and characterizing discontinuities across length scales, provides new opportunities 1) to gain greater insight into structure-property relationships and 2) to bridge the gap between local descriptors of discontinuities and their effect in controlling internal stress states. This minisymposium brings together a broad range of materials researchers for a technical exchange and a discussion of scientific issues driving research at the confluence of applied mathematics, continuum mechanics, solid state physics and materials science. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas of interest:
• Advanced numerical techniques in the development of scale-bridging features across metallic and composite materials evolving discontinuities
• Numerical tools: molecular dynamics, finite element-based methods (XFEM, adaptive remeshing), spectral based approaches, applied to phase field or nonlocal damage mechanics, homogenization theories
• Discrete atomistic description of continuous representation of discontinuities
• Computational growth predictions of singularities in nonlinear and inhomogeneous media
• Microstructure characterization and detection of discontinuities in microstructure-based material design strategies 
• Moving discontinuities in complex multi-phase materials
• Small-scale interaction mechanisms between different types of imperfections
• Size effects