PSI - Issue 71

Atul Ramesh Ballal et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 71 (2025) 1–3

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institutions of global repute from Japan, Russia, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, and India attending the event. The delegates had varied engineering specializations such as Mechanical, Metallurgical & Materials, Mining, Civil, and Chemical Engineering; nevertheless, were focused on structural integrity. The major research topics covered in the conference included Damage mechanisms involving Fatigue and Creep, Fracture mechanics, Novel test methods involving miniature specimen, Computational methods for analysis, Composites, Structural materials in Civil, Marine, and Aerospace applications, Digital twins, Modeling & Simulation, and Structural health monitoring. One of the highlights of SICE-2024 was the introduction of Dr. S. R. Valluri Memorial Lecture , in memory of Dr. S. R. Valluri whose contributions to the domain of fatigue and structural integrity are well known globally. Dr. Ramasubbu Sunder, given his close interaction with Dr. Valluri, was the unanimous choice for delivering the lecture; Sunder presented on the topic “In pursuit of excellence in the advancement of the science & technology of structural integrity” with Prof. B. Dattaguru as the Chair. SICE 2024 had five plenary lectures covering aspects of Aircraft Structural Integrity program (ASIP) and Engine Structural Integrity Program (EnSIP) (Andrew Rosenberger), Environment Assisted Cracking (S. Chandrasekar), Laser Shock Peening (Oleg Plekhov), Creep and Fracture properties estimation from cantilever bending (Vikram Jayaram) and Hydrogen embrittlement in stainless steels (Shiro Torizuka). The conference had twenty-three keynote lectures, thirty-eight invited lectures, and forty-eight contributory presentations delivered by distinguished scientists, engineers, and academicians across the world. Additionally, ninety-three video-poster presentations were made by student authors and young researchers. The organizers of SICE-2024 appreciate the research work, knowledge, and insight shared by all the esteemed speakers. Several industrial organizations showcased their products in the Exhibition during SICE 2024. Two pre-conference workshops were organized for graduate students, researchers, and engineers from the industry: 1) Microstructural Characterization for Failure Analysis of Structural Components, and 2) Mechanical Testing of Alloys and Composites . Both the workshops included lectures as well as demonstrations of testing methods and analysis. The guidance of InSIS Executive Committee and the hard efforts put in by the organizing team of VNIT Nagpur with support from Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development & Design Center (JNARDDC) culminated into making SICE 2024 a big success. Sincere thanks are due to the sponsors and to all the delegates for an engaging as well as inspiring meeting of the Structural Integrity community during SICE 2024. This special issue presents a judicious mix of papers highlighting the state-of-the-art research and analysis in the vast domain of Structural integrity. This volume is intended for a wide audience of materials scientists, practicing engineers, researchers, and scholars. We hope that this collection of research works will inspire readers to gain more knowledge through further research, to enhance interactions, and to collaborate actively in this crucial field, ultimately leading to the development of safer, reliable, and sustainable structures. We thank the authors for their time and effort to present their work and submit their manuscript in a timely manner. We express our deep appreciation for all the reviewers for their painstaking efforts in critically reviewing the