Preface

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers the potential to economically fabricate customized parts with complex geometries in a rapid design-to-manufacture cycle. However, the basic understanding of the fracture behavior of AM materials must be substantially improved at all scale levels before the unique features of this rapidly developing technology can be used in critical load bearing applications. This ambitious target can be reached solely via adventurous interdisciplinary research. The virtual event ESIAM21, held from the 5th to the 8th of September 2021, constituted the second conference in the ESIAM series, where we continued to gather the strengths of materials science, technological processes, structural integrity assessment methodologies, and advanced design practices to innovate the area of AM materials. The conference featured 16 topics, where fatigue of AM metals, AM in aerospace and lightweight design, characterization of ceramic, polymeric and metallic materials as well as fracture of AM polymers and metals received the highest number of submissions. The conference had 105 participants distributed over 20 countries. Italy, Austria, and Belgium were the most represented countries. The present special issue comprises 38 papers centered around Fracture and Fatigue of AM metals and polymers as well as on simulation and design.