This volume contains the proceedings of the symposium held on Friday 6 July 1990 at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), France, in honor of Professor Henri Cabannes on the occasion of his retirement. There were about one hundred participants from nine countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the USA. Many of his past students or his colleagues were among the participants. The twenty-six papers in this volume are written versions submitted by the authors and cover almost all the fields in which Professor Cabannes has actively worked for more than forty-five years. The papers are presented in four chapters: classical kinetic theory and fluid dynamics, discrete kinetic theory, applied fluid mechanics, and continuum mechanics. The editors would like to take this opportunity to thank the generous spon­ sors of the symposium: the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (especially Academician R. Dautray and Dr. N. Camarcat) and Direction des Recherches et Etudes Techniques (especially Professor P. Lallemand). Many thanks are also due to all the participants for making the symposium a success. Finally, we thank Professor W. Beiglbock and his team at Springer-Verlag for producing this volume.

This collection of papers surveys both the classical and the discrete kinetic theory. The latter is at present a rapidly developing field, in part through computer modeling, and in part as a new foundation of continuum mechanics. There is no similar text available.

I Classical Kinetic Theory and Fluid Dynamics.- Trend to Equilibrium in a Gas According to the Boltzmann Equation.- The Dirichlet Boundary Value Problem for B.G.K. Equation.- Asymptotic Theory of a Steady Flow of a Rarefied Gas Past Bodies for Small Knudsen Numbers.- Computation of Transitional Rarefied Flow.- Gas Flows Around the Condensed Phase with Strong Evaporation or Condensation - Fluid Dynamic Equation and Its Boundary Condition on the Interface and Their Application.- II Discrete Kinetic Theory.- Fluid Dynamic Limits of Discrete Velocity Kinetic Equations.- On the Euler Equation in Discrete Kinetic Theory.- Existence globale et diffusion en théorie cinétique discrète.- On the Cauchy Problem for the Semidiscrete Enskog Equation.- On Uniform Boundedness of Solutions to Discrete Velocity Models in Several Dimensions.- Temperature and Local Entropy Overshoots for the Second Fourteen-Velocity Cabannes Model.- A One Dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Equation with Galilean Invariance.- The Euler Description for a Class of Discrete Models of Gases with Multiple Collisions.- On the Semidiscrete Boltzmann Equation with Multiple Collisions.- A Discrete Velocity Model for Gases with Chemical Reactions of Dissociation and Recombination.- III Applied Fluid Mechanics.- Frozen and Equilibrium Speeds of Sound in Non-equilibrium Flows.- Nonlinear Propagation of Acoustic and Internal Waves in a Stratified Fluid.- A Higher Order Panel Method for Nonlinear Gravity Wave Simulation.- Numerical Reliability of MHD Flow Calculations at High Hartmann Numbers.- Interaction Between an Oblique Shock and a Detached Shock Upstream of a Cylinder in Supersonic Flow.- The Design of Super-Concorde and Space Vehicles Using Global Optimization Techniques.- IV Continuum Mechanics.- VibratingStrings with Obstacles: The Analytic Study.- Vibrations of Euler-Bernoulli Beams with Pointwise Obstacles.- Contribution to the Fracture Analysis of Composite Materials.- Homogenization Method Applied to Porous Media.- Modal Analysis of Flexible Multibody Systems.- Index of Contributors.