The 12th international conference on fracture and damage mechanics (FDM 2013) will take place in Island of Sardina, Italy. The conference follows the success of previous meetings held in London, UK (1999), Milan, Italy (2001), Paderborn, Germany (2003), Mallroca, Spain (2005), Harbin, China (2006), Madeira, Portugal (2007) , Seoul, Korea (2008), St. George, Malta(2009), Nagasaki, Japan(2010), Dubrovnik, Croatia (2011) and Xian, China (2012). The conference series has the support of the experts in the field of fracture and damage mechanics and has become established as a leading international forum for presentation latest research. The high quality researches presented at the previous meetings are archived in conference proceedings published in book form. In addition special issues in leading journals such as International Journal of Fracture, Engineering Fracture Mechanics and Key Engineering Materials have been devoted to the work presented at the meeting. The proceedings one the 12th international conference will be published in the Journal of Key Engineering Materials and distributed to the delegates at the conference.