This book addresses energy footprints in the food and textile sectors. Each footprint case study presents essential background information and discusses the scientific consensus, methodological framework, assessment checklist, calculation tools and techniques, applications, challenges and limitations. More importantly, the book explores the application of each indicator/framework in various industrial sectors and the associated challenges, as well as outlooks for the future - essential considerations, given that energy consumption and conservation are the primary elements in any industry's sustainability strategy.

"Firing Ceramics" is the first textbook in the English language devoted entirely to the subject of firing in over fifty years. Most existing books on ceramic manufacturing processes cover the entire spectrum from raw material to finishing. These texts often have only one or two chapters devoted to the firing process. This book has been written solely on the firing process to serve not only as an in-depth textbook for our ceramic schools but as a firing handbook for anyone who manufactures ceramics.This book is divided into three parts with Part I describing what happens inside a kiln to the ceramic itself plus what kiln furniture may be required and how to develop the firing cycle. Part II deals with all the different kinds of kilns that exist and how to select the right kind for your job. Lastly, Part III is devoted to the latest in firing practice, industry by industry.

This thesis focuses on porous monolithic materials that are not in the forms of particles, fibers, or films. In particular, the synthetic strategy of porous monolithic materials via the sol-gel method accompanied by phase separation, which is characterized as the non-templating method for tailoring well-defined macropores, is described from the basics to actual synthesis. Porous materials are attracting more and more attention in various fields such as electronics, energy storage, catalysis, sensing, adsorbents, biomedical science, and separation science. To date, many efforts have been made to synthesize porous materials in various chemical compositions-organics, inorganics including metals, glasses and ceramics, and organic-inorganic hybrids. Also demonstrated in this thesis are the potential applications of synthesized porous monolithic materials to separation media as well as to electrodes for electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and Li-ion batteries (LIBs). This work is ideal for graduate students in materials science and is also useful to engineers or scientists seeking basic knowledge of porous monolithic materials.

This collection of recent activities provides researchers and scientists with the latest trends in characterization and developments of composed materials and structures. Here, the expression 'composed materials' indicates a wider range than the expression 'composite material' which is many times limited to classical fibre reinforced plastics. The idea of composed structures and materials is to join different components in order to obtain in total better properties than one of the single constituents can provide. In this collection, well known experts present their research on composed materials such as textile composites, sandwich plates, hollow sphere structures, reinforced concrete as well as classical fibre reinforced materials.

This book is a systematic compilation of the most recent body of knowledge in the rapidly developing research area of greenhouse gas interaction with clay systems. Unexpected results of the most recent studies - such as unusually high sorption capacity and sorption hysteresis of swelling clays -stimulated theoretical activity in this fascinating field. Classical molecular dynamics (MD) explains swelling caused by intercalation of water molecules and to a certain degree of CO2 molecules in clay interlayer. However, unusual frequency shifts in the transient infrared fingerprints of the intercalated molecules and the following accelerated carbonation can be tackled only via quantum mechanical modeling. This book provides a streamlined (from simple to complex) guide to the most advanced research efforts in this field.

This book covers several aspects of the synthesis of composites by the pressureless infiltration technique. It describes the methods used to obtain green preforms, such as cold pressed and hot sintering, describing the heating time, load, and time required for pressing the preforms. Additionally, wettability phenomena, which is directly related on infiltration, is extensively described. Wettability process and interfacial reactions are analyzed in many ceramic-metal systems prior to fabricate the composites. A complete description of fabrication processes for Metal Matrix Composites is included. An extensive section on structural, chemical, and mechanical characterization of composites fabricated with aluminum and magnesium alloys as matrices reinforced with titanium carbide (TiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), silicon carbide (SiC) and alumina (Al2O3) is included. Relevant techniques for joining composites, such as welding and brazing are addressed. As well as issues pertaining to the corrosion and wear of composites are discussed as well. Corrosion behavior of some composites exposed to aqueous media was analyzed. Corrosion of composites using TiC and SiC like reinforcement and Al, Ni, and some Al-Cux, Al-Mgx and Al-Cu-Li alloys like matrix is discussed extensively. The structural characterization techniques addressed include: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical microscopy (OM), differential thermal analysis (DTA), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). Mechanical testing including hardness, elastic modulus, tension tests, and impact tests were used in the characterization of composites. Theoretical models for prediction of some mechanical properties are included too.

Guiding readers from the significance, history, and sources of materials to advanced materials and processes, this textbook looks at the production and primary processing of inorganic materials, such as ceramics, metals, silicon, and some composite materials. The text encourages instructors to teach the production of all types of inorganic materials as one. While recognizing the differences between producing various types of materials, the authors focus on the commonality of thermodynamics, kinetics, transport phenomena, phase equilibria and transformation, process engineering, and surface chemistry to all inorganic materials. The text focuses on fundamentals and how fundamentals can be applied to understand how the major inorganic materials are produced and the initial stages of their processing. Understanding of these fundamentals will equip students for engineering future processes for producing materials or for studying the processing of the many less common materials not examined in this text. The text is intended for use in an undergraduate course at the junior or senior level, but will also serve as a useful introductory and reference work for graduate students and practicing scientists and engineers.

This volume is part of the Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceeding (CESP) series. This series contains a collection of papers dealing with issues in both traditional ceramics (i.e., glass, whitewares, refractories, and porcelain enamel) and advanced ceramics. Topics covered in the area of advanced ceramic include bioceramics, nanomaterials, composites, solid oxide fuel cells, mechanical properties and structural design, advanced ceramic coatings, ceramic armor, porous ceramics, and more.

Advances in Science and Technology of Mn+1AXn Phases presents a comprehensive review of synthesis, microstructures, properties, ab-initio calculations and applications of Mn+1AXn phases and targets the continuing research of advanced materials and ceramics. An overview of the current status, future directions, challenges and opportunities of Mn+1AXn phases that exhibit some of the best attributes of metals and ceramics is included. Students of materials science and engineering at postgraduate level will value this book as a reference source at an international level for both teaching and research in materials science and engineering. In addition to students the principal audiences of this book are ceramic researchers, materials scientists and engineers, materials physicists and chemists. The book is also an invaluable reference for the professional materials and ceramics societies.
The most up-to-date and comprehensive research data on MAX phases is presentedWritten by highly knowledgeable and well-respected researchers in the fieldDiscusses new and unusual properties

This is the first book presenting dynamic responses and failure of polymer composite structures as they interact with internal and/or external fluid media. It summarizes authoritative research carried out by the author in the past decade on various aspects of Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) to present important effects of FSI on composite structures. The topics include impact loading on composite structures with air-back, water-back, or containing water; FSI effects on frequencies, mode shapes, and modal curvatures; cyclic loading for fatigue failure with FSI; coupling of independent composite structures by fluid media; and moving composite structures in water. Numerical techniques for FSI are also presented. Research was conducted both experimentally and numerically to complement each other. The book offers a timely, comprehensive information to fluid-structure interaction of composite structures for students, researchers or practicing engineers.

This book is a unique reference work in the area of atomic-scale simulation of glasses. For the first time, a highly selected panel of about 20 researchers provides, in a single book, their views, methodologies and applications on the use of molecular dynamics as a tool to describe glassy materials. The book covers a wide range of systems covering "traditional" network glasses, such as chalcogenides and oxides, as well as glasses for applications in the area of phase change materials. The novelty of this work is the interplay between molecular dynamics methods (both at the classical and first-principles level) and the structure of materials for which, quite often, direct experimental structural information is rather scarce or absent. The book features specific examples of how quite subtle features of the structure of glasses can be unraveled by relying on the predictive power of molecular dynamics, used in connection with a realistic description of forces.

This book investigates geopolymers and geopolymer-based composites, with a focus on their preparation, geopolymerization mechanisms, microstructures, mechanical properties, and fracture behaviors. Geopolymers are inorganic materials consisting of tetrahedral units (such as [SiO4] and [AlO4]) linked by shared oxygens and forming long-range, covalently bonded and amorphous frameworks. Geopolymers have the advantages of low-temperature preparation, low cost, high heat and corrosion resistance, and being environmentally friendly. Using the preparation methods for epoxy-based composite, they can easily be formed into complex shapes or structures. Intended for researchers investigating geopolymers and their matrix composite materials, this book is also a valuable resource for engineers from various fields, such as materials, mechanical, civil and structural engineering, as well as students interested in other kinds of inorganic materials or even cementitious materials in general.

This book covers the current advances and practices in tribological applications of composite materials under various processes, presenting the development, characterization, and morphological properties of composite materials in tribological applications. It covers a wide range of subjects, extending from fundamental research on the tribological characteristics of various multi-phase materials to the final applications of composites in wear loaded, technical components. It brings together contributions from researchers who discusses innovative experimental approaches and analytical techniques, creating a reference with comprehensive coverage of modern research techniques and the potential application of tribological composites in biomedical, aerospace, automotive, marines and construction industries. This volume will be of interest to material science researchers working in both industry and academia

This book addresses perovskite quantum dots, discussing their unique properties, synthesis, and applications in nanoscale optoelectronic and photonic devices, as well as the challenges and possible solutions in the context of device design and the prospects for commercial applications. It particularly focuses on the luminescent properties, which differ from those of the corresponding quantum dots materials, such as multicolor emission, fluorescence narrowing, and tunable and switchable emissions from doped nanostructures. The book first describes the characterization and fabrication of perovskite quantum dots. It also provides detailed methods for analyzing the electrical and optical properties, and demonstrates promising applications of perovskite quantum dots. Furthermore, it presents a series of optoelectronic and photonic devices based on functional perovskite quantum dots, and explains the incorporation of perovskite quantum dots in semiconductor devices and their effect of the performance. It also explores the challenges related to optoelectronic devices, as well as possible strategies to promote their commercialization. As such, this book is a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers in the field of solid-state materials and electronics wanting to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of quantum dots, and the fundamental optoelectronic properties and operation mechanisms of the latest perovskite quantum dot-based devices.

This exhaustive work in several volumes and over 2500 pages provides a thorough treatment of ultra-high temperature materials (with melting points around or over 2500 DegreesC). The first volume focuses on carbon (graphene/graphite) and refractory metals (W, Re, Os, Ta, Mo, Nb and Ir), whilst the second and third are dedicated to refractory transition metal 4-5 groups carbides. Topics included are physical (structural, thermal, electro-magnetic, optical, mechanical, nuclear) and chemical (more than 3000 binary, ternary and multi-component systems, including those used for materials design, data on solid-state diffusion, wettability, interaction with various elements and compounds in solid and liquid states, gases and chemicals in aqueous solutions) properties of these materials. It will be of interest to researchers, engineers, postgraduate, graduate and undergraduate students alike. The readers/users are provided with the full qualitative and quantitative assessment, which is based on the latest updates in the field of fundamental physics and chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, design and engineering.

This book investigates stability loss problems of the viscoelastic composite materials and structural members within the framework of the Three-Dimensional Linearized Theory of Stability (TDLTS). The stability loss problems are considered the development of the initial infinitesimal imperfection in the structure of the material or of the structural members. This development is studied within the framework of the Three-Dimensional Geometrical Non-Linear Theory of the Deformable Solid Body Mechanics. The solution to the corresponding boundary-value problems is presented in the series form in the small parameter which characterizes the degree of the initial imperfection. In this way, the nonlinear problems for the domains bounded by noncanonical surfaces are reduced for the same nonlinear problem for the corresponding domains bounded by canonical surfaces and the series subsequent linearized problems. It is proven that the equations and relations of these linearized problems coincide with the corresponding ones of the well-known TDLTS. Under concrete investigations as stability loss criterion the case is taken for the initial infinitesimal imperfection that starts to increase indefinitely. Moreover, it is proven that the critical parameters can be determined by the use of only the zeroth and first approximations.

This book highlights the tools and processes used to produce high-quality glass molded optics using commercially available equipment. Combining scientific data with easy-to-understand explanations of specific molding issues and general industry information based on firsthand studies and experimentation, it provides useful formulas for readers involved in developing develop in-house molding capabilities, or those who supply molded glass optics. Many of the techniques described are based on insights gained from industry and research over the past 50 years, and can easily be applied by anyone familiar with glass molding or optics manufacturing. There is an abundance of information from around the globe, but knowledge comes from the application of information, and there is no knowledge without experience. This book provides readers with information, to allow them to gain knowledge and achieve success in their glass molding endeavors.

This book focuses on the free vibrations of graphite-epoxy laminated composite stiffened shells with cutout both in terms of the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The dynamic analysis of shell structures, which may have complex geometry and arbitrary loading and boundary conditions, is solved efficiently by the finite element method, even including cutouts in shells. The results may be readily used by practicing engineers dealing with stiffened composite shells with cutouts. Several shell forms viz. cylindrical shell, hypar shell, conoidal shell, spherical shell, saddle shell, hyperbolic paraboloidal shell and elliptic paraboloidal shell are considered in the book. The dynamic characteristics of stiffened composite shells with cutout are described in terms of the natural frequency and mode shapes. The size of the cutouts and their positions with respect to the shell centre are varied for different edge constraints of cross-ply and angle-ply laminated composite shells. The effects of these parametric variations on the fundamental frequencies and mode shapes are considered in detail. The information regarding the behavior of stiffened shells with cutouts for a wide spectrum of eccentricity and boundary conditions for cross ply and angle ply shells may be used as design aids for structural engineers. The book is a significant contribution to the existing literature from the point of view of both industrial importance and academic interest.

This book includes papers on recent research carried out in the field of metal-matrix composites (MMCs). Processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of MMCs and unreinforced matrix alloys will be covered with a focus on aluminum, titanium, nickel, and copper MMCs. Those involved in the research of MMCs and unreinforced alloys, particularly in aerospace, space, and automotive materials research, will find this volume indispensible.

The discovery of multiwalled carbon nanotubes(CNTs) in 1991 and the subsequent discovery of single-walled CNTs in 1993 have led to a worldwide excitement to explore their fundamental properties and potential device applications. A sing- walled CNT is structurally a sheet of graphene rolled into a seamless tube, which possesses a diameter of the order of a nanometer but a length thousands of times greater. The large aspect ratio and small cross section size make it nearly an ideal, quasi-one-dimensionalsystem, which has provided a concrete context for chemists, physicists,andengineersto collaborativelyworktogetherin the?eld ofnanoscience and nanotechnology. As a result of such efforts in the last two decades, superior electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of CNTs have been theoretically p- dicted and experimentally demonstrated. The unique material properties of CNTs have made it interesting for a variety of applications. For example, depending on the orientation of its graphene lattice relative to the nanotube axis, the CNT can be either metallic or semiconducting. This property makes the material interesting for developing not only nanoscale semiconductor devices but also a new interc- nect technologyto competewith the state-of-theart copperinterconnecttechnology. The property has also imposed yet-solved challenges in the ?eld. For example, one of the major challenges that holds CNTs back from electronic application is how to produce pure all-semiconducting CNTs, based on which a device that can be effectively turned off can be built.

This book offers a comprehensive and timely review of the fracture behavior of bimaterial composites consisting of periodically connected components, i.e. of bimaterial composites possessing periodical cracks along the interface. It first presents an overview of the literature, and then analyzes the isotropic, anisotropic and piezoelectric/dielectric properties of bimaterial components, gradually increasing the difficulty of the solutions discussed up to the coupled electromechanical problems. While in the case of isotropic and anisotropic materials it covers the problems generated by an arbitrary set of cracks, for the piezoelectric materials it focuses on studying the influence of the electric permittivity of the crack's filler, using not only a simple, fully electrically permeable model, but also a physically realistic, semi-permeable model. Throughout the analyses, the effects of the contact of the crack faces are taken into account so as to exclude the physically unrealistic interpenetration of the composite components that are typical of the classical open model. Further, the book derives and examines the mechanical and electromechanical fields, stress and electric intensity factors in detail. Providing extensive information on the fracture processes taking place in composite materials, the book helps readers become familiar with mathematical methods of complex function theory for obtaining exact analytical solutions.

The success of any concrete structure depends on the designer's sound knowledge of concrete and its behaviour under load, under temperature and humidity changes, and under exposure to the relevant environment and industrial conditions. This book gives students a thorough understanding of all aspects of concrete technology from first principles. It covers concrete ingredients, properties and behaviour in the finished structure with reference to national standards and recognised testing methods used in Britain, the European Union and the United States. Examples and problems are given throughout to emphasise the important aspects of each chapter. An excellent coursebook for all students of Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering and Building at degree or diploma level, Concrete Technology will also be a valuable reference book for practising engineers in the field.

This book presents an innovative concept for designing a 400 kV double circuit composite tower. The major challenges encountered by the authors in the electrical design process of the composite tower are addressed. They concern material selection for the full composite cross-arm core, electrical insulation of the cross-arm, electrical dimensioning of the full composite tower, lightning shielding performance and failure of the full composite tower. The electric field performance of the tower's insulation has been investigated theoretically by using finite element method and experimentally by testing different fiber reinforced polymers as candidates. The book reports in detail those finite element simulations and tests, together with the authors' recommendations on the most suitable materials and manufacturing process as well as conductor clamp designs for the cross-arm. Another important issue of the full composite tower, which concerns the environmental aspects of the full composite tower, has also been evaluated. This book offers a timely reference guide on a highly innovative topic, addressing researchers working on power transmission system both in industry and academia.

This highly illustrated book presents the essential information and major constituents of laser welding, including laser brazing and laser-arc hybrid welding. Students, engineers, researchers, scientists, specialists, professors, consultants, designers, and executives worldwide will fully grasp the fundamentals, the present state, and the applications of laser welding. Welding phenomena, formation mechanisms and preventive procedures of welding defects, and process monitoring and adaptive control are especially emphasized, because understanding these aspects of laser welding greatly improves the performance of work and research and solves many problems in the field. Finally, the book shows how increasingly widespread use of a variety of materials is bringing major advances to laser welding.