This book presents the latest and complete information about various types of piezosensors. A sensor is a converter of the measured physical size to an electric signal. Piezoelectric transducers and sensors are based on piezoelectric effects. They have proven to be versatile tools for the measurement of various processes. They are used for quality assurance, process control and for research and development in many different industries. In each area of application specific requirements to the parameters of transducers and sensors are developed. The book presents the fundamentals, technical design and details and practical applications. Methods to design piezosensors are described, allowing to create sensors with unique properties. New methods to measure physical sizes and new constructions of sensors including large area of piezosensors are described in this book. This book is written for specialists in transforming hydroacoustics, non-destructive control, measuring technique, sensors development for automatic control and also for graduate students.

This book is a collection of papers dedicated to Professor Dr. Krzysztof Wilman 'ski onthe occasionof his 70thbirthday. The bookcontains25 cont- butions of his friends and colleagues. He met the invited authors at di?erent stagesofhisscienti?ccareerofalmost50yearssothatthecontributionscover a wide range of ?elds stemming from continuum mechanics. This happened at numerous universities and research institutes where he both taught and did his excellent research work, e. g. * the University of Lod ' ' z, Poland, where he studied Civil Engineering and did his diploma work onElastic-plastic thermal stresses in a thin ring and where he graduated with his PhD-work in the ?eld of Continuous Models of Discrete Systems, * theInstituteofFundamentalTechnologicalResearchofthePolishAcademy of Sciences in Warsaw, where he got his habilitation in the ?eld Non- cal Continuum Mechanics and where he was the head of the Research Group Continuum Thermodynamics. He collaborated with W. Fiszdon, L. Turski, Cz. Wozniak, H. Zorski and others on the topics axiomatic and kinetic foundations of continuumthermodynamics, theory of mixtures, phase transformations in solids, * theJohnsHopkinsUniversityinBaltimore,US,wherehe workedtogether, e. g. with C. Truesdell, J. Ericksen and W. Williams, on axiomatic and kinetic foundations of continuum thermodynamics, * the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq, where he was a Visiting Professor and taught many courses, * theUniversityofPaderbornandtheTechnicalUniversityBerlin,Germany, wherehe had an Alexander von Humboldt Stipend andcontractsasa V- iting Professor (works on a model of crystallizing polymers, on a nonlocal thermodynamicmodelofplasmasandelectrolytesandonmartensiticphase transformations), * the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Studies), G- many,whereheworkedtogetherwithe. g. I.

Erosive wear is characterized by successive loss of material from the surface due to the continuous impact of solid particles. This type of wear affects numerous industries, such as power generation, mining, and the pneumatic transportation of solids. The worst case scenario normally occurs where there is a combination of both erosion and oxidation, especially at high temperatures. In order to minimize damage caused by erosive wear, many authors propose the use of better bulk materials or surface coatings, and generally cermets are suggested. Various researchers have conducted experiments to study the wear mechanisms occurring in this kind of materials, but most of these experiments do not lead to similar results; in fact, there is no accordance among the authors, and moreover, some wear variables are ignored. In this book, studies undertaken in this field by several investigators have been discussed extensively. At the end of it, table reviews are suggested to summarize the most important mechanisms of the erosive wear in bulk and coating cermets.

This book provides recent advances in research on drying of particulate and porous materials. It is based on a selection of papers presented at the XI Polish Drying Symposium 2005. The contributions cover theoretical, as well as experimental and modeling research on heat and mass transfer processes during drying of porous material and fluidized beds. The book is a pioneering contribution to the science and technology of drying of particulate solids.

Creative and practical, Kicking Glass is a step-by-step guide for those wanting to practice the popular craft of stained glass. From simple suncatchers and boho lamps to exquisite 3D constructions and delicately-poised glass butterflies, experienced artist Neile Cooper guides you through the magical world of stained glass with a creative handbook for both the novice and more experienced crafter alike. Beautifully illustrated with photographs of Neile's own work including her glorious glass cabin in the woods as well as pieces from some of today's most stylish designers, Kicking Glass is packed with ideas to guide and inspire. This book provides comprehensive technical instruction in the copper foil method, covering everything from tools and supplies to exploratory techniques such as including foraged and found objects into your work. Skills are demonstrated through tutorials with photos, instructional drawings and 16 stunning patterns. Whether you're looking to decorate your windows, create lovely gifts for friends and family or design your own epic masterpiece, Kicking Glass is the essential modern guide to stained glass making.

After an introductory chapter, the processing, microstructure, and properties of various ceramic materials, reinforcements, and their composites are described. A separate chapter is devoted to processing of ceramic reinforcements, with a special emphasis on fibers. Processing of ceramic matrix composites is the next chapter, which includes novel techniques such as sol-gel processing and ceramics from polymeric precursors. The next four chapters cover the subjects of interface region in ceramic composites, mechanical and physical properties, and the role of thermal stresses and the important subject of toughness enhancement. Laminated composites made of ceramics are described in a separate chapter. Finally, a chapter is devoted to various applications of ceramic matrix composites. Throughout the text, the underlying relationships between the components of the triad: processing, microstructure, and properties are brought out. An exhaustive list of references and suggested reading is provided.

I knew nothing of the work of C. G. Vayenas on NEMCA until the early nineties. Then I learned from a paper of his idea (gas interface reactions could be catalyzed electrochemically), which seemed quite marvelous; but I did not understand how it worked. Consequently, I decided to correspond with Professor Vayenas in Patras, Greece, to reach a better understanding of this concept. I think that my early papers (1946, 1947, and 1957), on the relationship between the work function of metal surfaces and electron transfer reactions thereat to particles in solution, held me in good stead to be receptive to what Vayenas told me. As the electrode potential changes, so of course, does the work function at the interface, and gas metal reactions there involve adsorbed particles which have bonding to the surface. Whether electron transfer is complete in such a case, or whether the effect is on the desorption of radicals, the work function determines the strength of their bonding, and if one varies the work function by varying the electrode potential, one can vary the reaction rate at the interface. I got the idea. After that, it has been smooth sailing. Dr. Vayenas wrote a seminal article in Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry, Number 29, and brought the field into the public eye. It has since grown and its usefulness in chemical catalytic reactions has been demonstrated and verified worldwide.

This monograph presents recent research findings on fracture properties and behavior of the composites, and their damage and cracking process under both quasi-static and impact loading conditions. Theoretical treatment, experimental investigation and numerical simulation aspects of the mechanics of composites, including sandwich structures are included.

Glass ceramics are a special group of materials in which a base glass can be crystallized under carefully controlled conditions, which in turn determine the properties of the material. These materials offer a wide range of physical and mechanical properties combining the distinctive characteristics of sintered ceramics and glasses. This book provides readers with an interest in medical ceramics with the ability to start making their own glasses and glass ceramics, together with an understanding of the various factors that control the final properties of these medical and dental materials. In addition, the authors describe various industrial problems with current, clinically-used medical glass ceramics and discuss appropriate scientific solutions.

"Glasses and Glass Ceramics for Medical Applications" will appeal to a broad audience of biomaterials scientists, ceramists, and bioengineers, particularly those with an interest in orthopedic and dental applications, as well as scientists and engineers involved in the manufacture of glasses, glazes, enamels, and other glass coatings for the medical materials industry. The book will also be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in materials engineering and dentistry, and is suitable for use in courses on medical and dental materials.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7 In the early chapters of the book of Proverbs there is a strong emphasis on three words: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Perhaps we can apply these words to our philosophy behind the technology of Predictive Process Control. Knowledge is the accumulation of information provided by education as we begin to store the data in our brains that should prepare us for the challenges of the manufacturing environment. It applies to every level and every opportunity of education, formal and informal. This is simply to Know, without any requirement except a good memory, and is the basis for the following two thoughts. Understanding is the assimilation of knowledge, or the thinking process, as we begin to arrange and rearrange the data we Know for quick recall as it may be needed. This also applies to every level and opportunity of education. It is Know-Why based upon what we Know, and it requires some scepticism of oversimplified answers and a hunger for mental consistency. Wisdom is the application of both knowledge and understanding in real life enterprises. As we apply both our knowledge and understanding in those situations, all three are further enhanced by each progressive experience. This is that wonderful Know-How - to apply our education based upon Know-why, which was based upon Knowledge - which provides the confidence we need to advance in all phases of performance.

Stereology is the science that relates three-dimensional structure to the two-dimensional images that can be measured. The most common field of application is in microscopy, both of man-made materials (metals, ceramics, composites, etc.) and of biological tissue samples. This book covers the applications and terminology of both fields. Recent emphasis in stereology is concerned with sampling strategies to avoid bias due to directionality and non-uniformity, and these methods are fully covered. So are the classic techniques that measure size distributions, surface curvature, etc., which are widely useful but not discussed in other recent texts. Finally, most stereology is taught as manual procedures using counting and grids, but this text also covers the use of modern desktop computers for image analysis and processing to obtain and interpret the stereological data.

Advances in nanoscale science show that the properties of many materials are dominated by internal structures. In molecular cases, such as window glass and proteins, these internal structures obviously have a network character. However, in many partly disordered electronic materials, almost all attempts at understanding are based on traditional continuum models. This workshop focuses first on the phase diagrams and phase transitions of materials known to be composed of molecular networks. These phase properties characteristically contain remarkable features, such as intermediate phases that lead to reversibility windows in glass transitions as functions of composition. These features arise as a result of self-organization of the internal structures of the intermediate phases. In the protein case, this self-organization is the basis for protein folding. The second focus is on partly disordered electronic materials whose phase properties exhibit the same remarkable features. In fact, the phenomenon of High Temperature Superconductivity, discovered by Bednorz and Mueller in 1986, and now the subject of 75,000 research papers, also arises from such an intermediate phase. More recently discovered electronic phenomena, such as giant magnetoresistance, also are made possible only by the existence of such special phases. This book gives an overview of the methods and results obtained so far by studying the characteristics and properties of nanoscale self-organized networks. It demonstrates the universality of the network approach over a range of disciplines, from protein folding to the newest electronic materials.

Developments in mesoporous ceramics in drug delivery, nanomedicine, and bone tissue regeneration have opened promising developments in biomedical research, many applicable in the clinic in the near future. Due to the ability to fine-tune the physicochemical properties of these materials, the field has experienced an impressive burst in the number of publications. As controlled drug delivery systems are one of the most promising applications for human health care, it is now necessary to set the milestones of this technology, from the very basic to the most advanced. Biomedical Applications of Mesoporous Ceramics: Drug Delivery, Smart Materials and Bone Tissue Engineering is a comprehensive overview of silica-based mesoporous materials with special attention given to their use in drug delivery systems, sophisticated stimuli-responsive materials, and bone tissue engineering. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the basic aspects of the properties of mesoporous materials, with a focus on textural properties such as surface and porosity. Starting from this consolidated knowledge, it then addresses various aspects of more sophisticated stimuli-responsive materials and bone tissue engineering, detailing the research and development of these biomedical applications.

Organic Additives and Ceramic Processing: With Applications in Powder Metallurgy, Ink, and Paint describes the major manufacturing processes, such as slip casting, tape casting, injection molding, etc. The book covers each subject, including the ceramic processes, organic chemical structures, polymers, colloid science and others, starting from fundamental principles, with many literature references for further reading. After the fundamentals, detailed case studies from industrial applications are described for the optimization of solvents, dispersants, binders, plasticizers, lubricants and some minor additives. A wide range of information is covered, beginning with fundamental equations for students, and extending to advanced applications for development workers and factory problem solvers. Shanefield undertook this ambitious task only because of the previous lack of resources that address the growing need for detailed information on organic additives for ceramics. Suitable for use as a textbook and as a reference source for working ceramists and chemists who wish to supply the ceramics industry with additives.

This book brings together an emerging consensus on our understanding of the complex functional materials including ferroics, perovskites, multiferroics, CMR and high-temperature superconductors. The common theme is the existence of many competing ground states and frustration as a collusion of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in the presence of disorder and (both dipolar and elastic) long-range forces. An important consequence of the complex unit cell and the competing interactions is that the emergent materials properties are very sensitive to external fields thus rendering these materials with highly desirable, technologically important applications enabled by cross-response.

Provides a summary of non-equilibrium glassy and amorphous structures and their macro- and microscopic thermal properties.

The book contains a carefully selected works of fourteen internationally recognized scientists involving the advances of the physics and chemistry of the glassy and amorphous states.

Pressure is one of the essential thermodynamic variables that, due to some former experimental difficulties, was long known as the forgotten variable. But this has changed over the last decade. This book includes the most essential first experiments from the 1960s and reviews the progress made in understanding glass formation with the application of pressure in the last ten years. The systems include amorphous polymers and glass-forming liquids, polypeptides and polymers blends. The thermodynamics of these systems, the relation of the structural relaxation to the chemical specificity, and their present and future potential applications are discussed in detail. The book provides (a) an overview of systems exhibiting glassy behavior in relation to their molecular structure and provides readers with the current state of knowledge on the liquid-to-glass transformation, (b) emphasizes the relation between thermodynamic state and dynamic response and (c) shows that the information on the pressure effects on dynamics can be employed in the design of materials for particular applications. It is meant to serve as an advanced introductory book for scientists and graduate students working or planning to work with dynamics. Several scientific papers dealing with the effects of pressure on dynamics have appeared in leading journals in the fields of physics in the last ten years. The book provides researchers and students new to the field with an overview of the knowledge that has been gained in a coherent and comprehensive way.

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In an attempt to meet the demand for new ultra-high strength materials, the processing of novel material configurations with unique microstructure is being explored in systems which are further and further from equilibrium. One such class of emerging materials is the so-called nanophased or nanostructured materials. This class of materials includes metals and alloys, ceramics, and polymers characterized by controlled ultra-fine microstructural features in the form oflayered, fibrous, or phase and grain distribution. While it is clear that these materials are in an early stage of development, there is now a sufficient body of literature to fuel discussion of how the mechanical properties and deformation behavior can be controlled through control of the microstructure. This NATO-Advanced Study Institute was convened in order to assess our current state of knowledge in the field of mechanical properties and deformation behavior in materials with ultra fine microstructure, to identify opportunities and needs for further research, and to identify the potential for technological applications. The Institute was the first international scientific meeting devoted to a discussion on the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of materials having grain sizes down to a few nanometers. Included in these discussions were the topics of superplasticity, tribology, and the supermodulus effect. Lectures were also presented which covered a variety of other themes including synthesis, characterization, thermodynamic stability, and general physical properties."

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge * . . . Book of Proverbs This volume constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Materials Processing at High Gravity. It offers the latest results in a new field with immense potential for commercialization, making this book a vital resource for research and development professionals in industry, academia and government. We have titled the proceedings Centrifugal Materials Processing to emphasize that centrifugation causes more than an increase in acceleration. It also introduces the Coriolis force and a gradient of acceleration, both of which have been discovered to play important roles in materials processing. The workshop was held June 2-8, 1996 on the campus of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, under the sponsorship of Corning Corporation and the International Center for Gravity Materials Science and Applications. The meeting was very productive and exciting, with energetic discussions of the latest discoveries in centrifugal materials processing, continuing the atmosphere of the first workshop held in 1991 at Dubna (Russia) and the second workshop held in 1993 in Potsdam, New York. Results and research plans were presented for a wide variety of centrifugal materials processing, including directional solidification of semiconductors, crystallization of high Tc superconductors, growth of diamond thin films, welding, alloy casting, solution behavior and growth, protein crystal growth, polymerization, and flow behavior. Also described were several centrifuge facilities that have been constructed for research, with costs beginning at below $1000.

Despite the significant progress, which has been made in developing of ceramic materials desired for engineering applications, their mass production is still not on expected level. Among the key factors hindering higher exploitation of these materials the problems in processing were identified. The processing comprises powder production, mixing techniques, forming, and sintering. All of them are equally important and all of them can introduce defects into the material. Besides improvement in processing, the properties of ceramic materials can be considerably improved by the creation of composites. Composites formed at micro or macro level are able to form more flaw-tolerant material. Considerable research activities, working on above mentioned phenomena are in progress at industrial laboratories as well as other research centres. This volume presents the contributions to the Advanced Research Workshop "Engineering Ceramics '96" with 65 participants from 21 countries held on 12th - 15th May 1996 at Smolenice Castle, Slovakia, the conference site of Slovak Academy of Sciences. The book covers research activities on engineering ceramic materials and gives an overview with respect to recent developments.

Conventional materials, such as nickel based alloys, will not be able to match the required performance specifications for the future generation of high temperature materials. This book reviews the characteristics and potential of a wide range of candidate superalloy replacements, such as ceramics, intermetallics, and their composites. Particular attention is devoted to the problems of processing and design with these materials.