Optimal analysis is defined as an analysis that creates and uses sparse, well-structured and well-conditioned matrices. The focus is on efficient methods for eigensolution of matrices involved in static, dynamic and stability analyses of symmetric and regular structures, or those general structures containing such components. Powerful tools are also developed for configuration processing, which is an important issue in the analysis and design of space structures and finite element models.
Different mathematical concepts are combined to make the optimal analysis of structures feasible. Canonical forms from matrix algebra, product graphs from graph theory and symmetry groups from group theory are some of the concepts involved in the variety of efficient methods and algorithms presented.
The algorithms elucidated in this book enable analysts to handle large-scale structural systems by lowering their computational cost, thus fulfilling the requirement for faster analysis and design of future complex systems. The value of the presented methods becomes all the more evident in cases where the analysis needs to be repeated hundreds or even thousands of times, as for the optimal design of structures by different metaheuristic algorithms.
The book is of interest to anyone engaged in computer-aided analysis and design and software developers in this field. Though the methods are demonstrated mainly through skeletal structures, continuum models have also beenadded to show the generality of the methods. The concepts presented are not only applicable to different types of structures but can also be used for the analysis of other systems such as hydraulic and electrical networks."

This complete guide to boundary surveying provides landowners, land surveyors and students with the necessary foundation to understand boundary surveying techniques and the common legal issues that govern boundary establishment. Far from a simple engineering function, boundary establishment is often a difficult and delicate matter, with real monetary and legal ramifications if not accomplished accurately. This book helps readers to understand why such challenges exist and what remedies may be available. Using only simple and logically explained mathematics, the principles and practice of boundary surveying are demystified for those without prior experience and the focused coverage of pivotal issues such as easements and setting lot corners will aid even licensed practitioners in untangling thorny cases. Practical advice on using both basic and advanced instruments is included, alongside clear explanations of legal regulations that will impact any surveyor s work. For those who desire a more in-depth treatment of the mathematical aspects of boundary surveying, the Appendix includes the underlying theory and many examples of typical calculations performed by boundary surveyors."

Highly regarded for its clarity and depth of coverage, the bestselling Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis provides a comprehensive introduction to the highway-related problems civil engineers encounter every day. Emphasizing practical applications and up-to-date methods, this book prepares students for real-world practice while building the essential knowledge base required of a transportation professional. In-depth coverage of highway engineering and traffic analysis, road vehicle performance, traffic flow and highway capacity, pavement design, travel demand, traffic forecasting, and other essential topics equips students with the understanding they need to analyze and solve the problems facing America's highway system. This new Seventh Edition features a new e-book format that allows for enhanced pedagogy, with instant access to solutions for selected problems. Coverage focuses exclusively on highway transportation to reflect the dominance of U.S. highway travel and the resulting employment opportunities, while the depth and scope of coverage is designed to prepare students for success on standardized civil engineering exams.

This book provides a comprehensive description of traditional and innovative forest-based bioproducts, from pulp and paper, wood-based composites and wood fuels to chemicals and fiber-based composites. The descriptions of different types of forest-based bioproducts are supplemented by the environmental impacts involved in their processing, use, and end-of-life phase. Further, the possibility of reusing, recycling and upgrading bioproducts at the end of their projected life cycle is discussed. As the intensity of demand for forest biomass is currently changing, forest-based industries need to respond with innovative products, business models, marketing and management. As such, the book concludes with a chapter on the bioproducts business and these products' role in bioeconomies.

This book is primarily a general text covering the whole sweep of the forest industries. The over-riding emphasis is on a clear, simple interpretation of the underlying science, demonstrating how such principles apply to processing operations. The book starts by considering the broad question what is wood? by looking at the biology, chemistry and physics of wood structure (first 4 chapters). This sets the scene. Next key chapters examine wood quality - explaining how and why wood quality can be so variable and implications for processing. Finally, in a series of chapters, various industrial processes are reviewed and interpreted. The 2nd Edition is a total revision. A few chapters remain relatively unchanged (no change for the sake of change). Many have been totally rewritten. All chapters have been written by specialists, but the presentation targets a generalist audience.

Detection of concealed explosives is a notoriously difficult problem, and many different approaches have been proposed to solve this problem. Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) is unique in many ways. It operates in a safe AM radio frequency range, and it can remotely detect unique fingerprint (NQR spectrum) of many explosives, such as TNT or RDX. As such, the detection of target does not depend on the shape or material of the container, or the presence of metallic object such as triggers etc. Spectra of chemically similar compounds differ enough that their presence never causes interference or false alarms. Unfortunately, widespread use is prevented due to low sensitivity, radiofrequency interference from the noisy environment, and inability to detect liquid explosives. This book presents current state of the art of the attempts to overcome NQR sensitivity problem, either by increasing the strengths of signals generated, or by increasing the specificity of the technique through a better understanding of the factors that affect the quadrupolar parameters of specific explosives. The use of these specific quadrupolar parameters is demonstrated on signal processing techniques that can detect weak signals, which are hidden in a noisy background. The problem of differentiation of liquid explosives and benign liquids in closed containers is approached by measurements of different nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) parameters. As shown, a couple of solutions has reached a prototype stage and could find their use in a near future."

Coast lines have been and still are the centre lines of civilization around the world with still increasing pressure from both sides, the hinterland and the sea, with all its foreseeable and unforeseeable impacts given by nature or mankind. While response of nature to such impacts is flexible in the way that all morphological changes with all the consequences are tolerated as part of the system, man cannot tolerate short-term or long-term changes without being threatened in its physical and economical existence. The objectives of this Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on Environmentally Friendly Coastal Structures were:

- to contribute to the critical assessment of existing knowledge in the field of coastal and environmental protection;

- to identify directions for future research in that area;

- to promote close working relationships between scientists from different countries and with different professional experience.

Latest trends in research in coastal and environmental protection have been summarized and developed during the meeting. Seventeen papers are presented in this book, attempting to cover as completely as possible all related aspects a" coast, engineering structures, water, sediments, ecosystems in their complicated interaction.

This book explains how in moving towards Cleaner Production, the Lean Production Philosophy can be applied to reduce carbon emissions in prefabrication - one major source of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions which contribute to global climate change. This book examines theories and principles in the Lean Production Philosophy to develop situation-based carbon reduction strategies for precast concrete manufacturers and contractors in terms of Site layout, Supply Chain, Production, Stocks and Installation Management. It presents the empirical findings of surveys and case studies with managers and professionals working for precasters and contractors in Singapore, findings which provide good practical guidance for precast concrete manufacturers and contractors to achieve low carbon emissions and to perform better in many sustainability-based rating systems, such as the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark Scheme.

This edited volume presents the proceedings of the AMAA 2015 conference, Berlin, Germany. The topical focus of the 2015 conference lies on smart systems for green and automated driving. The automobile of the future has to respond to two major trends, the electrification of the drivetrain, and the automation of the transportation system. These trends will not only lead to greener and safer driving but re-define the concept of the car completely, particularly if they interact with each other in a synergetic way as for autonomous parking and charging, self-driving shuttles or mobile robots. Key functionalities like environment perception are enabled by electronic components and systems, sensors and actuators, communication nodes, cognitive systems and smart systems integration. The book will be a valuable read for research experts and professionals in the automotive industry but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

This book charts the path toward high performance sustainable buildings and the smart dwellings of the future. The volume clearly explains the principles and practices of high performance design, the uses of building information modelling (BIM), and the materials and methods of smart construction. Power Systems, Architecture, Material Science, Civil Engineering and Information Systems are all given consideration, as interdisciplinary endeavours are at the heart of this green building revolution.

This book encapsulates the analysis and design of buried gravity flow conduits, including pipe materials and soil materials and their interaction. These range from traditional pipes to open bottom concrete and corrugated metal culverts with spans of up to 25 metres, and include culverts, storm drains, sewers, and buried bridges. It begins with historical background and easily understandable design models then considers the properties of pipe materials and of pipe rings and backfill soils and the commonalities in their behavior. Finally, design methods consider the interaction of pipe and soil, along with simplified and computer methods. Much of this has been adopted by the AASHTO Committee on Bridges (responsible for highway culvert design) and other standards. The book will be important to any practicing engineer working on buried pipe design, including public engineers at all levels, private consultants, and product manufacturers, and will also suit researchers as a unified and comprehensive presentation.

This book introduces novel research targeting technical aspects of protecting information security and establishing trust in the digital space. New paradigms, and emerging threats and solutions are presented in topics such as application security and threat management; modern authentication paradigms; digital fraud detection; social engineering and insider threats; cyber threat intelligence; intrusion detection; behavioral biometrics recognition; hardware security analysis. The book presents both the important core and the specialized issues in the areas of protection, assurance, and trust in information security practice. It is intended to be a valuable resource and reference for researchers, instructors, students, scientists, engineers, managers, and industry practitioners.

This volume covers the interdisciplinary field of disaster mitigatition against earthquakes with special emphasis on prevention of total collapse of existing low rise buildings towards reduction of life losses and economical assets. Rehabilitation of thousands of low-rise buildings in many big cities located in earthquake prone areas, is practically impossible even though there are experimentally and analytically approved intervention techniques to protect these existing buildings. It is simply not possible to find a proper way and proper amount of financial support to do this job. It will be more realistic to change the target to be achieved in a relatively short time, especially if time shortage starts to become the most critical issue. The new target can be specified as the prevention of total collapse of low-rise low-cost existing buildings, at least to save as much lives and property as possible. Simple prescriptive techniques, which can be implemented by the building owners, should be prepared. The cost of the improvement techniques, all kinds of legal, economical and social issues for convincing people, and promotions such as tax exemptions should be discussed in detail. Writers of all chapters are leading researchers and engineers working in the field of structural and earthquake engineering. The book will start with an introduction chapter written by Prof. Helmut Krawinkler of Stanford University. In this chapter, past and present of studies towards seismically safe design and construction will be introduced, as well as potential future trends in structural and earthquake engineering. In other chapters, different subjects will be presented under three main titles, namely; determination of seismic risks, seismic safety assessment of existing buildings, and measures for prevention of total collapse.

Random waves are the most important constituent of the sea environment, as they make the design of maritime structures quite different from that of structures on land. In this book, the concept of random waves for the design of breakwaters, seawalls, and harbor structures is fully explored for easy comprehension by practicing engineers. Theoretical aspects are also discussed in detail for further studies by graduate students and researchers.

Updated edition of a best-selling title
Author brings 25 years experience to the work
Addresses the key issues of economy and environment
Marine pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas have become a safe and reliable way to exploit the valuable resources below the world s seas and oceans. The design of these pipelines is a relatively new technology and continues to evolve in its quest to reduce costs and minimise the effect on the environment.
With over 25years experience, Professor Yong Bai has been able to assimilate the essence of the applied mechanics aspects of offshore pipeline system design in a form of value to students and designers alike. It represents an excellent source of up to date practices and knowledge to help equip those who wish to be part of the exciting future of this industry.

Flood control in urban areas can be feasibly and cost-effectively enhanced by implementing flood proofing approaches to risk reduction in the context of environmental and land-use planning and management. Indeed, flood proofing makes it possible to improve, integrate and in some cases even replace traditional measures for flood control, reducing the vulnerability and increasing the resilience of buildings and infrastructures. This book begins by reviewing the physics of stability and instability of both human beings and buildings under flood conditions, together with criteria and models (both conventional and innovative) for assessing flood strains. In turn, it presents a range of flood proofing concepts and techniques, together with a complete and updated classification of related methods and devices. This provides a user-friendly tool to help identify appropriate solutions to real-world problems for each specific risk scenario. In particular, the book focuses on temporary flood proofing techniques, given their ability to deliver effective performance at low costs. Lastly, it features an overview of norms, guidelines and laboratory recommendations that are currently being adopted in various countries with regard to flood proofing devices and testing procedures. The purpose of this book is essentially to encourage authorities, stakeholders, technicians and end users to successfully develop flood proofing solutions that can reduce flood risk in a pragmatic manner. In addition, the authors hope to inspire researchers, manufacturers and designers (engineers, architects, urban planners and urban managers) to pursue further advances in this key sector of public and private safety in urban areas.

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