This volume treats Lagrange equations for electromechanical systems, including piezoelectric transducers and selected applications. It is essentially an extension to piezoelectric systems of the work by Crandall et al.: "Dynamics of Mechanical and Electromechanical Systems," published in 1968. The first three chapters contain classical material based on this and other well known standard texts in the field. Some applications are new and include material not published in a monograph before.

The most comprehensive book on electroacoustic transducers and arrays for underwater sound

Includes transducer modeling techniques and transducer designs that are currently in use

Includes discussion and analysis of array interaction and nonlinear effects in transducers

Contains extensive data in figures and tables needed in transducer and array design

Written at a level that will be useful to students as well as to practicing engineers and scientists

The core of ths book presents a theory developed by the author to combine the recent insight into empirical data with mathematical models in freeway traffic research based on dynamical non-linear processes.

I became interested in Random Vibration during the preparation of my PhD dissertation, which was concerned with the seismic response of nuclear reactor cores. I was initiated into this field through the cla.ssical books by Y.K.Lin, S.H.Crandall and a few others. After the completion of my PhD, in 1981, my supervisor M.Gera.din encouraged me to prepare a course in Random Vibration for fourth and fifth year students in Aeronautics, at the University of Liege. There was at the time very little material available in French on that subject. A first draft was produced during 1983 and 1984 and revised in 1986. These notes were published by the Presses Poly techniques et Universitaires Romandes (Lausanne, Suisse) in 1990. When Kluwer decided to publish an English translation ofthe book in 1992, I had to choose between letting Kluwer translate the French text in-extenso or doing it myself, which would allow me to carry out a sustantial revision of the book. I took the second option and decided to rewrite or delete some of the original text and include new material, based on my personal experience, or reflecting recent technical advances. Chapter 6, devoted to the response of multi degree offreedom structures, has been completely rewritten, and Chapter 11 on random fatigue is entirely new. The computer programs which have been developed in parallel with these chapters have been incorporated in the general purpose finite element software SAMCEF, developed at the University of Liege.

During its 2004 meeting in Warsaw the General Assembly of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) decided to support a proposal of the Georgian National Committee to hold in Tbilisi (Georgia), on April 23-27, 2007, the IUTAM Symposium on the Relation of Shell, Plate, Beam, and 3D Models, dedicated to the Centenary of Ilia Vekua. The sci- ti?c organization was entrusted to an international committee consisting of Philipppe G. Ciarlet (Hong Kong), the late Anatoly Gerasimovich Gorshkov (Russia),JornHansen(Canada),GeorgeV.Jaiani(Georgia,Chairman),Re- hold Kienzler (Germany), Herbert A. Mang (Austria), Paolo Podio-Guidugli (Italy), and Gangan Prathap (India). The main topics to be included in the scienti?c programme were c- sen to be: hierarchical, re?ned mathematical and technical models of shells, plates, and beams; relation of 2D and 1D models to 3D linear, non-linear and physical models; junction problems. The main aim of the symposium was to thoroughly discuss the relations of shell, plate, and beam models to the 3D physicalmodels.Inparticular,peculiaritiesofcuspedshells,plates,andbeams were to be emphasized and special attention paid to junction, multibody and ? uid-elastic shell (plate, beam) interaction problems, and their applications. The expected contributions of the invited participants were anticipated to be theoretical, practical, and numerical in character.

This monograph addresses the systematic representation of the methods of analysis developed by the authors as applied to such systems. Particular features of dynamic processes in such systems are studied. Special attention is given to an analysis of different resonant phenomena taking unusual and diverse forms.

Modeling and Control in Vibrational and Structural Dynamics: A Differential Geometric Approach describes the control behavior of mechanical objects, such as wave equations, plates, and shells. It shows how the differential geometric approach is used when the coefficients of partial differential equations (PDEs) are variable in space (waves/plates), when the PDEs themselves are defined on curved surfaces (shells), and when the systems have quasilinear principal parts. To make the book self-contained, the author starts with the necessary background on Riemannian geometry. He then describes differential geometric energy methods that are generalizations of the classical energy methods of the 1980s. He illustrates how a basic computational technique can enable multiplier schemes for controls and provide mathematical models for shells in the form of free coordinates. The author also examines the quasilinearity of models for nonlinear materials, the dependence of controllability/stabilization on variable coefficients and equilibria, and the use of curvature theory to check assumptions. With numerous examples and exercises throughout, this book presents a complete and up-to-date account of many important advances in the modeling and control of vibrational and structural dynamics.

Contact mechanics was and is an important branch in mechanics which covers a broad field of theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations. In this carefully edited book the reader will obtain a state-of-the-art overview on formulation, mathematical analysis and numerical solution procedures of contact problems. The contributions collected in this volume summarize the lectures presented during the 4th Contact Mechanics Interantional symposium (CMIS) held in Hannover, Germany, 2005, by leading scientists in the area of contact mechanics.

This is the first mechatronics book dealing with coupled mechanical and electrical actions, an emerging branch of modern technology. Authored by the leading scientist in this field, the book treats various subjects along the interface between mechanics and electronics.

Several consistent solutions for cooperative system control have recently been identified by the authors of the current monograph. This was achieved by solving three separate tasks that are essential for solving the problem of cooperative manipulation as a whole. The first task is related to the understanding of the physical nature of cooperative manipulation and finding a way for a sufficiently exact characterization of cooperative system statics, kinematics and dynamics. After successfully completing this task, in the frame of the second task, the problem of coordinated motion of the cooperative system is solved. Finally, as a solution to the third task, the control laws of cooperative manipulation are synthesized.

The starting point in dealing with the above three tasks of cooperative manipulation was the assumption that the problem of force uncertainty in cooperative manipulation can be resolved by introducing elastic properties into the cooperative system, at least in the part where force uncertainty appears. In static and dynamic analysis of the elastic structure of cooperative systems the finite element method is applied. In contrast to the procedure used in the major part of the available literature where deformation work is expressed by deviations from the unloaded state of fixed elastic structure, in this monograph the deformation work is expressed by internal forces as a function of the absolute coordinates of contacts of mobile elastic structure. Coordinated motion and control in cooperative manipulation are solved as the problem of coordinated motion and control of a mobile elastic structure, taking into account the specific features of cooperative manipulation. Coordinated motion and control laws in cooperative manipulation are synthesized on the basis of a non-linear model where the problem of uncertainty is solved, which is not the case in the available literature. Simple examples demonstrate the consistent procedure of mathematical modeling and synthesis of nominal coordinated motion, as well as control of the cooperative system.

This book will be useful to a wide audience of engineers, ranging from undergraduate and graduate students, new and advanced academic researchers, to practitioners (mechanical and electrical engineers, computer and system scientists). It is intended for readers whose work involves manufacturing, industrial, robotics, automation, computer and control engineering, and who wish to find out about this important new technology and its potential advantages for control engineering applications.

This is the first ever book that provides a comprehensive coverage of automotive control systems. The presentation of dynamic models in the text is also unique. The dynamic models are tractable while retaining the level of richness that is necessary for control system design. Much of the mateiral in the book is not available in any other text.

Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation builds upon the application of fuzzy logic to the area of intelligent control of mobile robots. Reactive, planned, and teleoperated techniques are considered, leading to the development of novel fuzzy control systems for perception and navigation of nonholonomic autonomous vehicles. The unique feature of this monograph lies in its comprehensive treatment of the problem, from the theoretical development of the various schemes down to the real-time implementation of algorithms on mobile robot prototypes. As such, the book spans different domains ranging from mobile robots to intelligent transportation systems, from automatic control to artificial intelligence.

Civil infrastructure systems are generally the most expensive assets in any country, and these systems are deteriorating at an alarming rate. In addition, these systems have a long service life in comparison to most other commercial products. As well, the introduction of intelligent materials and innovative design approaches in these systems is painfully slow due to heavy relianceon traditional construction and maintenance practices, and the conservative nature of design codes. Feedback on the "state of the health" of constructed systems is practically nonexistent. In the quest for lighter, stronger and corrosion-resistant structures, the replacement of ferrous materials by high-strength fibrous ones is being actively pursued in several countries around the world, both with respect to the design of new structures as well as for the rehabilitation and strengthening of existing ones. In North America, active research in the design of new highway bridges is focused on a number of specialty areas, including the replacement of steel reinforcing bars in concrete deck slabs by randomly distributed low-modulus fibers, and the replacement of steel prestressing cables for concrete components by tendons comprising super-strong fibers. Research is also being conducted on using FRPs to repair and strengthen existing structures.

For most cases of interest, exact solutions to nonlinear equations describing stochastic dynamical systems are not available. This book details the relatively simple and popular linearization techniques available, covering theory as well as application. It examines models with continuous external and parametric excitations, those that cover the majority of known approaches.

Nowadays, the engineering practice raises far more vibration problems than can be theoretically explained or modelled. Because Df this, measurements are used in almost all fields of industry, transportation and civil engineering in studies of mechanical and structural vibration. They are an invaluable tool for designing products and machines with high reliability and low noise level, vehicles and buildings with improved comfort and resistance to dynamic loads, as well as for obtaining increased safety of opera tion and optimum running parameters. In order to cope with the increasing demand for experimental measurement of vibration characteristics, young engineers and designers need an introductory book with emphasis on "what has to be measured" and "by what means" before learning "how measurements are done." The expertise to perform vibration measurements must be gained in time, with every new investi gation and studied problem . .A detailed presentation of instrumentation and measuring techniques is beyond the aim of this book. Such information can be found in product data sheets, application manuals and hand books supplied by equipment manufacturers. Only general princi ples and widely used methods are presented herein, in order to provide the reader with an overview of the instrumentation and techniques encountered in vibration measurement."

Recently, research in robot kinematics has attracted researchers with different theoretical profiles and backgrounds, such as mechanical and electrica! engineering, computer science, and mathematics. It includes topics and problems that are typical for this area and cannot easily be met elsewhere. As a result, a specialised scientific community has developed concentrating its interest in a broad class of problems in this area and representing a conglomeration of disciplines including mechanics, theory of systems, algebra, and others. Usually, kinematics is referred to as the branch of mechanics which treats motion of a body without regard to the forces and moments that cause it. In robotics, kinematics studies the motion of robots for programming, control and design purposes. It deals with the spatial positions, orientations, velocities and accelerations of the robotic mechanisms and objects to be manipulated in a robot workspace. The objective is to find the most effective mathematical forms for mapping between various types of coordinate systems, methods to minimise the numerical complexity of algorithms for real-time control schemes, and to discover and visualise analytical tools for understanding and evaluation of motion properties ofvarious mechanisms used in a robotic system.

"Nonlinear Oscillations in Mechanical Engineering" explores the effects of nonlinearities encountered in applications in that field. Since the nonlinearities are caused, first of all, by contacts between different mechanical parts, the main part of this book is devoted to oscillations in mechanical systems with discontinuities caused by dry friction and collisions. Another important source of nonlinearity which is covered is that caused by rotating unbalanced parts common in various machines as well as variable inertias occurring in all kinds of crank mechanisms. This book is written for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, but it may be also helpful and interesting for both theoreticians and practitioners working in the area of mechanical engineering at universities, in research labs or institutes and especially in the R and D departments within industrial firms.

The 1960s were perhaps a decade of confusion, when scientists faced d- culties in dealing with imprecise information and complex dynamics. A new set theory and then an in?nite-valued logic of Lot? A. Zadeh were so c- fusing that they were called fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic; a deterministic system found by E. N. Lorenz to have random behaviours was so unusual that it was lately named a chaotic system. Just like irrational and imaginary numbers, negative energy, anti-matter, etc., fuzzy logic and chaos were gr- ually and eventually accepted by many, if not all, scientists and engineers as fundamental concepts, theories, as well as technologies. In particular, fuzzy systems technology has achieved its maturity with widespread applications in many industrial, commercial, and technical ?elds, ranging from control, automation, and arti?cial intelligence to image/signal processing, patternrecognition, andelectroniccommerce.Chaos, ontheother hand, wasconsideredoneofthethreemonumentaldiscoveriesofthetwentieth century together with the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. As a very special nonlinear dynamical phenomenon, chaos has reached its current outstanding status from being merely a scienti?c curiosity in the mid-1960s to an applicable technology in the late 1990s. Finding the intrinsic relation between fuzzy logic and chaos theory is certainlyofsigni?cantinterestandofpotentialimportance.Thepast20years have indeed witnessed some serious explorations of the interactions between fuzzylogicandchaostheory, leadingtosuchresearchtopicsasfuzzymodeling of chaotic systems using Takagi-Sugeno models, linguistic descriptions of chaotic systems, fuzzy control of chaos, and a combination of fuzzy control technology and chaos theory for various engineering pract

All typical and special modal and response analysis methods, applied within the frame of the design of spacecraft structures, are described in this book. It therefore addresses graduate students and engineers in the aerospace field.

This monograph presents an updated source of information on the state of the art in advanced control of articulated and mobile robots. It includes relevant selected problems dealing with enhanced actuation, motion planning and control functions for articulated robots, as well as of sensory and autonomous decision capabilities for mobile robots. The basic idea behind the book is to provide a larger community of robotic researchers and developers with a reliable source of information and innovative applications in the field of control of cooperating and mobile robots. This book is the outcome of the research project MISTRAL (Methodologies and Integration of Subsystems and Technologies for Anthropic Robotics and Locomotion) funded in 2001-2002 by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research. The thorough discussion, rigorous treatment, and wide span of the presented work reveal the significant advances in the theoretical foundation and technology basis of the robotics field worldwide.

This book collects invited lectures presented and discussed on the AMAS & ECCOMAS Workshop/Thematic Conference SMART'o3. The SMART'o3 Conference on Smart Materials and Structures was held in a 19th century palace in Jadwisin near Warsaw, 2-5 September 2003, Poland .It was organized by the Advanced Materials and Structures (AMAS) Centre of Excellence at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IFTR) in Warsaw, ECCOMAS - European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and SMART-TECH Centre at IFTR. The idea of the workshop was to bring together and consolidate the community of Smart Materials and Structures in Europe. The workshop was attended by 66 participants from n European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, U.K., Ukraine), 1 participant from Israel and 1 participant from the USA. The workshop program was grouped into the following major topics: 4 sessions on Structural Control (18 presentations), 3 sessions on Vibration Controland Dynamics (14 presentations), 2 sessions on Damage Identification (10 presentations), 2 sessions on Smart Materials (9 presentations). Each session was composed of an invited lecture and some contributed papers. Every paper scheduled in the program was presented, so altogether 51 presentations were given. No sessions were run in parallel. The workshop was attended not only by researchers but also by people closely related to the industry. There were interesting discussions on scientific merits of the presented papers as well as on future development of the field and its possible industrial applications.

This book brings together scientists from all over the world who have defined and developed the field of Coordination Dynamics. Grounded in the concepts of self-organization and the tools of nonlinear dynamics, appropriately extended to handle informational aspects of living things, Coordination Dynamics aims to understand the coordinated functioning of a variety of different systems at multiple levels of description. The book addresses the themes of Coordination Dynamics and Dynamic Patterns in the context of the following topics: Coordination of Brain and Behavior, Perception-Action Coupling, Control, Posture, Learning, Intention, Attention, and Cognition.

The last two decades have witnessed an enormous growth with regard to ap plications of information theoretic framework in areas of physical, biological, engineering and even social sciences. In particular, growth has been spectac ular in the field of information technology, soft computing, nonlinear systems and molecular biology. Claude Shannon in 1948 laid the foundation of the field of information theory in the context of communication theory. It is in deed remarkable that his framework is as relevant today as was when he 1 proposed it. Shannon died on Feb 24, 2001. Arun Netravali observes "As if assuming that inexpensive, high-speed processing would come to pass, Shan non figured out the upper limits on communication rates. First in telephone channels, then in optical communications, and now in wireless, Shannon has had the utmost value in defining the engineering limits we face." Shannon introduced the concept of entropy. The notable feature of the entropy frame work is that it enables quantification of uncertainty present in a system. In many realistic situations one is confronted only with partial or incomplete information in the form of moment, or bounds on these values etc.; and it is then required to construct a probabilistic model from this partial information. In such situations, the principle of maximum entropy provides a rational ba sis for constructing a probabilistic model. It is thus necessary and important to keep track of advances in the applications of maximum entropy principle to ever expanding areas of knowledge."

The 24 papers presented at the international concluding colloquium of the German priority programme (DFG-Verbundschwerpunktprogramm) "Transition," held in April 2002 in Stuttgart.

The unique and successful programme ran six years, starting April 1996, and was sponsored mainly by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, but also by the Deutsches Zentrum f r Luft-und Raumfahrt, DLR, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig, PTB, and Airbus Deutschland. The papers summarise the results of the programme and cover transition mechanisms, transition prediction, transition control, natural transition and measurement techniques, transition - turbulence - separation, and visualisation issues. Three invited papers are devoted to mechanisms of turbulence production, to a general framework of stability, receptivity and control, and a forcing model for receptivity analysis. Almost every transition topic arising in subsonic and transonic flow is covered.