Electromagnetics is the foundation of our electric technology. It describes the fundamental principles upon which electricity is generated and used. This includes electric machines, high voltage transmission, telecommunication, radar, and recording and digital computing. This book will serve both as an introductory text for graduate students and as a reference book for professional engineers and researchers. This book leads the uninitiated into the realm of numerical methods for solving electromagnetic field problems by examples and illustrations. Detailed descriptions of advanced techniques are also included for the benefit of working engineers and research students.

* Comprehensive descriptions of numerical methods
* In-depth introduction to finite differences, finite elements, and integral equations
* Illustrations and applications of linear and nonlinear solutions for multi-dimensional analysis
* Numerical examples to facilitate understanding of the methods
* Appendices for quick reference of mathematical and numerical methods employed

This volume contains 18 papers selected from 90 presented at the Fifth International Conference on Biaxial/Multiaxial Fatigue and Fracture held in Cracow, Poland 8-12 September 1997. The papers in this book deal with theoretical, computational and experimental aspects of the multiaxial fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures. The papers are divided into the following four categories:
1. Proportional cyclic loading
2. Non-proportional cyclic loading
3. Variable amplitude and random loading
4. Crack growth

Most papers in this publication talk about the behaviour of constructional materials and elements of machines under non-proportional loading and under variable amplitude and random loading, which are more realistic load histories met in industrial practice. Variable amplitude loading under cyclic load with basic frequency and random loading under load with a continuous band of frequency is classified here. This book gives a review of the latest world success and directions of investigations on multiaxial fatigue and fracture. More and more often publications are results of the co-operation of researchers from different laboratories and countries. Seven out of eighteen papers included here were worked out by international authors teams. This is a symptom of the times, when science and investigations know no borders.

Growing numbers of engineering graduates are finding employment in the control systems area with applications to manufacturing. To be properly prepared for such positions, it is desirable that the students be exposed to the topics of process control, discrete logic control and the fundamentals of manufacturing. Presently there is no existing textbook and/or reference that combine together process control, discrete logic control and the fundamentals of manufacturing. This is a book that fills that gap.
This book integrates together the theory with a number of illustrative examples. Constructive procedures will be given for designing controllers and manufacturing lines, including methods for designing digital controllers, fuzzy logic controllers and adaptive controllers, and methods for the design of the flow of operations in a manufacturing line. One chapter will be devoted to equipment interfacing and computer communications, with the focus on fieldbuses, device drivers and computer networks. There are no existing control-oriented textbooks that bring this material into the picture, although interfacing and communications are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the overall control problem.

* Covers both analog and digital control using P/PI/PID controllers and discrete logic control using ladder logic diagrams and programmable logic controllers
* Contains a brief introduction to model predictive control, adaptive control, and neural net control
* Covers control from the device/process level up to and including the production system level
*Contains an introduction to manufacturing systems with the emphasis on performance measures, flow-line analysis, and line balancing
* Contains a chapter on equipment interfacing with a brief introduction on OLE for process control (OPC), the GEM standard, fieldbuses, and Ethernet
* Material is based on a course with a lab project developed and taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology
* Coverage is at the introductory level with a minimal amount of background required to read the text

"Rock Mass Classifications - A Practical Approach in Civil Engineering" was written in response to the many unanswered questions regarding this subject. Questions such as - Is Classification reasonably reliable? Can it be successful in crisis management of geohazards? Can a single Classification system be general for all rock structures? Is Classification a scientific approach? Laborious field research was undertaken in the Himalayan mountains by a team of scientists from the Central Mining Research Institute (CMRI), University of Roorkee (UOR), Central Soil and Material Research Station (CSMRS), U.P. Irrigation Research Institute (UPIRI), and Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) to answer these questions. The results obtained from the research work were systematically compiled to produce this book which bears particular relevance to civil, mining and petroleum engineers and geologists.

Endorsements
"It is a Handbook of Rock Engineering" - Zhao Jian, School of Civil & Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
"I came across your new book - Rock Mass Classification, absolutely fantastic" - Subodh K. Jain, U.S.A

The Second Sino-US Symposium Workshop on Recent Advancement of Computational Mechanics in Structural Engineering was held between May 25-28, 1998, in Dalian, China. The objectives were: to share the insights and experiences gained from recent developments in theory and practice; to assess the current state of knowledge in various topic areas of mechanics and computational methods and to identify joint research opportunities; to stimulate future cooperative research and to develop joint efforts in subjects of common needs and interests; to build and to strengthen the long-term bilateral scientific relationship between academic and professional practicing communities.
Topics discussed covered the entire field of computational structural mechanics. These topics have advanced broad applications in the engineering practice of modern structural analysis, design and construction of buildings and other structures, and in natural hazard mitigation.

Research into thermal convection in porous media has substantially increased during recent years due to its numerous practical applications. These problems have attracted the attention of industrialists, engineers and scientists from many very diversified disciplines, such as applied mathematics, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical and nuclear engineering, geothermal physics and food science. Thus, there is a wealth of information now available on convective processes in porous media and it is therefore appropriate and timely to undertake a new critical evaluation of this contemporary information. "Transport Phenomena in Porous Media" contains 17 chapters and represents the collective work of 27 of the world's leading experts, from 12 countries, in heat transfer in porous media. The recent intensive research in this area has substantially raised the expectations for numerous new practical applications and this makes the book a most timely addition to the existing literature. It includes recent major developments in both the fundamentals and applications, and provides valuable information to researchers dealing with practical problems in thermal convection in porous media. Each chapter of the book describes recent developments in the highly advanced analytical, numerical and experimental techniques which are currently being employed and discussions of possible future developments are provided. Such reviews not only result in the consolidation of the currently available information, but also facilitate the identification of new industrial applications and research topics which merit further work.

A multidisciplinary introduction to engineering design using real-life case studies.
Case Studies in Engineering Design provides students and practising engineers with many practical and accessible case studies which are representative of situations engineers face in professional life, and which incorporate a range of engineering disciplines.
Different methodologies of approaching engineering design are identified and explained prior to their application in the case studies. The case studies have been chosen from real-life engineering design projects and aim to expose students to a wide variety of design activities and situations, including those that have incomplete, or imperfect, information. This book encourages the student to be innovative, to try new ideas, whilst not losing sight of sound and well-proven engineering practice.
A set of notes for lecturers to accompany the book is available free to download from: http: //www.bh.com/manuals/0340691352
* A multidisciplinary introduction to engineering design.
* Exposes readers to wide variety of design activities and situations.
* Encourages exploration of new ideas using sound and well-proven engineering practice.

Mastering modelling, and in particular numerical models, is becoming a crucial and central question in modern computational mechanics. Various tools, able to quantify the quality of a model with regard to another one taken as the reference, have been derived. Applied to computational strategies, these tools lead to new computational methods which are called "adaptive." The present book is concerned with outlining the state of the art and the latest advances in both these important areas.

Papers are selected from a Workshop (Cachan 17-19 September 1997) which is the third of a series devoted to Error Estimators and Adaptivity in Computational Mechanics. The Cachan Workshop dealt with latest advances in adaptive computational methods in mechanics and their impacts on solving engineering problems. It was centered too on providing answers to simple questions such as: what is being used or can be used at present to solve engineering problems? What should be the state of art in the year 2000? What are the new questions involving error estimators and their applications?

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of ultrasonic techniques for the characterization of fluids. Focusing on ultrasonic velocimetry, the author covers the basic topics and techniques necessaryfor successful ultrasound measurements on emulsions, dispersions, multiphase media, and viscoelastic/viscoplastic materials. Advanced techniques such as scattering, particle sizing, and automation are also presented. As a handbook for industrial and scientific use, Ultrasonic Techniques for Fluids Characterization is an indispensable guide to chemists and chemical engineers using ultrasound for research or process monitoring in the chemical, food processing, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, biotechnology, and fuels industries.
Key Features
* Appeals to anyone using ultrasound to study fluids
* Provides the first detailed description of the ultrasound profiling technique for dispersions
* Describes new techniques for measuring phase transitions and nucleation, such as water/ice and oil/fat
* Presents the latest ultrasound techniques for particle sizing in concentrated systems
* Explains new techniques for compressibility measurements in dispersions and fluids, including cell suspensions
* Contains a detailed treatment of ultrasound scattering theory
* Written by one of the leading researchers in the field
* Includes over 350 references to the primary literature

Hydrodynamic Lubrication is the culmination of over 20 years close, collaborative work by the five authors and discusses the practical use of the formalization of low pressure lubrication. The work concentrates on the developments to journal and thrust bearings and includes subjects such as:

- the dynamic behaviour of plain and tilting-pads

- the thermal aspects

- the positive and negative effects of non-cyclindricity and shape defects resulting from manufacturing or operation

- the effects of inertia

- the appearance of Taylor's vortices and of turbulence and their repercussions.

The book contains an abundance of test results objectively compared with theoretical conclusions and a chapter on "technical considerations" to ensure that draft mechanisms will work satisfactorily under the imposed conditions.

Hydrodynamic Lubrication is an essential reference book for future and practising engineers who want to put hydrodynamic and hydrostatic journal bearings and thrust bearings into operation under conditions of total safety.

This book contains 38 papers presented at the seventh Working Conference on 'Reliability and Optimization of Structural Systems' held at Boulder, Colorado, USA, on April 2-4, 1996. The Working Conference was organized by the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 7.5 of Technical Committee 7 and was the seventh in a series of similar conferences. The objectives of the Working Group and hence this publication are:

- to promote modern structural systems optimization and reliability theory,
- to advance international co-operation in the field of structural system optimization and reliability theory,
- to stimulate research, development and application of structural system optimization and reliability theory,
- to further dissemination and exchange of information on reliability and optimization of structural systems, and
- to encourage education in structural system organization and reliability theory.

Control problems offer an industrially important application and a guide to understanding control systems for those working in Neural Networks. Neural Systems for Control represents the most up-to-date developments in the rapidly growing aplication area of neural networks and focuses on research in natural and artifical neural systems directly applicable to control or making use of modern control theory. The book covers such important new developments in control systems such as intelligent sensors in semiconductor wafer manufacturing; the relation between muscles and cerebral neurons in speech recognition; online compensation of reconfigurable control for spacecraft aircraft and other systems; applications to rolling mills, robotics and process control; the usage of past output data to identify nonlinear systems by neural networks; neural approximate optimal control; model-free nonlinear control; and neural control based on a regulation of physiological investigation/blood pressure control. All researchers and students dealing with control systems will find the fascinating Neural Systems for Control of immense interest and assistance.
Key Features
* Focuses on research in natural and artifical neural systems directly applicable to contol or making use of modern control theory
* Represents the most up-to-date developments in this rapidly growing application area of neural networks
* Takes a new and novel approach to system identification and synthesis

The International Conference on Mechanical Design and Production has been established since 1979 by the Department of Mechanical Design and Production at Cairo University.

The conference MDP-6 held in Cairo, 2-4 January 1996, represents the 6th in the series. Its aim was to highlight the current advances in mechanical design and production, and to disseminate the latest developments from academic and industrial institutions in all related scientific disciplines.

This publication includes a selection of papers submitted to the conference and reviewed by members of the scientific committee. The main areas of the papers include: materials processing and characterization constitutive modeling; simulation and analysis of manufacturing processes; numerical analysis of structures; fracture analysis; design and tribology; dynamics, control and robotics; and new trends in industrial and manufacturing engineering.

The direct conversion of daylight into electricity by photovoltaic solar cells is one of the most promising of the renewable energy options. The importance of the technology is reflected in the growth in the field. What was largely technology for space programmes in 1976 produced 28.6 MW of terrestrial modules in 1987. The popularity of the technology can partly be explained by its versatility. Arrays of any size and voltage can be constructed from standard modules, with the conversion efficiency being practically independent from output. Photovoltaics are also well suited to on-site generation of power in remote areas. This book is intended primarily to give students, engineers and scientists entering the photovoltaics field an overview of all aspects of the subject, with pointers to further reading. However, by using simple language and avoiding jargon, an effort has been made to make the work useful and interesting to the general public.