This book presents select papers presented during the 6th National Symposium on Rotor Dynamics, held at CSIR-NAL, Bangalore, and focuses on the latest trends in rotor dynamics and various challenges encountered in the design of rotating machinery. The book is of interest to researchers from mechanical, aerospace, tribology and power industries, engineering service providers and academics.

This book brings together investigations which combine theoretical and experimental results related to such systems as flexure hinges and compliant mechanisms for precision applications, the non-linear analytical modeling of compliant mechanisms, mechanical systems using compliance as a bipedal robot and reconfigurable tensegrity systems and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) as energy efficient micro-robots, microscale force compensation, magnetoelectric micro-sensors, acoustical actuators and the wafer bonding as a key technology for the MEMS fabrication. The volume gathers twelve contributions presented at the 5th Conference on Microactuators, Microsensors and Micromechanisms (MAMM), held in Ilmenau, Germany in November 2020. The aim of the conference was to provide a special opportunity for a know-how exchange and collaboration in various disciplines concerning systems pertaining to micro-technology. The conference was organized under the patronage of IFToMM (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science).

This book is intended for students and engineers who design and develop liquid-propellant rocket engines, offering them a guide to the theory and practice alike. It first presents the fundamental concepts (the generation of thrust, the gas flow through the combustion chamber and the nozzle, the liquid propellants used, and the combustion process) and then qualitatively and quantitatively describes the principal components involved (the combustion chamber, nozzle, feed systems, control systems, valves, propellant tanks, and interconnecting elements). The book includes extensive data on existing engines, typical values for design parameters, and worked-out examples of how the concepts discussed can be applied, helping readers integrate them in their own work. Detailed bibliographical references (including books, articles, and items from the "gray literature") are provided at the end of each chapter, together with information on valuable resources that can be found online. Given its scope, the book will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students of aerospace engineering.

Rotating Machinery, Optical Methods & Scanning LDV Methods, Volume 6: Proceedings of the 38th IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2020, the sixth volume of eight from the Conference brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Health Monitoring, including papers on: Novel Techniques Optical Methods, Scanning LDV Methods Photogrammetry & DIC Rotating Machinery

This book includes representative research from the state-of-the-art in the emerging field of soft robotics, with a special focus on bioinspired soft robotics for underwater applications. Topics include novel materials, sensors, actuators, and system design for distributed estimation and control of soft robotic appendages inspired by the octopus and seastar. It summarizes the latest findings in an emerging field of bioinspired soft robotics for the underwater domain, primarily drawing from (but not limited to) an ongoing research program in bioinspired autonomous systems sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The program has stimulated cross-disciplinary research in biology, material science, computational mechanics, and systems and control for the purpose of creating novel robotic appendages for maritime applications. The book collects recent results in this area.

This book introduces and illustrates modeling, sensing, and control methods for analyzing, designing, and developing spherical motors. It systematically presents models for establishing the relationships among the magnetic fields, position/orientation and force/torque, while also providing time-efficient solutions to assist researchers and engineers in studying and developing these motors. In order to take full advantage of spherical motors' compact structure in practical applications, sensing and control methods that utilize their magnetic fields and eliminate the need to install external sensors for feedback are proposed. Further, the book investigates for the first time spherical motors' force/torque manipulation capability, and proposes algorithms enabling the ball-joint-like end-effector for haptic use based on these motors' hybrid position/force actuation modes. While systematically presenting approaches to their design, sensing and control, the book also provides many examples illustrating the implementation issues readers may encounter.

This book comprises state-of-the-art advances in energy, combustion, power, propulsion, environment, focusing on the production and utilization of fossil fuels, alternative fuels and biofuels. It is written by internationally renowned experts who provide the latest fundamental and applied research innovations on cleaner energy production as well as utilization for a wide range of devices extending from micro scale energy conversion to hypersonic propulsion using hydrocarbon fuels. The tailored technical tracks and contributions are portrayed in the respective field to highlight different but complementary views on fuels, combustion, power and propulsion and air toxins with special focus on current and future R&D needs and activities. This book will serve as a useful reference for practicing engineers, research engineers and managers in industry and research labs, academic institutions, graduate students, and final year undergraduate students in mechanical, chemical, aerospace, energy, and environmental engineering.

This book is about mechanical design engineering, in particular design for mechanical system durability and performance density. It addresses diversified mechanical design issues that relate to several application areas, and provides potential solutions. Design for Durability and Performance Density includes four real-world case studies which help to identify the root cause of problems and failure cases encountered in industry and in the oil field. It suggests remedies for the ones that could be solved, and includes sample calculations and worked examples to quantify the extent of problems where necessary. This book will be of use to senior-level mechanical engineering students, design and application engineers as well as consulting engineering firms. It could help them to learn how things could be designed the wrong way, and how old experience could prevent novice mistakes, to avoid being tempted into any of the various subtle design pitfalls and confronting their consequences.

This book discusses condition based monitoring of rotating machines using intelligent adaptive systems. The book employs computational intelligence and fuzzy control principles to deliver a module that can adaptively monitor and optimize machine health and performance. This book covers design and performance of such systems and provides case studies and data models for fault detection and diagnosis. The contents cover everything from optimal sensor positioning to fault diagnosis. The principles laid out in this book can be applied across rotating machinery such as turbines, compressors, and aircraft engines. The adaptive fault diagnostics systems presented can be used in multiple time and safety critical applications in domains such as aerospace, automotive, deep earth and deep water exploration, and energy.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the application of liquid biofuels to internal combustion (IC) engines. Biofuels are one of the most promising renewable and sustainable energy sources. Particularly, liquid biofuels obtained from biomass could become a valid alternative to the use of fossil fuels in the light of increasingly stringent environmental constraints. In this book, the discussion is limited to liquid biofuels obtained from triglycerides and lignocellulose among the many different kinds of biomass. Several liquid biofuels from triglycerides, straight vegetable oil, biodiesel produced from inedible vegetable oil, hydrotreated vegetable oil, and pyrolytic oil have been selected for discussion, as well as biofuels from lignocellulose bio-oil, alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and butanol, and biomass-to-liquids diesel. This book includes three chapters on the application of methanol, ethanol and butanol to advanced compression ignition (CI) engines such as LTC, HCCI, RCCI and DF modes. Further, the application of other higher alcohols and other drop-in fuels such as DMF, MF, MTHF, and GVL are also discussed. The book will be a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and engine designers who are interested in the application of alcohols and other biofuels in advanced CI engines, and also useful for alternative energy planners selecting biofuels for CI engines in the future.

This book explores the use of nanomaterials as diesel fuel additives. It extensively reviews the diesel engine characteristics and the most frequently used nanomaterials and nanofuels and discusses the practical issues regarding the viability of nanomaterials as fuel additives from technical, environmental, and human health viewpoints. Special attention is focused on questions related to the short-term use of nanomaterials in diesel engines, such as: * What are the most important nanomaterial activities in diesel engines? * What happens to nanomaterials at various stages, from the fuel tank to exhaust? * What are the effects of nanofuel usage on diesel engine characteristics? and * What are the effects of nanomaterials on diesel engine parts and systems? Given its scope, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and engineers in environmental science, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering fields, as well as for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This book contains the papers of the 7th International Workshop on Medical and Service Robots (MESROB) that was planned to be held in Basel, Switzerland, in July 2020. Since the conference could not be held due to the worldwide Corona pandemic, the proceedings are published in this book and presentation of the accepted papers will be postponed to next year's conference (MESROB 2021). The main topics of the workshop include: design of medical devices, kinematics and dynamics for medical robotics, exoskeletons and prostheses, anthropomorphic hands, therapeutic robots and rehabilitation, cognitive robots, humanoid and service robots, assistive robots and elderly assistance, surgical robots, human-robot interfaces, haptic devices, medical treatments, medical lasers, and surgical planning and navigation. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists, demonstrating that medical and service robotics will drive the technological and societal change in the coming decades.

This book describes the history and development of marine power plant. Problems of arrangement, general construction and parameters of marine power plants of all types are considered. It also introduces different characteristics of each type of marine power plant, matching characteristic for diesel propulsion. The book gives a clear idea about different marine power engines, including working principle, structure and application. Readers will understand easily the power system for ships since there are a lot of illustrations and instructions for each of the equipment. This book is useful for students majoring in "marine engineering", "energy and power engineering" and other related majors. It is also useful for operators of marine institution for learning main design and operation of ship plants.

This book highlights selected papers from the Mechanical Engineering track, with a focus on mechatronics and manufacturing, presented at the "Malaysian Technical Universities Conference on Engineering and Technology" (MUCET 2019). The conference brings together researchers and professionals in the fields of engineering, research and technology, providing a platform for future collaborations and the exchange of ideas.

This book presents select proceedings of the National Conference on Sustainable Machining Strategies for Better Performance (SMSBP 2020). It examines a range of machining strategies that helps to improve sustainability in machining processes. The focus is to improve competition, reduce costs, comply with environmental regulations and address environmental concerns. The topics covered include machining of difficult-to-machine materials, developments in new cutting tool materials, modern cooling methods, use of advanced machining technologies, lubrication strategies like MQL, cryogenic cooling, use of cold compressed air, adoption of hybrid cooling strategies, hybrid machining strategies, machining of special materials including elastomers and surface integrity studies in use of cryogenic machining. The book presents the latest research developments in the domain of sustainable machining which can improve the machining practice adopted by researchers, professionals and industries. The book will be a valuable reference for researchers, professionals and people from machining and material-related industries who are interested in adopting sustainable machining strategies.

This book presents experimental and numerical findings on reducing shock-induced separation by applying transition upstream the shock wave. The purpose is to find out how close to the shock wave the transition should be located in order to obtain favorable turbulent boundary layer interaction. The book shares findings obtained using advanced flow measurement methods and concerning e.g. the transition location, boundary layer characteristics, and the detection of shock wave configurations. It includes a number of experimental case studies and CFD simulations that offer valuable insights into the flow structure. It covers RANS/URANS methods for the experimental test section design, as well as more advanced techniques, such as LES, hybrid methods and DNS for studying the transition and shock wave interaction in detail. The experimental and numerical investigations presented here were conducted by sixteen different partners in the context of the TFAST Project. The general focus is on determining if and how it is possible to improve flow performance in comparison to laminar interaction. The book mainly addresses academics and professionals whose work involves the aerodynamics of internal and external flows, as well as experimentalists working with compressible flows. It will also be of benefit for CFD developers and users, and for students of aviation and propulsion systems alike.

Marcel Eberbach provides insight into the investigations of the knocking behavior of methane-based fuels and compares them with the knocking behavior of very high knock resistant liquid fuels during engine combustion. With pressure-based knock detection algorithms and thermodynamic evaluation, the atypical knocking combustion phenomena are evaluated with respect to the abnormalities on the heat release curve. Based on the investigated fuels an engine specific relation between the fuel index numbers (RON and MN) and the actual knock resistance of the fuels by means of the motor methane number was established and applied to the investigated gaseous and liquid fuels during knocking combustion.

This book sheds light on the development of traditional and advanced optimization methods. Their use in various tradition and non-tradition manufacturing and machining processes for an improved manufacturability is reported. This includes key elements of implementing conventional statistical methods, multi-objective and multi-criteria decision-making methods and evolution of single and multi-target optimization techniques using soft computing to enhance production performance, efficiency and sustainability in manufacturing. The latest research in this area as well as possible avenues of future research are also highlighted.

This book presents the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of IFToMM ITALY, held online on September 9-11, 2020. It includes peer-reviewed papers on the latest advances in mechanism and machine science, discussing topics such as biomechanical engineering, computational kinematics, the history of mechanism and machine science, gearing and transmissions, multi-body dynamics, robotics and mechatronics, the dynamics of machinery, tribology, vibrations, rotor dynamics and vehicle dynamics. A valuable, up-to-date resource, it offers an essential overview of the subject for scientists and practitioners alike, and will inspire further investigations and research.

In The Last Ten Years, author Brian J. Dickson presents stunning colour photographs from the collections of three enthusiasts of the Seafield Railway Club in north London. Meeting regularly at New Southgate station to record the steam-handled traffic, their focus was initially on all things connected with the former London and North Eastern Railway, but as steam traction became restricted to smaller and smaller areas of operation, regular visits were made further afield, to the north-east of England, Scotland and the former London Midland and Scottish Railway sheds and lines. This record of steam locomotion in its final years of mainline usage, from 1959 to 1968, is sure to enhance any steam railway enthusiast's library.

This book presents a selection of preliminary sizing procedures for turbomachinery. Applicable to both conventional and non-conventional fluids, these procedures enable users to optimize the kinematics, thermodynamics and geometry of the turbomachinery (in the preliminary design phase) using geometric correlations and losses models; to accurately predict the efficiency of turbomachinery - in most cases, in excellent agreement with CFD calculations; and to consistently analyze all turbomachines (axial and radial turbines, axial and centrifugal compressors, centrifugal pumps). The book is intended for bachelor's and master's students in industrial, mechanical and energy engineering, as well as researchers and professionals in the energy systems and turbomachinery sectors, guiding them step by step through the first sizing of turbomachines and the verification of the technological feasibility of turbomachines designed for new conversion systems operating with unconventional fluids.

This book describes the theoretical framework of parallel manipulators and presents examples of their application. The theoretical part begins with the theory of parallel manipulator synthesis. Working on this basis, various topology designs of one-loop and multiloop parallel manipulators are then obtained. The next section describes the zero parameters method for the analysis of mechanism (manipulator) structure with closed kinematic circuits, and includes examples of its application, highlighting its advantages compared to traditional methods. The book then presents the redundant parameters method for determining the position of special parallel manipulator links, and discusses its application in solving the direct problem of link position for multiloop manipulators. It also addresses one-loop and multiloop manipulators, and includes a solution for the direct and inverse link position problems of kinematics. In closing, the book presents a range of potential applications for parallel manipulator. These examples are intended to promote the development and implementation of new engineering solutions, e.g. in seismic protection systems, renewable energy and other areas. The book includes a wealth of material that can be used for teaching undergraduate, graduate and PhD students majoring in robotics, automation and related fields, and can also be used by researchers to solve problems in connection with introducing robotics technologies.

This book offers a comprehensive and timely overview of internal combustion engines for use in marine environments. It reviews the development of modern four-stroke marine engines, gas and gas-diesel engines and low-speed two-stroke crosshead engines, describing their application areas and providing readers with a useful snapshot of their technical features, e.g. their dimensions, weights, cylinder arrangements, cylinder capabilities, rotation speeds, and exhaust gas temperatures. For each marine engine, information is provided on the manufacturer, historical background, development and technical characteristics of the manufacturer's most popular models, and detailed drawings of the engine, depicting its main design features. This book offers a unique, self-contained reference guide for engineers and professionals involved in shipbuilding. At the same time, it is intended to support students at maritime academies and university students in naval architecture/marine engineering with their design projects at both master and graduate levels, thus filling an important gap in the literature.

This book highlights recent findings in industrial, manufacturing and mechanical engineering, and provides an overview of the state of the art in these fields, mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe. A broad range of topics and issues in modern engineering is discussed, including the dynamics of machines and working processes, friction, wear and lubrication in machines, surface transport and technological machines, manufacturing engineering of industrial facilities, materials engineering, metallurgy, control systems and their industrial applications, industrial mechatronics, automation and robotics. The book gathers selected papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Industrial Engineering (ICIE), held in Sochi, Russia, in May 2021. The authors are experts in various fields of engineering, and all papers have been carefully reviewed. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to a wide readership, including mechanical and production engineers, lecturers in engineering disciplines, and engineering graduates.

This book gathers contributions by researchers from several countries on all major areas of robotic research, development and innovation, as well as new applications and current trends. The topics covered include: novel designs and applications of robotic systems, intelligent cooperating and service robots, advanced robot control, human-robot interfaces, robot vision systems, mobile robots, humanoid and walking robots, bio-inspired and swarm robotic systems, aerial, underwater and spatial robots, robots for ambient assisted living, medical robots and bionic prostheses, cognitive robots, cloud robotics, ethical and social issues in robotics, etc. Given its scope, the book offers a source of information and inspiration for researchers seeking to improve their work and gather new ideas for future developments. The contents reflect the outcomes of the activities of RAAD (International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region) in 2020.