The aim of this book is to investigate and explain the rapid advances in the characterization of high temperature crack growth behaviour which have been made in recent years, with reference to industrial applications. Complicated mathematics has been minimized with the emphasis placed instead on finding solutions using simplified procedures without the need for complex numerical analysis.

This book is focused on the introduction of the finite difference method based on the classical one-dimensional structural members, i.e., rods/bars and beams. It is the goal to provide a first introduction to the manifold aspects of the finite difference method and to enable the reader to get a methodical understanding of important subject areas in structural mechanics. The reader learns to understand the assumptions and derivations of different structural members. Furthermore, she/he learns to critically evaluate possibilities and limitations of the finite difference method. Additional comprehensive mathematical descriptions, which solely result from advanced illustrations for two- or three-dimensional problems, are omitted. Hence, the mathematical description largely remains simple and clear.

Properties of systems with long range interactions are still poorly understood despite being of importance in most areas of physics. The present volume introduces and reviews the effort of constructing a coherent thermodynamic treatment of such systems by combining tools from statistical mechanics with concepts and methods from dynamical systems. Analogies and differences between various systems are examined by considering a large range of applications, with emphasis on Bose--Einstein condensates. Written as a set of tutorial reviews, the book will be useful for both the experienced researcher as well as the nonexpert scientist or postgraduate student.

This monograph details spatial and material vistas on non-linear continuum mechanics in a dissipation-consistent approach. Thereby, the spatial vista renders the common approach to nonlinear continuum mechanics and corresponding spatial forces, whereas the material vista elaborates on configurational mechanics and corresponding material or rather configurational forces. Fundamental to configurational mechanics is the concept of force. In analytical mechanics, force is a derived object that is power conjugate to changes of generalised coordinates. For a continuum body, these are typically the spatial positions of its continuum points. However, if in agreement with the second law, continuum points, e.g. on the boundary, may also change their material positions. Configurational forces are then power conjugate to these configurational changes. A paradigm is a crack tip, i.e. a singular part of the boundary changing its position during crack propagation, with the related configurational force, typically the J-integral, driving its evolution, thereby consuming power, typically expressed as the energy release rate. Taken together, configurational mechanics is an unconventional branch of continuum physics rationalising and unifying the tendency of a continuum body to change its material configuration. It is thus the ideal formulation to tackle sophisticated problems in continuum defect mechanics. Configurational mechanics is entirely free of restrictions regarding geometrical and constitutive nonlinearities and offers an accompanying versatile computational approach to continuum defect mechanics. In this monograph, I present a detailed summary account of my approach towards configurational mechanics, thereby fostering my view that configurational forces are indeed dissipation-consistent to configurational changes.

This volume contains papers presented at the US/European Celestial Mecha nics Workshop organized by the Astronomical Observatory of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland and held in Poznan, from 3 to 7 July 2000. The purpose of the workshop was to identify future research in celestial mech anics and encourage collaboration among scientists from eastem and westem coun tries. There was a full program of invited and contributed presentations on selected subjects and each day ended with a discussion period on a general subject in celestial mechanics. The discussion topics and the leaders were: Resonances and Chaos-A. Morbidelli; Artificial Satellite Orbits-K. T. Alfriend; Near Earth Ob jects - K. Muinonen; Small Solar System Bodies - I. Williams; and Summary - P. K. Seidelmann. The goal of the discussions was to identify what we did not know and how we might further our knowledge. The size of the meeting and the language differences somewhat limited the real discussion, but, due to the excellence of the different discussion leaders, each of these sessions was very interesting and productive. Celestial Mechanics and Astrometry are both small fields within the general subject of Astronomy. There is also an overlap and relationship between these fields and Astrodynamics. The amount of interaction depends on the interest and efforts of individual scientists."

Absolute concepts of time and energy are integral to standard thermal physics, but background independent systems are devoid of them. This thesis explores the foundational question of generalising equilibrium statistical mechanics to background independent systems, and applies the resulting formulation to non-perturbative discrete quantum gravity. It offers a discussion of the rich interface of thermal physics and quantum gravity in this context, providing a broad contextualisation of such topics. This work details how standard tools from many-body physics can be generalised to discrete quantum gravity labelled with graph-based, or dual polyhedral, quanta that are common to various approaches like tensorial group field theory, loop quantum gravity, dynamical triangulations and lattice quantum gravity. It provides a systematic investigation, both conceptual and technical, of quantum gravitational Gibbs states, thermofield double vacuum states, and their application in condensate cosmology to probe questions of Big Bang singularity resolution and geometric inflation.

This special volume of the series Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics is a compendium of reviewed articles presented at the 11th EUROMECH-MECAMAT conference entitled "Mechanics of microstructured solids: cellular materials, fibre reinforced solids and soft tissues", which took place in Torino (Italy) in March 10-14, 2008, at the Museo Regional delle Scienze. This EUROMECH-MECAMAT conference was jointly organized by the Dipar- mento di Matematica dell'Universita di Torino, Italy and the INPL Institute (LEMTA, Nancy-Universite, France). Prof. Franco Pastrone and Prof. Jean- Francois Ganghoffer were the co-chairmen. The conference brought together 50 scientists from 11 European countries, and was aimed at defining the current state of the art in the growing field of cellular and fibrous materials in Europe. Participants had interests in the constitutive m- els of micro-structured solids, non-linear wave propagation, setting up of models and identification of fibre reinforced solids, and soft tissue behaviour in a bio- chanical context. The conference covered most of the mechanical and material aspects, grouped in the following four sessions: * Fibre reinforced materials; * Soft biological tissues; * Generalized continua: models and materials; * Non-linear wave propagation. The high quality talks showed a good balance between modelling and material - pects. An important part of the colloquium, with 12 presentations, was devoted to various aspects of the biomechanics of soft tissues, such as cell adhesion, consti- tive models of soft tissues (brain; arteries), or models of blood flow.

Spontaneous pattern formation in nonlinear dissipative systems far from equilibrium occurs in a variety of settings in nature and technology, and has applications ranging from nonlinear optics through solid and fluid mechanics, physical chemistry and chemical engineering to biology. This book explores the forefront of current research, describing in-depth the analytical methods that elucidate the complex evolution of nonlinear dissipative systems.

This book offers a comprehensive coverage to the mechanics of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which are analyzed from a mechanical engineer's viewpoint as devices that transform an input form of energy, such as thermal, electrostatic, electromagnetic or optical, into output mechanical motion (in the case of actuation) or that can operate with the reversed functionality (as in sensors) and convert an external stimulus, such as mechanical motion, into (generally) electric energy. The impetus of this proposal stems from the perception that such an approach might contribute to a more solid understanding of the principles governing the mechanics of MEMS, and would hopefully enhance the efficiency of modeling and designing reliable and desirably-optimized microsystems. The work represents an attempt at both extending and deepening the mechanical-based approach to MEMS in the static domain by providing simple, yet reliable tools that are applicable to micromechanism design through current fabrication technologies. Lumped-parameter stiffness and compliance properties of flexible components are derived both analytically (as closed-form solutions) and as simplified (engineering) formulas. Also studied are the principal means of actuation/sensing and their integration into the overall microsystem. Various examples of MEMS are studied in order to better illustrate the presentation of the different modeling principles and algorithms. Through its objective, approach and scope, this book offers a novel and systematic insight into the MEMS domain and complements existing work in the literature addressing part of the material developed herein.

The book provides the theoretical fundamentals on turbulence and a complete overview of turbulence models, from the simplest to the most advanced ones including Direct and Large Eddy Simulation. It mainly focuses on problems of modeling and computation, and provides information regarding the theory of dynamical systems and their bifurcations. It also examines turbulence aspects which are not treated in most existing books on this subject, such as turbulence in free and mixed convection, transient turbulence and transition to turbulence. The book adopts the tensor notation, which is the most appropriate to deal with intrinsically tensor quantities such as stresses and strain rates, and for those who are not familiar with it an Appendix on tensor algebra and tensor notation are provided.

Proceedings of the Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics held in Ramsau, Austria, March 13-19, 1988

Some of the trades covered in the book are well known but most are only known to a small group or to market specialists. The ability to 'see into' actual trades offers a fascinating and unprecedented insight for those interested in the oil markets and gives the book broad appeal. The book can be used as an educational reference work by market participants and as a more general guide to how the crude oil market operates and the strategies that traders employ. There are very academic books about the theory of trading but nothing that directly covers real-life examples of innovative and winning trades, each of which illuminate a different aspect of trading or a different era in the oil markets. The presentation of each individual trade has been designed so that they can be used as case studies by business schools.

This book presents generalized heat-conduction laws which, from a mesoscopic perspective, are relevant to new applications (especially in nanoscale heat transfer, nanoscale thermoelectric phenomena, and in diffusive-to-ballistic regime) and at the same time keep up with the pace of current microscopic research. The equations presented in the book are compatible with generalized formulations of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, going beyond the local-equilibrium. The book includes six main chapters, together with a preface and a final section devoted to the future perspectives, as well as an extensive bibliography.

This book includes select papers presented during the 16th Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics, held in JNCASR, Bangalore, and presents the latest developments in computational, experimental and theoretical research as well as industrial and technological advances. This book is of interest to researchers working in the field of fluid mechanics.

This book gives a comprehensive account of the formulation and computational treatment of basic geometrically linear models in 1D. To set the stage, it assembles some preliminaries regarding necessary modelling, computational and mathematical tools. Thereafter, the remaining parts are concerned with the actual catalogue of computational material models. To this end, after starting out with elasticity as a reference, further 15 different basic variants of material models (5 x each of {visco-elasticity, plasticity, visco-plasticity}, respectively) are systematically explored. The presentation for each of these basic material models is a stand-alone account and follows in each case the same structure. On the one hand, this allows, in the true sense of a catalogue, to consult each of the basic material models separately without the need to refer to other basic material models. On the other hand, even though this somewhat repetitious concept may seem tedious, it allows to compare the formulation and resulting algorithmic setting of the various basic material models and thereby to uncover, in detail, similarities and differences. In particular, the response of each basic material model is analysed for the identical histories (Zig-Zag, Sine, Ramp) of prescribed strain and stress so as to clearly showcase and to contrast to each other the characteristics of the various modelling options.

This book offers a clear and comprehensive overview of both the theory and application of fundamental aspects of concrete-filled double steel tubes (CFDST). Many analysis and design applications are presented, which involve mechanical components and structural members often encountered in engineering practice. This monograph is written for practicing structural and civil engineers, students, and academic researchers who want to keep up to speed on the latest technologies for concrete-filled steel tube (CFST).

The main goal of this book is to systematically address the mathematical methods that are applied in the study of synchronization of infinite-dimensional evolutionary dissipative or partially dissipative systems. It bases its unique monograph presentation on both general and abstract models and covers several important classes of coupled nonlinear deterministic and stochastic PDEs which generate infinite-dimensional dissipative systems. This text, which adapts readily to advanced graduate coursework in dissipative dynamics, requires some background knowledge in evolutionary equations and introductory functional analysis as well as a basic understanding of PDEs and the theory of random processes. Suitable for researchers in synchronization theory, the book is also relevant to physicists and engineers interested in both the mathematical background and the methods for the asymptotic analysis of coupled infinite-dimensional dissipative systems that arise in continuum mechanics.

This book is aimed at students making the transition from a first course on general relativity to a specialized subfield. It presents a variety of topics under the general headings of gravitational waves in vacuo and in a cosmological setting, equations of motion, and black holes, all having a clear physical relevance and a strong emphasis on space-time geometry. Each chapter could be used as a basis for an early postgraduate project for those who are exploring avenues into research in general relativity and who have already accumulated the required technical knowledge. The presentation of each chapter is research monograph style, rather than text book style, in order to impress on interested students the need to present their research in a clear and concise format. Students with advanced preparation in general relativity theory might find a treasure trove here.

'A remarkably hopeful and useful book...The climate crisis leaves us no choice but to build a new world and as Sanderson makes clear, we are capable of making it a better one than the dirty and dangerous planet we’ve come to take for granted.' Bill McKibben, Observer book of the week We depend on a handful of metals and rare earths to power our phones and computers. Increasingly, we rely on them to power our cars and our homes. Whoever controls these finite commodities will become rich beyond imagining. Sanderson journeys to meet the characters, companies, and nations scrambling for the new resources, linking remote mines in the Congo and Chile’s Atacama Desert to giant Chinese battery factories, shadowy commodity traders, secretive billionaires, a new generation of scientists attempting to solve the dilemma of a ‘greener’ world.

This book focusses on structural bonding, including many facets, like fundamental aspects of adhesion, science and technology of surfaces, adhesive materials, mechanical properties of bonded joints, innovative designs and applications, testing and standardization, industrial aspects, quality procedures, environmental and ecological aspects. This first volume of the new series gathers selected contributions of the 6th international conference on structural adhesive bonding AB 2021, held in Porto, Portugal, 8-9 July 2021, represents the latest trends and serves as a reference volume for researchers and graduate students working in this field.

The book introduces advanced theories for deformation, damage, and failure in materials. The overall continuum mechanical framework was marked out and added by creep and damage mechanics of materials at elevated temperatures. The time-dependent and time-independent models of cyclic plasticity for low cycle and thermomechanical fatigue life assessment were specified in a very special manner: instead of three-dimensional statements, only one-dimensional rheological models were discussed. Anisotropic plasticity during non-proportional loading and anisotropy of yield/failure criteria is more and more important in modern applications. It is showing how the limit states of materials can be estimated. In addition, the damage and failure of composite materials demonstrate the possibility to extend continuum mechanics to continuum damage mechanics of composite materials.

With new chapters on electrical system optimization and ISO 50001, this edition also covers the latest updates to codes and standards in the energy industry. Also included are chapters on energy economic analysis, energy auditing, waste heat recovery, utility system optimization, HVAC, cogeneration, control systems, energy management, compressed air system optimization and financing energy projects. Additional topics include emerging technologies such as oxy-fuel combustion, high efficiency burners, enhanced heat exchangers, and ceramic membranes for heat recovery as well as information on how to do an energy analysis of any system; electrical system optimization; state-of-the-art lighting and lighting controls. This reference will guide you step by step in applying the principles of energy engineering and management to the design of electrical, HVAC, utility, process and building systems for both new design and retrofit projects. The text is thoroughly illustrated with tables, graphs, diagrams and sample problems.

This updated revision gives a complete and topical overview on Nonconservative Stability which is essential for many areas of science and technology ranging from particles trapping in optical tweezers and dynamics of subcellular structures to dissipative and radiative instabilities in fluid mechanics, astrophysics and celestial mechanics. The author presents relevant mathematical concepts as well as rigorous stability results and numerous classical and contemporary examples from non-conservative mechanics and non-Hermitian physics. New coverage of ponderomotive magnetism, experimental detection of Ziegler's destabilization phenomenon and theory of double-diffusive instabilities in magnetohydrodynamics.

This book sets forth and builds upon the fundamentals of the dynamics of natural systems in formulating the problem presented by Jacobi in his famous lecture series "Vorlesungen tiber Dynamik" (Jacobi, 1884). In the dynamics of systems described by models of discrete and continuous media, the many-body problem is usually solved in some approximation, or the behaviour of the medium is studied at each point of the space it occupies. Such an approach requires the system of equations of motion to be written in terms of space co-ordinates and velocities, in which case the requirements of an internal observer for a detailed description of the processes are satisfied. In the dynamics discussed here we study the time behaviour of the fundamental integral characteristics of the physical system, i. e. the Jacobi function (moment of inertia) and energy (potential, kinetic and total), which are functions of mass density distribution, and the structure of a system. This approach satisfies the requirements of an external observer. It is designed to solve the problem of global dynamics and the evolution of natural systems in which the motion of the system's individual elements written in space co-ordinates and velocities is of no interest. It is important to note that an integral approach is made to internal and external interactions of a system which results in radiation and absorption of energy. This effect constitutes the basic physical content of global dynamics and the evolution of natural systems.