The significant advances witnessed over the last years in the broad field of linguistic variation testify to a growing convergence between sociolinguistic approaches and the somewhat older historical and comparative research traditions. Particularly within cognitive and functional linguistics, the evolution towards a maximally dynamic approach to language goes hand in hand with a renewed interest in corpus research and quantitative methods of analysis. Many researchers feel that only in this way one can do justice to the complex interaction of forces and factors involved in linguistic variability, both synchronically and diachronically. The contributions to the present volume illustrate the ongoing evolution of the field. By bringing together a series of analyses that rely on extensive corpuses to shed light on sociolinguistic, historical, and comparative forms of variation, the volume highlights the interaction between these subfields. Most of the contributions go back to talks presented at the meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea held in Leuven in 2001. The volume starts with a global typological view on the sociolinguistic landscape of Europe offered by Peter Auer. It is followed by a methodological proposal for measuring phonetic similarity between dialects designed by Paul Heggarty, April McMahon, and Robert McMahon. Various papers deal with specific phenomena of socially and conceptually driven variation within a single language. For Dutch, Jose Tummers, Dirk Speelman, and Dirk Geeraerts analyze inflectional variation in Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch, Reinhild Vandekerckhove focuses on interdialectal convergence between West-Flemish urban dialects, and Arjan van Leuvensteijn studies competing forms of address in the 17th century Dutch standard variety. The cultural and conceptual dimension is also present in the diachronic lexicosemantic explorations presented by Heli Tissari, Clara Molina, and Caroline Gevaert for English expressions referring to the experiential domains of love, sorrow and anger, respectively: the history of words is systematically linked up with the images they convey and the evolving conceptualizations they reveal. The papers by Heide Wegener and by Marcin Kilarski and Grzegorz Krynicki constitute a plea against arbitrariness of alternations at the level of nominal morphology: dealing with marked plural forms in German, and with gender assignment to English loanwords in the Scandinavian languages, respectively, their distributional accounts bring into the picture a variety of motivating factors. The four cross-linguistic studies that close the volume focus on the differing ways in which even closely related languages exploit parallel morphosyntactic patterns. They share the same methodological concern for combining rigorous parametrization and quantification with conceptual and discourse-functional explanations. While Griet Beheydt and Katleen Van den Steen confront the use of formally defined competing constructions in two Germanic and two Romance languages, respectively, Torsten Leuschner as well as Gisela Harras and Kirsten Proost analyze how a particular speaker's attitude is expressed differently in various Germanic languages.

It is our pleasure to present these proceedings for "The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles II: Trucks, Buses and Trains" International Conference held in Lake - hoe, California, August 26-31, 2007 by Engineering Conferences International (ECI). Brought together were the world's leading scientists and engineers from industry, universities, and research laboratories, including truck and high-speed train manufacturers and operators. All were gathered to discuss computer simu- tion and experimental techniques to be applied for the design of the more efficient trucks, buses and high-speed trains required in future years. This was the second conference in the series. The focus of the first conference in 2002 was the interplay between computations and experiment in minimizing ae- dynamic drag. The present proceedings, from the 2007 conference, address the development and application of advanced aerodynamic simulation and experim- tal methods for state-of-the-art analysis and design, as well as the development of new ideas and trends holding promise for the coming 10-year time span. Also - cluded, are studies of heavy vehicle aerodynamic tractor and trailer add-on - vices, studies of schemes to delay undesirable flow separation, and studies of - derhood thermal management.

One of the next challenges in vehicular technology field is to improve drastically the road safety. Current developments are focusing on both vehicle platform and diverse assistance systems. This book presents a new engineering approach based on lean vehicle architecture ready for the drive-by-wire technology.

Based on a cognitive functionality split, execution and command levels are detailed. The execution level centralized over the stability control performs the motion vector coming from the command level. At this level the driver generates a motion vector which is continuously monitored by a virtual co-pilot. The integration of assistance systems in a safety relevant multi-agent system is presented here to provide first an adequate feedback to the driver to let him recover a dangerous situation. Robust strategies are also presented for the intervention phase once the command vehicle has to be optimized to stay within the safety envelope.

Micromechanisms of Fracture and Fatigue forms the culmination of 20 years of research in the field of fatigue and fracture. It discusses a range of topics and comments on the state of the art for each. The first part is devoted to models of deformation and fracture of perfect crystals. Using various atomistic methods, the theoretical strength of solids under simple and complex loading is calculated for a wide range of elements and compounds, and compared with experimental data. The connection between the onset of local plasticity in nanoindentation tests and the ideal shear strength is analysed using a multi-scale approach. Moreover, the nature of intrinsic brittleness or ductility of perfect crystal lattices is demonstrated by the coupling of atomistic and mesoscopic approaches, and compared with brittle/ductile behaviour of engineering materials. The second part addresses extrinsic sources of fracture toughness of engineering materials, related to their microstructure and microstructurally-induced crack tortuosity. Micromechanisms of ductile fracture are also described, in relation to the fracture strain of materials. Results of multilevel modelling, including statistical aspects of microstructure, are used to explain remarkable phenomena discovered in experiments. In the third part of the book, basic micromechanisms of fatigue cracks propagation under uniaxial and multiaxial loading are discussed on the basis of the unified mesoscopic model of crack tip shielding and closure, taking both microstructure and statistical effects into account. Applications to failure analysis are also outlined, and an attempt is made to distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic sources of materials resistance to fracture. Micromechanisms of Fracture and Fatigue provides scientists, researchers and postgraduate students with not only a deep insight into basic micromechanisms of fracture behaviour of materials, but also a number of engineering applications.

These Proceedings contain the papers presented at the 1stAsian Pacific Congress on "Computational Mechanics" held in Sydney, on 20-23 November 2001.
The theme of the first Congress of the Asian-Pacific Association for Computational Mechanics in the new millennium is "New Frontiers for the New Millennium." The papers cover such new frontiers as micromechanics, contact mechanics, environmental geomechanics, chemo-thermo-mechanics, inverse techniques, homogenization, meshless methods, smart materials/smart structures and graphic visualization, besides the general topics related to the application of finite element and boundary element methods in structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, geomechanics and biomechanics.

Recent developments in information processing systems have driven the advancement of numerical simulations in engineering. New models and simulations enable better solutions for problem-solving and overall process improvement. Advanced Numerical Simulations in Mechanical Engineering is a pivotal reference source for the latest research findings on advanced modelling and simulation method adopted in mechanical and mechatronics engineering. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant areas such as fuzzy logic controllers, finite element analysis, and analytical models, this publication is an ideal resource for students, professional engineers, and researchers interested in the application of numerical simulations in mechanical engineering.

This book concentrates on the design and development of integrated optic waveguide sensors using silicon based materials. The implementation of such system as a tool for detecting adulteration in petroleum based products as well as its use for detection of glucose level in diabetes are highlighted. The first chapters are dedicated to the development of the theoretical model while the final chapters are focused on the different applications of such sensors. It gives the readers the full background in the field of sensors, reasons for using silicon oxynitride as a potential waveguide material as well as its fabrication processes and possible uses.

This book presents recent research into developing and applying computational tools to estimate the performance and safety of hydraulic structures from the planning and construction stage to the service period. Based on the results of a close collaboration between the author and his colleagues, friends, students and field engineers, it shows how to achieve a good correlation between numerical computation and the actual in situ behavior of hydraulic structures. The book's heuristic and visualized style disseminates the philosophy and road map as well as the findings of the research. The chapters reflect the various aspects of the three typical and practical methods (the finite element method, the block element method, the composite element method) that the author has been working on and made essential contributions to since the 1980s. This book is an advanced continuation of Hydraulic Structures by the same author, published by Springer in 2015.

Mechanical Vibrations: Theory and Applications presents the basic principles of engineering vibrations and introduces students to a strategic framework to advance their knowledge and skill in engineering problem-solving. The opening chapter reviews key topics, including mathematical modeling, dimensional analysis, dynamics, and more. Chapter 2 focuses on the elements that comprise mechanical systems and the methods of mathematical modeling of mechanical systems. Two methods for the derivation of differential equations for a linear system are presented: the free-body diagram method and the energy method. Chapters 3 through 5 focus on single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems. Chapter 3 concentrates on free vibration of SDOF systems. Forced vibration of SDOF systems is covered in Chapter 4 (harmonic excitation) and Chapter 5 (general transient excitation). Chapter 6 is focused on free and forced vibration of two degree-of-freedom systems. Chapters 7 through 9 cover general multiple degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems. Chapter 7 concentrates on the derivation of differential equations governing MDOF systems. Chapter 8 concentrates on free vibration, whereas Chapter 9 covers forced vibration. The final chapter provides a brief overview of vibrations of continuous systems. Mechanical Vibrations: Theory and Applications is designed to serve as a primary textbook for advanced undergraduate courses on vibrations. Chapters 7 through 10 are appropriate for use as a standalone resource for graduate-level courses.

Practical Ship Hydrodynamics, Second Edition, introduces the reader to modern ship hydrodynamics. It describes experimental and numerical methods for ship resistance and propulsion, maneuvering, seakeeping, hydrodynamic aspects of ship vibrations, and hydrodynamic options for fuel efficiency, as well as new developments in computational methods and model testing techniques relating to marine design and development. Organized into six chapters, the book begins with an overview of problems and approaches, including the basics of modeling and full-scale testing, prediction of ship hydrodynamic performance, and viscous flow computations. It proceeds with a discussion of the marine applications of computational fluid dynamics and boundary element methods, factors affecting ship hydrodynamics, and simple design estimates of hydrodynamic quantities such as resistance and wake fraction. Seakeeping of ships is investigated with respect to issues such as maximum speed in a seaway, route optimization (routing), structural design of the ship with respect to loads in seaways, and habitation comfort and safety of people on board. Exercises and solutions, formula derivations, and texts are included to support teaching or self-studies. This book is suitable for marine engineering students in design and hydrodynamics courses, professors teaching a course in general fluid dynamics, practicing marine engineers and naval architects, and consulting marine engineers.

This book introduces and analyzes the models for engineering leadership and competency skills, as well as frameworks for industry-academia collaboration and is appropriate for students, researchers, and professionals interested in continuous professional development. The authors look at the organizational structures of engineering education in knowledge-based economies and examine the role of innovation and how it is encouraged in schools. It also provides a methodological framework and toolkit for investigating the needs of engineering and technology skills in national contexts. A detailed empirical case study is included that examines the leadership competencies that are needed in knowledge-based economies and how one university encourages these in their program. The book concludes with conceptual modeling and proposals of specific organizational structures for implementation in engineering schools, in order to enable the development of necessary skills for future engineering graduates.

Increasingly, robots are being used in environments inhospitable to humans such as the deep ocean, inside nuclear reactors, and in deep space. Such robots are controlled by remote links to human operators who may be close by or thousands of miles away. The techniques used to control these robots is the subject of this book. The author begins with a basic introduction to robot control and then considers the important problems to be overcome: delays or noisy control lines, feedback and response information, and predictive displays. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of robotics though this may be their first exposure to the subject of telerobotics. Professional engineers and roboticists will find this an invaluable introduction to this subject.

Gain an understanding of the inspection of large synchronous machines, generators, condensers, and motors! This text describes each component of the machine, operational functions, typical design features, and tell-tale signs that indicate each mode of failure. Compact with photos, graphs, commonly-used inspection forms, along with extensive references for each topic, INSPECTION OF LARGE SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES is an excellent tool for operators, inspectors, and student engineers.
Sponsored by
IEEE Power Engineering Society.

Some years ago, silicon-based mechanical sensors, like pressure sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes, started their successful advance. Every year, hundreds of millions of these devices are sold, mainly for medical and automotive applications. The airbag sensor on which research already started several decades ago at Stanford University can be found in every new car and has saved already numerous lives. Pressure sensors are also used in modern electronic blood pressure equipment. Many other mechanical sensors, mostly invisible to the public, perform useful functions in countless industrial and consumer products.

The underlying physics and technology of silicon-based mechanical sensors is rather complex and is treated in numerous publications scattered throughout the literature. Therefore, a clear need existed for a handbook that thoroughly and systematically reviews the present basic knowledge on these devices.

After a short introduction, Professor Bao discusses the main issues relevant to silicon-based mechanical sensors. First a thorough treatment of stress and strain in diaphragms and beams is presented. Next, vibration of mechanical structures is illuminated, followed by a chapter on air damping. These basic chapters are then succeeded by chapters in which capacitive and piezoresistive sensing techniques are amply discussed. The book concludes with chapters on commercially available pressure sensors, accelerometers and resonant sensors in which the above principles are applied.

Everybody, involved in designing silicon-based mechanical sensors, will find a wealth of useful information in the book, assisting the designer in obtaining highly optimized devices.

The objective of Volume III is to lay down the proper mathematical foundations of the two-dimensional theory of shells. To this end, it provides, without any recourse to any "a priori" assumptions of a geometrical or mechanical nature, a mathematical justification of two-dimensional nonlinear and linear shell theories, by means of asymptotic methods, with the thickness as the "small" parameter.

As a new interdisciplinary research area, image-based geometric modeling and mesh generation integrates image processing, geometric modeling and mesh generation with finite element method (FEM) to solve problems in computational biomedicine, materials sciences and engineering. It is well known that FEM is currently well-developed and efficient, but mesh generation for complex geometries (e.g., the human body) still takes about 80% of the total analysis time and is the major obstacle to reduce the total computation time. It is mainly because none of the traditional approaches is sufficient to effectively construct finite element meshes for arbitrarily complicated domains, and generally a great deal of manual interaction is involved in mesh generation.

This contributed volume, the first for such an interdisciplinary topic, collects the latest research by experts in this area. These papers cover a broad range of topics, including medical imaging, image alignment and segmentation, image-to-mesh conversion, quality improvement, mesh warping, heterogeneous materials, biomodelcular modeling and simulation, as well as medical and engineering applications.

This contributed volume, the first for such an interdisciplinary topic, collects the latest research by experts in this area. These papers cover a broad range of topics, including medical imaging, image alignment and segmentation, image-to-mesh conversion, quality improvement, mesh warping, heterogeneous materials, biomodelcular modeling and simulation, as well as medical and engineering applications.

This contributed volume, the first for such an interdisciplinary topic, collects the latest research by experts in this area. These papers cover a broad range of topics, including medical imaging, image alignment and segmentation, image-to-mesh conversion, quality improvement, mesh warping, heterogeneous materials, biomodelcular modeling and simulation, as well as medical and engineering applications.

This contributed volume, the first for such an interdisciplinary topic, collects the latest research by experts in this area. These papers cover a broad range of topics, including medical imaging, image alignment and segmentation, image-to-mesh conversion, quality improvement, mesh warping, heterogeneous materials, biomodelcular modeling and simulation, as well as medical and engineering applications.

Compliant mechanisms and actuators are growing in importance due to their benefits in robotics, medical technology, sensor applications, or in handling compressible objects. This book helps to understand the mechanical behavior of compliant systems. Suggested classifications and different modeling methods are shown that allow for the description of compliant systems.

To control mechanical processes one needs to obtain information about the state of the system, to process the information, and then to act on the results. Originally, the simplest controls were purely mechanical feedback systems; more complex systems required human intervention. At present, most controls are provided by purely electromechanical systems, but there are also many situations in which one needs sophisticated measurements for later analysis.

Developments in electronic information processing have over the past few decades far outpaced the developments in the sensors and actuators that provide the input and output of the control systems; as a result, the transducers account for the major part of the expense, mass, and failure points of many modern machines. Improvements in control systems thus depend on a clear and thorough understanding of the principles of transducers. It is the aim of this book to help meet that need. Unlike other treatments of sensors or actuators, this book approaches the devices from the point of view of the fundamental coupling mechanism between the electrical and mechanical behavior. Thus, for example, a solenoid can b used either to detect horizontal motion and position (i.e. as a sensor), or to impose a motion on a piston (i.e. as an actuator); the principles of operation of the solenoid are the same in both cases, and this book thus treats them together.

The book begins with a discussion of systems analysis as a tool for modeling transducers. It then turns to a detailed discussion of transduction mechanisms (electric and magnetic fields, piezo- and pyro-electric effects, electromagnetic induction, and so forth). The book concludes with an input/output analysis of transducers.

The principal object of this volume is the creation of a mathematical theory of deformations for elastic anisotropic thermodynamic piezoelastic plates, beams and shells with variable thickness. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with problems related to the construction of refined theories (such as those of Richhof-Love, von Karman-A. Fioppl, and Reissner) and their equivalent new models (depending on arbitrary control functions). These are investigated by means of a new variational principle. Methods of reduction, containing regular processes of study of spatial problems, are also studied. Topics treated include problems of solvability, error estimations, convergence of processes in Sobolev spaces and construction of effective schemes of solutions of two-dimensional boundary value problems for systems of partial differential equations. The second part considers stable projective methods, using classical orthogonal polynomials and a new class of spline-functions as coordinate systems, and their numerical realizations for a design of one- and two- dimensional boundary value problems from the first part. These efficient methods increase the possibilities of classical finite-difference, exponential- fitted, variational-discrete and alternating-direction methods. Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students whose work involves mechanics, analysis, numerics and computation, mathematical modelling and industrial mathematics, calculus of variations, and design engineering.

Althoughtheprinciplesofoperationofhelicalscrewmachines, ascompressors or expanders, have been well known for more than 100 years, it is only during the past 30 years that these machines have become widely used. The main reasons for the long period before they were adopted were their relatively poor e?ciency and the high cost of manufacturing their rotors. Two main developments led to a solution to these di?culties. The ?rst of these was the introduction of the asymmetric rotor pro?le in 1973. This reduced the bl- hole area, which was the main source of internal leakage by approximately 90%, and thereby raised the thermodynamic e?ciency of these machines, to roughly the same level as that of traditional reciprocating compressors. The second was the introduction of precise thread milling machine tools at - proximately the same time. This made it possible to manufacture items of complex shape, such as the rotors, both accurately and cheaply. From then on, as a result of their ever improving e?ciencies, high rel- bility and compact form, screw compressors have taken an increasing share of the compressor market, especially in the ?elds of compressed air production, and refrigeration and air conditioning, and today, a substantial proportion of compressors manufactured for industry are of this type. Despite, the now wide usage of screw compressors and the publication of many scienti?c papers on their development, only a handful of textbooks have been published to date, which give a rigorous exposition of the principles of their operation and none of these are in English

The use of refrigeration, either directly or as part of an air-conditioning system, is essential to almost every branch of industry.

There is a need for practitioners to familiarise themselves with the general principles and methods of refrigeration and air conditioning, and the types of plant and operation currently in use.
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of refrigeration and air-conditioning for the uninitiated student and a general overview of the industry for the practitioner. The fundamentals of the subject are introduced without involving the reader too deeply in theory and the content is presented in a logical order.
This fully revised and updated third edition has a new chapter on Refrigerants that deals with the many changes in this area over the last 10 years, including the phase out of CFC and HCFC refrigerants in line with Ozone depletion and Global Warming. New, replacement refrigerants are described, together with Codes of Practice introduced for maintenance and servicing of refrigeration plants. The increased use of Ammonia and Propane are included, with the relevant Health and Safety aspects, and the move towards Absorption refrigeration equipment as more environmentally friendly.
This new edition of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning is a valuable reference source for practising engineers and essential reading for students.

This book presents a unified hierarchical formulation of theories for three-dimensional continua, two-dimensional shells, one-dimensional rods, and zero-dimensional points. It allows readers with varying backgrounds easy access to fundamental understanding of these powerful Cosserat theories.