Constitutive Modeling of Engineering Materials provides an extensive theoretical overview of elastic, plastic, damage, and fracture models, giving readers the foundational knowledge needed to successfully apply them to and solve common engineering material problems. Particular attention is given to inverse analysis, parameter identification, and the numerical implementation of models with the finite element method. Application in practice is discussed in detail, showing examples of working computer programs for simple constitutive behaviors. Examples explore the important components of material modeling which form the building blocks of any complex constitutive behavior.

Emerging Nanotechnologies for Renewable Energy offers a detailed overview of the benefits and applications of nanotechnology in the renewable energy sector. The book highlights recent work carried out on the emerging role of nanotechnology in renewable energy applications, ranging from photovoltaics, to battery technology and energy from waste. Written by international authors from both industry and academia, the book covers topics including scaling up from laboratory to industrial scale. It is a valuable resource for students at postgraduate and advanced undergraduate levels, researchers in industry and academia, technology leaders, and policy and decision-makers in the energy and engineering sectors.

Handbook of Polymers in Medicine combines core concepts and advanced research on polymers, providing a better understanding of this class of materials in medicine. The book covers all aspects of medical polymers from characteristics and biocompatibility, to the diverse array of applications in medicine. Chapters cover an introduction to polymers in medicine and the challenges associated with biocompatibility in human tissue, polyurethane and supramolecular polymers and their specific applications in medicine, from tissue regeneration to orthopedic surgery and cancer therapeutics. This book offers an interdisciplinary approach that will appeal to researchers in a range of disciplines, including biomedical engineering, materials science, chemistry, pharmacology and translational medicine. The book will also make a useful reference for clinicians and those in medical fields who are interested in materials for medical applications, as well as R&D groups involved in medical device design.

Handbook of Fillers, Fifth Edition discusses the rapidly advancing field of fillers, the substances added to plastics and composites that add value by improving and modifying the properties of materials and reducing costs. This new edition is an essential reference for engineers and scientists using fillers in a range of materials, including plastics, rubber, adhesives, and paper. Designed to be a comprehensive reference for both experienced practitioners and those new to the field, it covers available fillers and their properties, their effect on filled materials, their rheology and flammability, recycling considerations, and their use in practical applications. The book offers a direct comparison of general-purpose fillers (micron-size fillers) and nanofillers. The first section covers the grades of fillers available in the world market, dividing them into eight groups and analyzing their properties, applications, and sources. The second section discusses the effects of filler incorporation with ten chapters covering the mechanical properties of compounded materials, the effect of the filler on the material rheology, the morphology of the filled system, the material durability, flammability and recycling, the structure of interphase, chemical interphase, chemical interactions, interaction with and effect on other additive, fillers use in material compounds, and the analytical methods of testing fillers and filled materials. The final section is devoted to the application of fillers on an industrial scale. Filler transportation, storage, processing, and equipment used for these purposes are discussed, as are quality control of fillers, formulation with fillers, different processing methods, and health and safety issues.

Polymers used in electronics and electrical engineering are essential to the development of high-tech products, with applications in space, aviation, health, automotive, communication, robotics, consumer products, and beyond. Typical features of mainstream polymers such as mechanical performance, optical behavior, and environmental stability frequently need to be enhanced to perform in these demanding applications, creating the need to develop special grades or use completely new chemistry for their synthesis. Similarly, the typical set of properties included in the description of mainstream polymers are not sufficient for polymer selection for these applications, as they require different data, data that is meticulously detailed in the Handbook of Polymers for Electronics. The book provides readers with the most up-to-date information from the existing literature, manufacturing data, and patent filings. Presenting data for all polymers based on a consistent pattern of arrangement, the book provides details organized into the following sections: General; history; synthesis; structure; commercial polymers; physical properties; electrical properties; mechanical properties; chemical resistance; flammability; weather stability; thermal stability; biodegradation; toxicity; environmental impact; processing; blends; analysis. The contents, scope, treatment and novelty of the data makes this book an essential resource for anyone working with polymeric materials used in modern electronic applications.

Research on natural fiber composites is an emerging area in the field of polymer science with tremendous growth potential for commercialization. Hybrid Natural Fiber Composites: Material Formulations, Processing, Characterization, Properties, and Engineering Applications provides updated information on all the important classes of natural fibers and their composites that can be used for a broad range of engineering applications. Leading researchers from industry, academia, government, and private research institutions from across the globe have contributed to this highly application-oriented book. The chapters showcase cutting-edge research discussing the current status, key trends, future directions, and opportunities. Focusing on the current state of the art, the authors aim to demonstrate the future potential of these materials in a broad range of demanding engineering applications. This book will act as a one-stop reference resource for academic and industrial researchers working in R&D departments involved in designing composite materials for semi structural engineering applications.

Handbook of Flame Retardants contains an extensive evaluation of the existing literature, products and patents related to flame retardance. As a perfect complement to The Databook of Flame Retardants, this book explains the roles, selection, mechanisms of action, use in different polymers and products, and health and environmental issues of over 350 different products. Chapters highlight the fundamentals of material burning and the associated stages of heat, flame and smoke, properties and mechanisms, and preventive, delaying and extinguishing attributes of 27 chemical groups of flame retardants. Examples of synergistic and antagonistic actions of various additives are discussed next, along with testing methods. The book concludes with chapters providing guidance on optimal selection of flame retardants for various polymers and information on the toxicity of flame retardants and their effects on the environment.

Metal Halide Perovskites for Generation, Manipulation and Detection of Light covers the current state and future prospects of lead halide perovskite photonics and photon sources, both from an academic and industrial point-of-view. Advances in metal halide perovskite photon sources (lasers) based on thin films, microcrystals and nanocrystals are comprehensively reviewed, with leading experts contributing current advances in theory, fundamental concepts, fabrication techniques, experiments and other important research innovations. This book is suitable for graduate students, researchers, scientists and engineers in academia and R&D in industry working in the disciplines of materials science and engineering.

Natural Biopolymers in Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering systematically examines a broad range of natural polymers and their applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. The book thoroughly collates the most relevant and up-to-date research on natural biopolymers, covering a variety of key natural polymer types such as chitin, chitosan, alginate, guar gum and collagen. It is divided into two sections, covering drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Each section focuses on natural biopolymers in the form of scaffolds, membranes, films, gels and nanoparticles, thus helping the reader select not only the most appropriate polymer type, but also the most relevant structure. This comprehensive resource is ideal for materials scientists, biomedical engineers, tissue engineers, pharmaceutical scientists and anyone interested in developing novel materials for biomedical applications.

Coherent Electron Microscopy: Designing Faster and Brighter Electron Sources, Volume 227 in the Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics series, merges two long-running serials, Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. Chapters in this new release cover Characterization of nanomaterials properties using FE-TEM, Cold field-emission electron sources: From higher brightness to ultrafast beams, Every electron counts: Towards the development of aberration optimized and aberration corrected electron sources, and more. The series features articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science, digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy and the computing methods used in all these domains.

Waste Management in the Textiles Industry explores and explains the latest technologies and best practices for an integrated approach to the management and treatment of wastes generated in this industry.

Databook of Flame Retardants contains information on commonly-used additives broken out into five sections, including General, Physical, Health and Safety, Ecological, and Use. Over one hundred types of data are included for over three hundred and fifty commercial-based products. All data fields are defined and include a broad range of information, such as calcium contents, molecular mass, brightness, freezing/melting points, viscosity, volatility, UN/NA class, autoignition temperature, partition coefficient, processing methods, concentrations used, and more. This book is best utilized in tandem with the Handbook of Flame Retardants. Each book complements the other without repeating information, with the other release explaining the role of these products, their selection, mechanism of action, use in different polymers and products, and health and commercial issues related to flame retardants.

Model-Based Reinforcement Learning Explore a comprehensive and practical approach to reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning is an essential paradigm of machine learning, wherein an intelligent agent performs actions that ensure optimal behavior from devices. While this paradigm of machine learning has gained tremendous success and popularity in recent years, previous scholarship has focused either on theory--optimal control and dynamic programming - or on algorithms--most of which are simulation-based. Model-Based Reinforcement Learning provides a model-based framework to bridge these two aspects, thereby creating a holistic treatment of the topic of model-based online learning control. In doing so, the authors seek to develop a model-based framework for data-driven control that bridges the topics of systems identification from data, model-based reinforcement learning, and optimal control, as well as the applications of each. This new technique for assessing classical results will allow for a more efficient reinforcement learning system. At its heart, this book is focused on providing an end-to-end framework--from design to application--of a more tractable model-based reinforcement learning technique. Model-Based Reinforcement Learning readers will also find: A useful textbook to use in graduate courses on data-driven and learning-based control that emphasizes modeling and control of dynamical systems from data Detailed comparisons of the impact of different techniques, such as basic linear quadratic controller, learning-based model predictive control, model-free reinforcement learning, and structured online learning Applications and case studies on ground vehicles with nonholonomic dynamics and another on quadrator helicopters An online, Python-based toolbox that accompanies the contents covered in the book, as well as the necessary code and data Model-Based Reinforcement Learning is a useful reference for senior undergraduate students, graduate students, research assistants, professors, process control engineers, and roboticists.

From the time it was organized in 1880, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recorded aspects of the history of the mechanical engineering profession and the careers of some of its notable practitioners. The Society's historical efforts were formalized in 1971 with the creation of a History and Heritage Committee. This volume commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of that committee and collects, in a single place, many of the historical contributions published over the past fifty years in ASME's flagship magazine, Mechanical Engineering. In preparation for the United States' bicentennial year, and later the Society's centennial, the editors of Mechanical Engineering contracted with engineer-historian Fritz Hirschfeld for a long series of articles about the county's early mechanical engineering heritage and the lives of notable mechanical engineers, particularly those associated with ASME's founding. Hirschfeld's articles form the foundation of this volume. To supplement Hirschfeld's work, the editors have added numerous other historical articles published in Mechanical Engineering. The engineering innovations described by these articles have been enormously important to the development of modern technological society, and the stories behind their development should be of interest to engineers interested in the history of their profession, as well as anyone interested in American history.