This book considers methods of approximate analysis of mechanical, elec tromechanical, and other systems described by ordinary differential equa tions. Modern mathematical modeling of sophisticated mechanical systems consists of several stages: first, construction of a mechanical model, and then writing appropriate equations and their analytical or numerical ex amination. Usually, this procedure is repeated several times. Even if an initial model correctly reflects the main properties of a phenomenon, it de scribes, as a rule, many unnecessary details that make equations of motion too complicated. As experience and experimental data are accumulated, the researcher considers simpler models and simplifies the equations. Thus some terms are discarded, the order of the equations is lowered, and so on. This process requires time, experimentation, and the researcher's intu ition. A good example of such a semi-experimental way of simplifying is a gyroscopic precession equation. Formal mathematical proofs of its admis sibility appeared some several decades after its successful introduction in engineering calculations. Applied mathematics now has at its disposal many methods of approxi mate analysis of differential equations. Application of these methods could shorten and formalize the procedure of simplifying the equations and, thus, of constructing approximate motion models. Wide application of the methods into practice is hindered by the fol lowing. 1. Descriptions of various approximate methods are scattered over the mathematical literature. The researcher, as a rule, does not know what method is most suitable for a specific case. 2."

This book provides an introduction to the Human Centred Design of autonomous vehicles for professionals and students. While rapid progress is being made in the field of autonomous road vehicles the majority of actions and the research address the technical challenges, with little attention to the physical, perceptual, cognitive and emotional needs of humans. This book fills a gap in the knowledge by providing an easily understandable introduction to the needs and desires of people in relation to autonomous vehicles. The book is "human centred design" led, adding an important human perspective to the primarily technology-driven debates about autonomous vehicles. It combines knowledge from fields ranging from linguistics to electrical engineering to provide a holistic, multidisciplinary overview of the issues affecting the interactions between autonomous vehicles and people. It emphasises the constraints and requirements that a human centred perspective necessitates, giving balanced information about the potential conflicts between technical and human factors. The book provides a helpful introduction to the field of design ethics, to enhance the reader's awareness and understanding of the multiple ethical issues involved in autonomous vehicle design. Written as an accessible guide for design practitioners and students, this will be a key read for those interested in the psychological, sociological and ethical factors involved in automotive design, human centred design, industrial design and technology.

Part I introduces the basic "Principles and Methods of Force Measurement" according to a classification into a dozen of force transducerstypes: resistive, inductive, capacitive, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrodynamic, magnetoelastic, galvanomagnetic (Hall-effect), vibrating wires, (micro)resonators, acoustic and gyroscopic. Two special chapters refer to force balance techniques and to combined methods in force measurement. Part II discusses the "(Strain Gauge) Force Transducers Components", evolving from the classical force transducer to the digital / intelligent one, with the incorporation of three subsystems (sensors, electromechanics and informatics). The elastic element (EE) is the "heart" of the force transducer and basically determines its performance. A 12-type elastic element classification is proposed (stretched / compressed column or tube, bending beam, bending and/or torsion shaft, middle bent bar with fixed ends, shear beam, bending ring, yoke or frame, diaphragm, axial-stressed torus, axisymmetrical and voluminous EE), with emphasis on the optimum place of the strain gauges. The main properties of the associated Wheatstone bridge, best suited for the parametrical transducers, are examined, together with the appropriate electronic circuits for SGFTs. The handbook fills a gap in the field of Force Measurement, both experts and newcomers, no matter of their particular interest, finding a lot of useful and valuable subjects in the area of Force Transducers; in fact, it is the first specialized monograph in this inter- and multidisciplinary field.

This book gathers the best articles presented by researchers and industrial experts at the International Conference on "Innovative Design, Analysis and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering (I-DAD 2020)". The papers discuss new design concepts, and analysis and manufacturing technologies, with a focus on achieving improved performance by downsizing; improving the strength-to-weight ratio, fuel efficiency and operational capability at room and elevated temperatures; reducing wear and tear; addressing NVH aspects, while balancing the challenges of Euro VI/Bharat Stage VI emission norms, greenhouse effects and recyclable materials. Presenting innovative methods, this book is a valuable reference resource for professionals at educational and research organizations, as well as in industry, encouraging them to pursue challenging projects of mutual interest.

Real-time simulations of the behaviour of a rail vehicle require realistic solutions of the wheel-rail contact problem which can work in a real-time mode. Examples of such solutions for the online mode have been well known and are implemented within standard and commercial tools for the simulation codes for rail vehicle dynamics. This book is the result of the research activities carried out by the Railway Technology Lab of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. This book presents work on the project for the development of a real-time wheel-rail contact model and provides the simulation results obtained with dSpace real-time hardware. Besides this, the implementation of the contact model for the development of a real-time model for the complex mechatronic system of a scaled test rig is presented in this book and may be useful for the further validation of the real-time contact model with experiments on a full scale test rig.

Moving inertial loads are applied to structures in civil engineering, robotics, and mechanical engineering. Some fundamental books exist, as well as thousands of research papers. Well known is the book by L. Fryba, Vibrations of Solids and Structures Under Moving Loads, which describes almost all problems concerning non-inertial loads. This book presents broad description of numerical tools successfully applied to structural dynamic analysis. Physically we deal with non-conservative systems. The discrete approach formulated with the use of the classical finite element method results in elemental matrices, which can be directly added to global structure matrices. A more general approach is carried out with the space-time finite element method. In such a case, a trajectory of the moving concentrated parameter in space and time can be simply defined. We consider structures described by pure hyperbolic differential equations such as strings and structures described by hyperbolic-parabolic differential equations such as beams and plates. More complex structures such as frames, grids, shells, and three-dimensional objects, can be treated with the use of the solutions given in this book.

The 33 papers presented in this book were selected from amongst the 97 papers presented during the 6th edition of the International Conference on Integrated Design and Manufacturing in Mechanical Engineering during 28 sessions. This conference was organized within the framework of the activities of the AIP-PRIMECA network whose main scientific field is integrated design applied to both mechanical engineering and production, and represents state-of-the-art research. It shows the urgent need for change in product development with the integration during the design activity of the global life cycle of the product. Two keynote papers introduce the subject of the Conference and are followed by the different themes highlighted during the conference: The design/manufacturing interface; Integrated design of manufacturing processes; Life cycle design and manufacturing approaches; Agility in design and manufacture; Knowledge in engineering; and Management in production systems.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of digital signal processing for a multi-disciplinary audience. It posits that though the theory involved in digital signal processing stems from electrical, electronics, communication, and control engineering, the topic has use in other disciplinary areas like chemical, mechanical, civil, computer science, and management. This book is written about digital signal processing in such a way that it is suitable for a wide ranging audience. Readers should be able to get a grasp of the field, understand the concepts easily, and apply as needed in their own fields. It covers sampling and reconstruction of signals; infinite impulse response filter; finite impulse response filter; multi rate signal processing; statistical signal processing; and applications in multidisciplinary domains. The book takes a functional approach and all techniques are illustrated using Matlab.

Micro/nanotribology as a field is concerned with experimental and theoretical investigations of processes ranging from atomic and molecular scales to the microscale, occurring during adhesion, friction, wear, and thin-film lubrication at sliding surfaces. As a field it is truly interdisciplinary, but this confronts the would-be entrant with the difficulty of becoming familiar with the basic theories and applications: the area is not covered in any undergraduate or graduate scientific curriculum. The present work commences with a history of tribology and micro/nanotribology, followed by discussions of instrumentation, basic theories of friction, wear and lubrication on nano- to microscales, and their industrial applications. A variety of research instruments are covered, including a variety of scanning probe microscopes and surface force apparatus. Experimental research and modelling are expertly dealt with, the emphasis throughout being applied aspects.

This volume contains the invited contributions to the Spring 2012 seminar series at Virginia State University on Mathematical Sciences and Applications. It is a thematic continuation of work presented in Volume 24 of the Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics series. Contributors present their own work as leading researchers to advance their specific fields and induce a genuine interdisciplinary interaction. Thus all articles therein are selective, self-contained, and are pedagogically exposed to foster student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, stimulate graduate and undergraduate research, as well as collaboration between researchers from different areas. The volume features new advances in mathematical research and its applications: anti-periodicity; almost stochastic difference equations; absolute and conditional stability in delayed equations; gamma-convergence and applications to block copolymer morphology; the dynamics of collision and near-collision in celestial mechanics; almost and pseudo-almost limit cycles; rainbows in spheres and connections to ray, wave and potential scattering theory; null-controllability of the heat equation with constraints; optimal control for systems subjected to null-controllability; the Galerkin method for heat transfer in closed channels; wavelet transforms for real-time noise cancellation; signal, image processing and machine learning in medicine and biology; methodology for research on durability, reliability, damage tolerance of aerospace materials and structures at NASA Langley Research Center. The volume is suitable and valuable for mathematicians, scientists and research students in a variety of interdisciplinary fields, namely physical and life sciences, engineering and technology including structures and materials sciences, computer science for signal, image processing and machine learning in medicine.

Over a period of several years the field of probabilistic mechanics and com putational mechanics have progressed vigorously, but independently. With the advent of powerful computational hardware and the development of novel mechanical techniques, the field of stochastic mechanics has progressed in such a manner that the inherent uncertainty of quite complicated systems can be addressed. The first International Conference on Computational Stochastic Mechanics was convened in Corfu in September 1991 in an ef fort to provide a forum for the exchanging of ideas on the current status of computational methods as applied to stochastic mechanics and for identi fying needs for further research. The Conference covered both theoretical techniques and practical applications. The Conference also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Masanobu Shinozuka, the Sollenberger Professor of Civil Engineering at Princeton University, whose work has contributed in such a great measure to the development of Computational Stochastic Mechanics. A brief sum mary of his career and achievements are given in the Dedication. This book comprises some of the papers presented at the meeting and cov ers sections on Theoretical Reliability Analysis; Damage Analysis; Applied Reliability Analysis; Theoretical Random Vibrations; Stochastic Finite Ele ment Concept; Fatigue and Fracture; Monte Carlo Simulations; Earthquake Engineering Applications; Materials; Applied Random Vibrations; Applied Stochastic Finite Element Analysis, and Flow Related Applications and Chaotic Dynamics. The Editors hope that the book will be a valuable contribution to the grow ing literature covering the field of Computational Stochastic Mechanics.

Thermomechanics of Solids and Structures: Physical Mechanisms, Continuum Mechanics, and Applications covers kinematics, balance equations, the strict thermodynamic frameworks of thermoelasticity, thermoplasticity, creep covering constitutive equations, the physical mechanisms of deformation, along with computational aspects. The book concludes with coverage of the thermodynamics of solids and applications of the constitutive three-dimensional model to both one-dimensional homogeneous and composite beam structures. Practical applications of the theories and techniques covered are emphasized throughout the book, with analytical solutions provided for various problems.

South pointing chariots, walking machines and the astronomical mechanical clock are all used as illustrated examples in this fascinating and unique study of lost machinery in ancient China. This is the first book of its kind, combining creative mechanism design methodology with mechanical evolution and variation theory to set out how some ancient designs can be recreated. Furthermore the book reflects on how age-old wisdoms could stimulate stunning new machinery in the future.

This book contains selected papers prepared for the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Unsteady Combustion," which was held in Praia da Granja, Portugal, 6-17 September 1993. Approximately 100 delegates from 14 countries attended. The Institute was the most recent in a series beginning with "Instrumentation for Combustion and Flow in Engines," held in Vimeiro, Portugal 1987 and followed by "Combusting Flow Diagnostics" conducted in Montechoro, Portugal in 1990. Together, these three Institutes have covered a wide range of experimental and theoretical topics arising in the research and development of combustion systems with particular emphasis on gas-turbine combustors and internal combustion engines. The emphasis has evolved roughly from instrumentation and experimental techniques to the mixture of experiment, theory and computational work covered in the present volume. As the title of this book implies, the chief aim of this Institute was to provide a broad sampling of problems arising with time-dependent behaviour in combustors. In fact, of course, that intention encompasses practically all possibilities, for "steady" combustion hardly exists if one looks sufficiently closely at the processes in a combustion chamber. The point really is that, apart from the excellent paper by Bahr (Chapter 10) discussing the technology of combustors for aircraft gas turbines, little attention is directed to matters of steady performance. The volume is divided into three parts devoted to the subjects of combustion-induced oscillations; combustion in internal combustion engines; and experimental techniques and modelling.

This book provides a thorough approach for mastering the behavior and operation of induction motors, an essential device in the modern industrial world. Its way of presentation renders this book suitable for selfteaching by students, engineers, and researchers in the field of electrical engineering. It covers the modern theory of induction motor applications and control methods. The transient analysis of both three-phase and single-phase induction motors as well as that of the double-cage motors are developed. The principles of such modern control methods as Field-Oriented Control, Direct Torque Control and Computed Charges Acceleration Method are clearly treated in this monograph. Numerous equations, simulations, and figures are presented.

McCoy's guide to the maintenance and management of cooling water systems and the bacteria that live in them. Includes studies and testing of microbicides and other microorganisms that infest re-circulating cooling water systems and factors influencing their health and growth. Tests biological oxidation processes as a way of reusing treated effluents as an important method of water conservation in the petroleum refining and chemical processing industries. Explores practical methods for controlling microorganisms in cooling water; including working with chlorine dioxide as a microbicide. Methods are given for identifying and evaluating toxicants and bacteria that lead to fouling and staining of cooling water systems.

The intention of this booklet is a brief but general introduction into the treatment of the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FEM has become the leading method in computer-oriented mechanics, so that many scienti?c brancheshavegrownup besides overthelastdecades. Nevertheless,theFEM today is a question of economy. On the one hand its industrial application is forced to reduce product development costs and time, on the other hand a large number of commercial FEM codes and a still growing number of software for e?ective pre- and postprocessors are available in the meantime. Due to that, today it is a quite challenging task to operate with all these di?erent tools at the same time and to understand all handling and so- tion techniques developed over the last years. So, we want to help in getting a deeper insight into the main "interfaces" between the "customers of the FEM" and the codes itself by providing a totally open structured FE-code based on Matlab, which is a very powerful tool in operating with matrix based formulations. That idea and conditions forced us some years ago to initiateDAEdalon as a tool for general FE developments in research appli- tions. In spite of still existing high sophisticated - mostly commercial - FE codes, the success and the acceptance of such a structured tool justify that decision afterwards more and more.

For the last couple of decades it has been recognized that the foundation material on which a structure is constructed may interact dynamically with the structure during its response to dynamic excitation to the extent that the stresses and deflections in the system are modified from the values that would have been developed if it had been on a rigid foundations. This phenomenon is examined in detail in this book. The basic solutions are examined in time and frequency domains and finite element and boundary element solutions compared. Experimental investigations aimed at correlation and verification with theory are described in detail. A wide variety of SSI problems may be formulated and solved approximately-using simplified models in lieu of rigorous procedures; the book gives a good overview of these methods. A feature often lacking in other texts on the subject, is the way in which dynamic behaviour of soil can be modelled. Two contributors have addressed this problem from the computational and physical characterization viewpoints. The book illustrates practical areas with the analysis of tunnel linings and stiffness and damping of pile groups. Finally, design code provisions and derivation of design input motions complete this thorough overview of SSI in conventional engineering practice. Taken in its entirety the book, written by 15 well known experts, gives an in-depth review of soil-structure interaction across a broad spectrum of aspects usually not covered in a single volume. It should be a readily usable reference for the research worker as well as the advance level practitioner.

Intelligent technical systems, which combine mechanical, electrical and software engineering with methods from control engineering and advanced mathematics, go far beyond the state of the art in mechatronics and open up fascinating perspectives. Among these systems are so-called self-optimizing systems, which are able to adapt their behavior autonomously and flexibly to changing operating conditions. The Collaborative Research Center 614 "Self-optimizing concepts and structures in mechanical engineering" pursued the long-term aim to enable others to develop dependable self-optimizing systems. Assuring their dependability poses new challenges. However, self-optimization also offers the possibility to adapt the system's behavior to improve dependability during operation.

The aim of this book is to provide methods and techniques to master the challenges and to exploit the possibilities given by self-optimization. The reader will be able to develop self-optimizing systems that fulfill and surpass today s dependability requirements easily.

This book is directed to researchers and practitioners alike. It gives a brief introduction to the holistic development approach for self-optimizing mechatronic systems and the steps required to assure a dependable product design starting with the very early conceptual design phase. A guideline to select suitable methods for each step and the methods themselves are included. Each method is individually introduced, many examples and full references are given.

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This book is a compilation of selected papers from the 2014 New Trends in Fatigue and Fracture (NT2F14) Conference, which was held in Belgrade, Serbia. This prestigious conference brought together delegates from around the globe to discuss how to characterize, predict and analyze the fatigue and fracture of engineering materials, components, and structures using theoretical, experimental, numerical and practical approaches. It highlights some important new trends in fracture mechanics presented at the conference, such as: * two-parameter fracture mechanics, arising from the coupling of fracture toughness and stress constraints * high-performance steel for gas and oil transportation and production (pressure vessels and boilers) * safety and reliability of welded joints This book includes 12 contributions from well-known international scientists and a special tribute dedicated to the scientific contributions of Stojan Sedmark, who passed away in 2014.

The German Research Council (DFG) decided 1987 to establish a nationwide five year research project devoted to dynamics of multibody systems. In this project universities and research centers cooperated with the goal to develop a general pur pose multibody system software package. This concept provides the opportunity to use a modular structure of the software, i.e. different multibody formalisms may be combined with different simulation programmes via standardized interfaces. For the DFG project the database RSYST was chosen using standard FORTRAN 77 and an object oriented multibody system datamodel was defined. The project included * research on the fundamentals of the method of multibody systems, * concepts for new formalisms of dynamical analysis, * development of efficient numerical algorithms and * realization of a powerful software package of multibody systems. These goals required an interdisciplinary cooperation between mathematics, compu ter science, mechanics, and control theory. ix X After a rigorous reviewing process the following research institutions participated in the project (under the responsibility of leading scientists): Technical University of Aachen (Prof. G. Sedlacek) Technical University of Darmstadt (Prof. P. Hagedorn) University of Duisburg M. Hiller) (Prof.