This book focuses on the chemistry and applications of flame retardants for polymers and other materials. It starts with a description and types of flame retardants, as well as their properties and chemical structures, to include chlorine- and bromine-containing flame retardants, phosphorus-based flame retardants, nitrogen-based flame retardants, and silicones. Inorganic materials that serve as flame retardants, such as boron-based additives, graphenes, and others are discussed in detail. In addition, the following subjects are discussed in detail: Flame retardant polymers The mechanisms of flame retardants, such as flame cooling, synergetic effects, degradation of flame retardants, and others Other flame retardant compositions, such as dripping inhibitors and smoke suppressants Testing methods for flame retardants, international standards, human health hazards, such as smoke toxicity and problems with wastes Synthesis and fabrication methods, as well as recycling methods The application of flame retardants to the coating material using 3D printing, reactive coating, and bulk addition methods Non-burning comonomers, foams, nanocomposites and bio-based materials Flame retardants with other textiles, such as wool and electrical applications such as batteries

In a world suffering from an ageing population and declining birth rate, service robotics and mechatronics have an increasingly vital role to play in maintaining a safe and sustainable environment for everyone. Mechatronics can be used in the reconstruction or restoration of various environments which we rely upon to survive; for example the reconstruction of a city after an earthquake, or the restoration of polluted waters

This collection of papers was originally presented at the 7th International Conference on Machine Automation, 2008, in Awaji, Japan, and covers a variety of new trends in service robotics and mechatronics.

Service Robotics and Mechatronics showcases the latest research in the area to provide researchers and scientists with an up-to-date source of knowledge and basis for further study, as well as offering graduate students valuable reference material.

This book is based on the 55th International Conference of Machine Design Departments 2014 (ICMD 2014) which was hosted by the Czech Technical University in September 2014. It features scientific articles which solve progressive themes from the field of machine design. The book addresses a broad range of themes including tribology, hydraulics, materials science, product innovation and experimental methods. It presents the latest interdisciplinary high-tech work. People with an interest in the latest research results in the field of machine design and manufacturing engineering will value this book with contributions of leading academic scientists and experts from all around the world.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuros- ences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their significance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field.

This book provides a detailed analysis of absorption refrigeration systems, covering single effect to multi-effect systems and their applications. Both the first and second laws of thermodynamics are discussed in relation to refrigeration systems to show how system performance differs from one law to another. Comparative energy and exergy analyses and assessments of single effect, double effect, triple effect and quadruple effect absorption refrigeration system are performed to illustrate the impact of an increase in the number of effects on system performance. In particular, the second law (exergy) formulation for absorption refrigeration systems, rarely discussed by other works, is covered in detail. Integrated Absorption Refrigeration Systems will help researchers, students and instructors in the formulation of energy and exergy efficiency equations for absorption refrigeration systems.

The book provides readers with a snapshot of recent research and technological trends in the field of condition monitoring of machinery working under a broad range of operating conditions. Each chapter, accepted after a rigorous peer-review process, reports on an original piece of work presented and discussed at the 4th International Conference on Condition Monitoring of Machinery in Non-stationary Operations, CMMNO 2014, held on December 15-16, 2014, in Lyon, France. The contributions have been grouped into three different sections according to the main subfield (signal processing, data mining or condition monitoring techniques) they are related to. The book includes both theoretical developments as well as a number of industrial case studies, in different areas including, but not limited to: noise and vibration; vibro-acoustic diagnosis; signal processing techniques; diagnostic data analysis; instantaneous speed identification; monitoring and diagnostic systems; and dynamic and fault modeling. This book not only provides a valuable resource for both academics and professionals in the field of condition monitoring, it also aims at facilitating communication and collaboration between the two groups.

This book is based on 40 years of research and teaching in the fields of fracture mechanics and plasticity. It will bring students and engineers from various disciplines up to date on key concepts that have become increasingly important in the design of safety-relevant engineering structures in general and in modern lightweight structures in the transportation industry in particular. Primarily intended for graduate students in the engineering sciences and practicing structural engineers, it employs a multidisciplinary approach that comprises theoretical concepts, numerical methods, and experimental techniques. In addition, it includes a wealth of analytical and numerical examples, used to illustrate the applications of the concepts discussed.

After two succesful conferences held in Innsbruck (Prof. Manfred Husty) in 2006 and Cassino in 2008 (Prof Marco Ceccarelli) with the participation of the most important well-known scientists from the European Mechanism Science Community, a further conference was held in Cluj Napoca, Romania, in 2010 (Prof. Doina Pisla) to discuss new developments in the field.

This book presents the most recent research advances in Mechanism Science with different applications. Amongst the topics treated are papers on Theoretical kinematics, Computational kinematics, Mechanism design, Mechanical transmissions, Linkages and manipulators, Mechanisms for biomechanics, Micro-mechanisms, Experimental mechanics, Mechanics of robots, Dynamics of multi-body systems, Dynamics of machinery, Control issues of mechanical systems, Novel designs, History of mechanism science etc.

The Nirma University International Conference on Engineering NUiCONE is a flagship event of the Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad. NUiCONE-2015 is focussed on events/themes in the current trends in Engineering and its research issues. Practicing engineers, technologists and technopreneurs from the industry will engage in special knowledge sharing sessions using applied technical papers by industry participants on case-study applications, white-papers, panel discussions, industrial exhibitions of innovations and technology products etc. This proceedings book includes peer reviewed and presented research papers by research scholars and professionals from academia, industry and government R&D organizations. The papers included in this proceedings volume present unpublished research of participating researchers related to some specific multi-disciplinary themes addressing sustainable engineering fields like Sustainable Manufacturing Processes; Design and Analysis of Machine & Mechanisms; Energy Conservation and Management; Concrete and Structural Engineering; Infrastructure Project Planning and Management; Chemical Process Development and Design; and Technologies for Green Environment.

The second edition of An Introduction to Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis has the same objective as the first edition, namely, to facilitate an easy and thorough understanding of the details that are involved in the theoretical formulation, finite element model development, and solutions of nonlinear problems. The book offers an easy-to-understand treatment of the subject of nonlinear finite element analysis, which includes element development from mathematical models and numerical evaluation of the underlying physics. The new edition is extensively reorganized and contains substantial amounts of new material. Chapter 1 in the second edition contains a section on applied functional analysis. Chapter 2 on nonlinear continuum mechanics is entirely new. Chapters 3 through 8 in the new edition correspond to Chapter 2 through 8 of the first edition, but with additional explanations, examples, and exercise problems. Material on time dependent problems from Chapter 8 of the first edition is absorbed into Chapters 4 through 8 of the new edition. Chapter 9 is extensively revised and it contains up to date developments in the large deformation analysis of isotropic, composite and functionally graded shells. Chapter 10 of the first edition on material nonlinearity and coupled problems is reorganized in the second edition by moving the material on solid mechanics to Chapter 12 in the new edition and material on coupled problems to the new chapter, Chapter 10, on weak-form Galerkin finite element models of viscous incompressible fluids. Finally, Chapter 11 in the second edition is entirely new and devoted to least-squares finite element models of viscous incompressible fluids. Chapter 12 of the second edition is enlarged to contain finite element models of viscoelastic beams. In general, all of the chapters of the second edition contain additional explanations, detailed example problems, and additional exercise problems. Although all of the programming segments are in Fortran, the logic used in these Fortran programs is transparent and can be used in Matlab or C++ versions of the same. Thus the new edition more than replaces the first edition, and it is hoped that it is acquired by the library of every institution of higher learning as well as serious finite element analysts. The book may be used as a textbook for an advanced course (after a first course) on the finite element method or the first course on nonlinear finite element analysis. A solutions manual is available on request from the publisher to instructors who adopt the book as a textbook for a course.

This book develops a uniform accurate method which is capable of dealing with vibrations of laminated beams, plates and shells with arbitrary boundary conditions including classical boundaries, elastic supports and their combinations. It also provides numerous solutions for various configurations including various boundary conditions, laminated schemes, geometry and material parameters, which fill certain gaps in this area of reach and may serve as benchmark solutions for the readers. For each case, corresponding fundamental equations in the framework of classical and shear deformation theory are developed. Following the fundamental equations, numerous free vibration results are presented for various configurations including different boundary conditions, laminated sequences and geometry and material properties. The proposed method and corresponding formulations can be readily extended to static analysis.

The papers in this volume present rules for mechanical models in a general systematic way, always in combination with small and large examples, many from industry, illustrating the most important features of modeling. The best way to reach a good solution is discussed. The papers address researchers and engineers from academia and from industry, doctoral students and postdocs, working in the fields of mechanical, civil and electrical engineering as well as in fields like applied physics or applied mathematics.

This book is devoted to the analysis and applications of energy, exergy, and environmental issues in all sectors of the economy, including industrial processes, transportation, buildings, and services. Energy sources and technologies considered are hydrocarbons, wind and solar energy, fuel cells, as well as thermal and electrical storage. This book provides theoretical insights, along with state-of-the-art case studies and examples and will appeal to the academic community, but also to energy and environmental professionals and decision makers.

A large international conference on Advances in Intelligent Control and Computer Engineering was held in Hong Kong, March 17-19, 2010, under the auspices of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists (IMECS 2010). The IMECS is organized by the International Association of Engineers (IAENG). "Intelligent Control and Computer Engineering" contains 25 revised and extended research articles written by prominent researchers participating in the conference. Topics covered include artificial intelligence, control engineering, decision supporting systems, automated planning, automation systems, systems identification, modelling and simulation, communication systems, signal processing, and industrial applications. "Intelligent Control and Computer Engineering" offers the state of the art of tremendous advances in intelligent control and computer engineering and also serves as an excellent reference text for researchers and graduate students, working on intelligent control and computer engineering.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neurosciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their significance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field.

This book provides a clear understanding in formulating stability analysis and state feedback control of retarded time delay systems using Lyapunov's second method in an LMI framework. The chapters offer a clear overview of the evolution of stability analysis in terms of the construction of a Lyapunov functional and use of the integral inequalities in order to reduce the gap of delay upper bound estimate compared to frequency domain method through existing and proposed stability theorems. Power system engineering problem has been presented here to give readers fair idea on applicability of the model and method for solving engineering problems. Without deviating from the framework of analysis more complex dynamics of the system have been dealt with here that includes actuator saturation and thereby ascertaining local stability for an estimated time-delay and domain of attraction. Nonlinearity in a time-delay system has been dealt with in the T-S fuzzy modeling approach. This book is useful as a textbook for Master's students and advanced researcher working in the field of control system engineering, and for practicing engineers dealing with such complex dynamical systems. The strengths of the book are lucidity of presentation, lucidity of solution method, MATLAB programs given in the appendix that help the novice researcher to carry out research in this area independently, clear idea about the formulation of desired stability and control problem in a LMI framework, application problem provided can motivate students and researcher to recast their problems in the similar framework easily, helpful for readers to use the stability (stabilization) conditions or formulate their own stability conditions easily for a complicated linear or nonlinear dynamical system.

Condition Monitoring Using Computational Intelligence Methods promotes the various approaches gathered under the umbrella of computational intelligence to show how condition monitoring can be used to avoid equipment failures and lengthen its useful life, minimize downtime and reduce maintenance costs. The text introduces various signal-processing and pre-processing techniques, wavelets and principal component analysis, for example, together with their uses in condition monitoring and details the development of effective feature extraction techniques classified into frequency-, time-frequency- and time-domain analysis. Data generated by these techniques can then be used for condition classification employing tools such as: * fuzzy systems; rough and neuro-rough sets; neural and Bayesian networks;hidden Markov and Gaussian mixture models; and support vector machines.

"The mathematical investigations referred to bring the whole apparatus of a great science to the examination of the properties of a given mechanism, and have accumulated in this direction rich material, of enduring and increasing value. What is left unexamined is however the other, immensely deeper part of the problem, the question: How did the mechanism, or the elements of which it is composed, originate? What laws govern its building up? Is it indeed formed according to any laws whatever? Or have we simply to accept as data what invention gives us, the analysis of what is thus obtained being the only scientific problem left - as in the case of natural history?" Reuleaux, F., Theoretische Kinematik, Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1875 Reuleaux, F., The Kinematics of Machinery, London: Macmillan, 1876 and New York: Dover, 1963 (translated by A.B.W. Kennedy) This book represents the second part of a larger work dedicated to the structural synthesis of parallel robots. Part 1 already published in 2008 (Gogu 2008a) has presented the methodology proposed for structural synthesis. This book focuses on various topologies of translational parallel robots systematically generated by using the structural synthesis approach proposed in Part 1. The originality of this work resides in the fact that it combines the new formulae for mobility connectivity, redundancy and overconstraints, and the evolutionary morphology in a unified approach of structural synthesis giving interesting innovative solutions for parallel mechanisms.

This book presents a comprehensive study of the nonlinear statics and dynamics of composite beams and consists of solutions with and without active elements embedded in the beams. The static solution provides the initial conditions for the dynamic analysis. The dynamic problems considered include the analyses of clamped (hingeless) and articulated (hinged) accelerating rotating beams. Two independent numerical solutions for the steady state and the transient responses are presented. The author illustrates that the transient solution of the nonlinear formulation of accelerating rotating beam converges to the steady state solution obtained by the shooting method. Other key areas considered include calculation of the effect of perturbing the steady state solution, coupled nonlinear flap-lag dynamics of a rotating articulated beam with hinge offset and aerodynamic damping, and static and dynamic responses of nonlinear composite beams with embedded anisotropic piezo-composite actuators. The book is intended as a thorough study of nonlinear elasticity of slender beams and is targeted to researchers, graduate students, and practicing engineers in the fields of structural dynamics, aerospace structures, and mechanical engineering.

Geomaterials exhibit complex but rich mechanical behaviour with a variety of failure modes ranging from diffuse to localized deformation depending on stress, density, microstructure, and loading conditions. These failure modes are a result of an instability of material and/or geometric nature that can be studied within the framework of bifurcation theory. Degradation is another related phenomenon arising from cyclic loading, ageing, weathering, chemical attack, and capillary effects, among others. The methodology of analyzing the various types of instabilities is crucial in the adequate modelling and safe design of numerous problems in geomechanics. The present volume contains a sampling of enlarged versions of papers presented at the International Workshop on Bifurcation and Degradations in Geomaterials (IWBDG 2008) held in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, May 28-31, 2008. These papers capture the state-of-the-art in the specialized field of geomechanics and contemporary approaches to solving the central issue of failure. Some engineering applications are presented in the areas of energy resource extraction and soil-machine interaction.

For the first time, the Micropolar Theory of Elasticity is applied to solving a wide variety of problems connected to the specifics of nanomaterials. Namely, their unique physical-mechanical characteristics and behaviors under various stress-induced conditions. These theories have been constructed based on the equations of the classical theory of elasticity as well as other equations that have till now remained untouched in their application to molecular theories of solid deformable media. The book also introduces a new applied micropolar theory of thin shells which is based on Cosserat's pseudo-continuum. It explores the theory's application to a category of nanomaterial shells and plates previously neglected from classical theories due to their unconventional size and structure. Theoretical results are accompanied by solutions of certain problems, essential for various applications. The book consists of six chapters. The first chapter is a review of the essential data on the non-symmetric theory of elasticity. The second and third chapters are devoted to various theories of plate bending and solutions to some basic problems. Chapter four refers to membrane or, so-called, momentary shell theory. Chapter five deals with the theory of very shallow shells. Finally, chapter six presents the geometry of the nonlinear theory of plates and the theory of very shallow shells. The book is intended for researchers, postgraduate students, and engineers, interested in the design of structures from nanomaterials and in the problems of mechanics of deformable bodies, theories of shells and plates, and their applications in micromechanics.

This book provides an insight on advanced methods and concepts for the design and analysis of structures against earthquake loading. This second volume is a collection of 28 chapters written by leading experts in the field of structural analysis and earthquake engineering. Emphasis is given on current state-of-the-art methods and concepts in computing methods and their application in engineering practice. The book content is suitable for both practicing engineers and academics, covering a wide variety of topics in an effort to assist the timely dissemination of research findings for the mitigation of seismic risk. Due to the devastating socioeconomic consequences of seismic events, the topic is of great scientific interest and is expected to be of valuable help to scientists and engineers. The chapters of this volume are extended versions of selected papers presented at the COMPDYN 2011 conference, held in the island of Corfu, Greece, under the auspices of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS).

The comprehensive reference and textbook serves as a timely, practical introduction to the principles of nanotribology and nanomechanics. Assuming some familiarity with macroscopic tribology, the book comprises chapters by internationally recognized experts, who integrate knowledge of the field from the mechanics and materials-science perspectives. They cover key measurement techniques, their applications, and theoretical modelling of interfaces, each beginning their contributions with macro- and progressing to microconcepts.