This study aid on numerical optimization techniques is intended for university undergraduate and postgraduate mechanical engineering students. Optimization procedures are becoming more and more important for lightweight design, where weight reduction can, for example in the case of automotive or aerospace industry, lead to lower fuel consumption and a corresponding reduction in operational costs as well as beneficial effects on the environment. Based on the free computer algebra system Maxima, the authors present procedures for numerically solving problems in engineering mathematics as well as applications taken from traditional courses on the strength of materials. The mechanical theories focus on the typical one-dimensional structural elements, i.e., springs, bars, and Euler-Bernoulli beams, in order to reduce the complexity of the numerical framework and limit the resulting design to a low number of variables. The use of a computer algebra system and the incorporated functions, e.g., for derivatives or equation solving, allows a greater focus on the methodology of the optimization methods and not on standard procedures. The book also provides numerous examples, including some that can be solved using a graphical approach to help readers gain a better understanding of the computer implementation.

This book develops and substantiates methods for structural mathematical modeling in the context of protecting machines and equipment from vibration effects. It analyzes problems concerning the dynamic interactions of elements in mechanical oscillatory systems, constructing suitable mathematical models, estimating their dynamic properties, and adapting structural mathematical models to the equivalent forms. In turn, it develops a methodological basis for identifying the lever linkages and taking into account the peculiarities of their influence on the dynamic properties of systems. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for specialists in the fields of dynamics and strength of machines, vibration protection systems for equipment, and maintenance of the dynamic quality of vibrating machines, as well as students in related degree programs.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of statistical descriptions of turbulent flows. Its main objectives are to point out why ordinary perturbative treatments of the Navier-Stokes equation have been rather futile, and to present recent advances in non-perturbative treatments, e.g., the instanton method and a stochastic interpretation of turbulent energy transfer. After a brief introduction to the basic equations of turbulent fluid motion, the book outlines a probabilistic treatment of the Navier-Stokes equation and chiefly focuses on the emergence of a multi-point hierarchy and the notion of the closure problem of turbulence. Furthermore, empirically observed multiscaling features and their impact on possible closure methods are discussed, and each is put into the context of its original field of use, e.g., the renormalization group method is addressed in relation to the theory of critical phenomena. The intended readership consists of physicists and engineers who want to get acquainted with the prevalent concepts and methods in this research area.

This book focuses on the need for an Eulerian formulation of constitutive equations. After introducing tensor analysis using both index and direct notation, nonlinear kinematics of continua is presented. The balance laws of the purely mechanical theory are discussed along with restrictions on constitutive equations due to superposed rigid body motion. The balance laws of the thermomechanical theory are discussed and specific constitutive equations are presented for: hyperelastic materials; elastic-inelastic materials; thermoelastic-inelastic materials with application to shock waves; thermoelastic-inelastic porous materials; and thermoelastic-inelastic growing biological tissues.

This volume collects the edited and reviewed contributions presented in the 8th iTi Conference on Turbulence, held in Bertinoro, Italy, in September 2018. In keeping with the spirit of the conference, the book was produced afterwards, so that the authors had the opportunity to incorporate comments and discussions raised during the event. The respective contributions, which address both fundamental and applied aspects of turbulence, have been structured according to the following main topics: I TheoryII Wall-bounded flowsIII Simulations and modellingIV ExperimentsV Miscellaneous topicsVI Wind energy

This book introduces the engineering application of the discrete element method (DEM), especially the simulation analysis of the typical equipment (scraper conveyor, coal silos, subsoiler) in the coal and agricultural machinery. In this book, the DEM is applied to build rigid and loose coupling model, and the kinematic effect of the bulk materials, the mechanical effect of the interaction between the bulk materials, and the mechanical equipment in the operation process of the relevant equipment are studied. On this basis, the optimization design strategy of the relevant structure is proposed. This book effectively promotes the application of DEM in engineering, analyzes the operation state, failure mechanism, and operation effect of related equipment in operation, and provides theoretical basis for the optimal design of equipment. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in mechanical engineering, researchers investigating coal and agricultural machinery, and engineers working on designing related equipments.

This book presents the proceedings of the 3rd edition of the International Conference on Theoretical, Applied and Experimental Mechanics. The papers focus on all aspects of theoretical, applied and experimental mechanics, including biomechanics, composite materials, computational mechanics, constitutive modeling of materials, dynamics, elasticity, experimental mechanics, fracture mechanics, mechanical properties of materials, micromechanics, nanomechanics, plasticity, stress analysis, structures, wave propagation.

This book presents the proceedings of the 46th National Symposium on Acoustics (NSA 2017). The main goal of this symposium is to discuss key opportunities and challenges in acoustics, especially as applied to engineering problems. The book covers topics ranging from hydro-acoustics, environmental acoustics, bio-acoustics to musical acoustics, electro-acoustics and sound perception. The contents of this volume will prove useful to researchers and practicing engineers working on acoustics problems.

This book presents iterative learning control (ILC) to address practical issues of flexible structures. It is divided into four parts: Part I provides a general introduction to ILC and flexible structures, while Part II proposes various types of ILC for simple flexible structures to address issues such as vibration, input saturation, input dead-zone, input backlash, external disturbances, and trajectory tracking. It also includes simple partial differential equations to deal with the common problems of flexible structures. Part III discusses the design of ILC for flexible micro aerial vehicles and two-link manipulators, and lastly, Part IV offers a summary of the topics covered. Unlike most of the literature on ILC, which focuses on ordinary differential equation systems, this book explores distributed parameter systems, which are comparatively less stabilized through ILC.Including a comprehensive introduction to ILC of flexible structures, it also examines novel approaches used in ILC to address input constraints and disturbance rejection. This book is intended for researchers, graduate students and engineers in various fields, such as flexible structures, external disturbances, nonlinear inputs and tracking control.

This volume presents selected papers from IACMAG Symposium,The major themes covered in this conference are Earthquake Engineering, Ground Improvement and Constitutive Modelling. This volume will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in geotechnical and geomechanical engineering.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of multibody and mechatronic systems. Topics addressed include the analysis and synthesis of mechanisms; dynamics of multibody systems; design algorithms for mechatronic systems; robots and micromachines; experimental validations; theory of mechatronic simulation; mechatronic systems for rehabilitation and assistive technologies; mechatronic systems for energy harvesting; virtual reality integration in multibody and mechatronic systems; multibody design in robotic systems; and control of mechatronic systems. The contents reflect the outcomes of the 7th International Symposium on Multibody Systems and Mechatronics (7th MuSMe) in 2020, within the framework of the FEIbIM Commission for Robotics and Mechanisms and IFToMM Technical Committees for Multibody Dynamics and for Robotics and Mechatronics.

This monograph has arisen out of a number of attempts spanning almost five decades to understand how one might examine the evolution of densities in systems whose dynamics are described by differential delay equations. Though the authors have no definitive solution to the problem, they offer this contribution in an attempt to define the problem as they see it, and to sketch out several obvious attempts that have been suggested to solve the problem and which seem to have failed. They hope that by being available to the general mathematical community, they will inspire others to consider-and hopefully solve-the problem. Serious attempts have been made by all of the authors over the years and they have made reference to these where appropriate.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of recently developed space multi-tethers, such as maneuverable space tethered nets and space tethered formation. For each application, it provides detailed derivatives to describe and analyze the mathematical model of the system, and then discusses the design and proof of different control schemes for various problems. The dynamics modeling presented is based on Newton and Lagrangian mechanics, and the book also introduces Hamilton mechanics and Poincare surface of section for dynamics analysis, and employs both centralized and distributed controllers to derive the formation question of the multi-tethered system. In addition to the equations and text, it includes 3D design drawings, schematic diagrams, control scheme blocks and tables to make it easy to understand. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the fields of astronautics, control science, and engineering.

This book uses a novel concept to teach the finite element method, applying it to solid mechanics. This major conceptual shift takes away lengthy theoretical derivations in the face-to-face interactions with students and focuses on the summary of key equations and concepts; and to practice these on well-chosen example problems. For this new, 2nd edition, many examples and design modifications have been added, so that the learning-by-doing features of this book make it easier to understand the concepts and put them into practice. The theoretical derivations are provided as additional reading and students must study and review the derivations in a self-study approach. The book provides the theoretical foundations to solve a comprehensive design project in tensile testing. A classical clip-on extensometer serves as the demonstrator on which to apply the provided concepts. The major goal is to derive the calibration curve based on different approaches, i.e., analytical mechanics and based on the finite element method, and to consider further design questions such as technical drawings, manufacturing, and cost assessment. Working with two concepts, i.e., analytical and computational mechanics strengthens the vertical integration of knowledge and allows the student to compare and understand the different concepts, as well as highlighting the essential need for benchmarking any numerical result.

This is the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems that was held in Novi Sad, Serbia, from July 15th to 19th, 2018. The appearance of nonlinear phenomena used to be perceived as dangerous, with a general tendency to avoid them or control them. This perception has led to intensive research using various approaches and tailor-made tools developed over decades. However, the Nonlinear Dynamics of today is experiencing a profound shift of paradigm since recent investigations rely on a different strategy which brings good effects of nonlinear phenomena to the forefront. This strategy has a positive impact on different fields in science and engineering, such as vibration isolation, energy harvesting, micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems, etc. Therefore, the ENOLIDES Symposium was devoted to demonstrate the benefits and to unlock the potential of exploiting nonlinear dynamical behaviour in these but also in other emerging fields of science and engineering. This proceedings is useful for researchers in the fields of nonlinear dynamics of mechanical systems and structures, and in Mechanical and Civil Engineering.

This is the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Theoretical, Applied and Experimental Mechanics that was held in Corfu, Greece, June 23-26, 2019. It presents papers focusing on all aspects of theoretical, applied and experimental mechanics, including biomechanics, composite materials, computational mechanics, constitutive modeling of materials, dynamics, elasticity, experimental mechanics, fracture, mechanical properties of materials, micromechanics, nanomechanics, plasticity, stress analysis, structures, wave propagation. The papers update the latest research in their field, carried out since the last conference in 2018. This book is suitable for engineers, students and researchers who want to obtain an up-to-date view of the recent advances in the area of mechanics.

This book contains selected papers in the area of structural engineering from the proceedings of the conference, Futuristic Approaches in Civil Engineering (FACE) 2019. In the area of construction materials, the book covers high quality research papers on raw materials and manufacture of cement, mixing, rheology and hydration, admixtures, characterization techniques and modeling, fiber-reinforced concrete, repair and retrofitting of concrete structures, novel testing techniques such as digital image correlation (DIC). Research on sustainable building materials like Geopolymer concrete and recycled aggregates are covered. In the area of earthquake engineering, papers related to the seismic response of load-bearing unreinforced masonry walls, reinforced concrete frame and buildings with dampers are covered. Additionally, there are chapters on structures subjected to vehicular impact and fire. The contents of this book will be useful for graduate students, researchers and practitioners working in the areas of concrete, earthquake and structural engineering.

This book gathers the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 14th International Symposium, PRADS 2019, held in Yokohama, Japan, in September 2019. It brings together naval architects, engineers, academic researchers and professionals who are involved in ships and other floating structures to share the latest research advances in the field. The contents cover a broad range of topics, including design synthesis for ships and floating systems, production, hydrodynamics, and structures and materials. Reflecting the latest advances, the book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike.

This book shows in a comprehensive presentation how Bond Graph methodology can support model-based control, model-based fault diagnosis, fault accommodation, and failure prognosis by reviewing the state-of-the-art, presenting a hybrid integrated approach to Bond Graph model-based fault diagnosis and failure prognosis, and by providing a review of software that can be used for these tasks. The structured text illustrates on numerous small examples how the computational structure superimposed on an acausal bond graph can be exploited to check for control properties such as structural observability and control lability, perform parameter estimation and fault detection and isolation, provide discrete values of an unknown degradation trend at sample points, and develop an inverse model for fault accommodation. The comprehensive presentation also covers failure prognosis based on continuous state estimation by means of filters or time series forecasting. This book has been written for students specializing in the overlap of engineering and computer science as well as for researchers, and for engineers in industry working with modelling, simulation, control, fault diagnosis, and failure prognosis in various application fields and who might be interested to see how bond graph modelling can support their work. Presents a hybrid model-based, data-driven approach to failure prognosis Highlights synergies and relations between fault diagnosis and failure prognostic Discusses the importance of fault diagnosis and failure prognostic in various fields

Approximation Methods in Engineering and Science covers fundamental and advanced topics in three areas: Dimensional Analysis, Continued Fractions, and Stability Analysis of the Mathieu Differential Equation. Throughout the book, a strong emphasis is given to concepts and methods used in everyday calculations. Dimensional analysis is a crucial need for every engineer and scientist to be able to do experiments on scaled models and use the results in real world applications. Knowing that most nonlinear equations have no analytic solution, the power series solution is assumed to be the first approach to derive an approximate solution. However, this book will show the advantages of continued fractions and provides a systematic method to develop better approximate solutions in continued fractions. It also shows the importance of determining stability chart of the Mathieu equation and reviews and compares several approximate methods for that. The book provides the energy-rate method to study the stability of parametric differential equations that generates much better approximate solutions.

The title, "Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures. Differential and Integral Quadrature. Strong Form Finite Elements" illustrates the theme treated and the prospective followed during the composition of the present work. The aim of this manuscript is to analyze the static and dynamic behavior of thick and moderately thick composite shells through the application of the Differential Quadrature (DQ) method. The book is divided into two volumes wherein the principal higher order structural theories are illustrated in detail and the mechanical behavior of doubly-curved structures are presented by several static and dynamic numerical applications. In particular, the first volume is mainly theoretical, whereas the second one is mainly related to the numerical DQ technique and its applications in the structural field. The numerical results reported in the present volume are compared to the one available in the literature, but also to the ones obtained through several codes based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). Furthermore, an advanced version of the DQ method, termed Strong Formulation Finite Element Method (SFEM), is presented. The SFEM solves the differential equations inside each element in the strong form and implements the mapping technique typical of the FEM.

This book presents a unified introduction to the theory of mechanical vibrations. The general theory of the vibrating particle is the point of departure for the field of multidegree of freedom systems. Emphasis is placed in the text on the issue of continuum vibrations. The presented examples are aimed at helping the readers with understanding the theory.This book is of interest among others to mechanical, civil and aeronautical engineers concerned with the vibratory behavior of the structures. It is useful also for students from undergraduate to postgraduate level. The book is based on the teaching experience of the authors.

This book discusses the parametric modeling, performance evaluation, design optimization and comparative study of the high-speed, parallel pick-and-place robots. It collects the modeling methodology, evaluation criteria and design guidelines for parallel PnP robots to provide a systematic analysis method for robotic developers. Furthermore, it gathers the research results previously scattered in many prestigious international journals and conference proceedings and methodically edits them and presents them in a unified form. The book is of interest to researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in industrial parallel robotics who wish to learn the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications.

The title, "Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures. Differential al Geometry and Higher-order Theories" illustrates the theme treated and the prospective followed during the composition of the present work. The aim of this manuscript is to analyze the static and dynamic behavior of thick and moderately thick composite shells through the application of the Differential Quadrature (DQ) method. The book is divided into two volumes wherein the principal higher order structural theories are illustrated in detail and the mechanical behavior of doubly-curved structures are presented by several static and dynamic numerical applications. In particular, the first volume is mainly theoretical, whereas the second one is mainly related to the numerical DQ technique and its applications in the structural field. The starting point to analyze higher-order structural theories is given by the so-called Unified Formulation (UF), which allows to consider and study several kinematic models in a unified manner. Both the Equivalent Single Layer (ESL) and Layer-Wise (LW) approaches are presented. A particular attention is paid to composite materials, due to their increasing development and use in many engineering fields during the last years.

This book on flexible formwork for fluid architecture is a multi-faceted research that covers a broad field: from design to material and technology, and from history to future developments. It offers a pragmatic approach that can be extended with more cases, materials, techniques and methods for fluid architecture, and provides a better understanding of the main aspects of fluid architecture and to help them find the most suitable combinations of all aspects.The book is a challenging experience with many new discoveries, including two patents: one on moulding of fluid surfaces and one on 3D printing of fibre-reinforced ice. It also features two world records: the larges span (30 meters) and the highest thin shell structure (30,5 meters) in ice as well as a method for the construction of a fully laminated shell structure in insulated glass.