The first Workshop on Mechanisms, Transmissions and Applications -- MeTrApp-2011 was organized by the Mechatronics Department at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty, "Politehnica" University of Timisoara, Romania, under the patronage of the IFToMM Technical Committees Linkages and Mechanical Controls and Micromachines. The workshop brought together researchers and students who work in disciplines associated with mechanisms science and offered a great opportunity for scientists from all over the world to present their achievements, exchange innovative ideas and create solid international links, setting the trend for future developments in this important and creative field. The topics treated in this volume are mechanisms and machine design, mechanical transmissions, mechatronic and biomechanic applications, computational and experimental methods, history of mechanism and machine science and teaching methods.

This book develops methods to simulate and analyze the time-dependent changes of stress and strain states in engineering structures up to the critical stage of creep rupture. The objective of this book is to review some of the classical and recently proposed approaches to the modeling of creep for structural analysis applications. It also aims to extend the collection of available solutions of creep problems by new, more sophisticated examples.

This thesis conceptualizes and implements a new framework for designing materials that are far from equilibrium. Starting with state-of-the-art optimization engines, it describes an automated system that makes use of simulations and 3D printing to find the material that best performs a user-specified goal. Identifying which microscopic features produce a desired macroscopic behavior is a problem at the forefront of materials science. This task is materials design, and within it, new goals and challenges have emerged from tailoring the response of materials far from equilibrium. These materials hold promising properties such as robustness, high strength, and self-healing. Yet without a general theory to predict how these properties emerge, designing and controlling them presents a complex and important problem. As proof of concept, the thesis shows how to design the behavior of granular materials, i.e., collections of athermal, macroscopic identical objects, by identifying the particle shapes that form the stiffest, softest, densest, loosest, most dissipative and strain-stiffening aggregates. More generally, the thesis shows how these results serve as prototypes for problems at the heart of materials design, and advocates the perspective that machines are the key to turning complex material forms into new material functions.

This book is about two special topics in rheological fluid mechanics: the elasticity of liquids and asymptotic theories of constitutive models. The major emphasis of the book is on the mathematical and physical consequences of the elasticity of liquids; seventeen of twenty chapters are devoted to this. Constitutive models which are instantaneously elastic can lead to some hyperbolicity in the dynamics of flow, waves of vorticity into rest (known as shear waves), to shock waves of vorticity or velocity, to steady flows of transonic type or to short wave instabilities which lead to ill-posed problems. Other kinds of models, with small Newtonian viscosities, give rise to perturbed instantaneous elasticity, associated with smoothing of discontinuities as in gas dynamics. There is no doubt that liquids will respond like elastic solids to impulses which are very rapid compared to the time it takes for the molecular order associated with short range forces in the liquid, to relax. After this, all liquids look viscous with signals propagating by diffusion rather than by waves. For small molecules this time of relaxation is estimated as lQ-13 to 10-10 seconds depending on the fluids. Waves associated with such liquids move with speeds of 1 QS cm/s, or even faster. For engineering applications the instantaneous elasticity of these fluids is of little interest; the practical dynamics is governed by diffusion, *say, by the Navier-Stokes equations. On the other hand, there are other liquids which are known to have much longer times of relaxation.

This book contains an edited versIOn of lectures presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on VIRTUAL NONLINEAR MUL TIBODY SYSTEMS which was held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 23 June to 3 July 2002. It was organized by the Department of Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, in cooperation with the Institute B of Mechanics, University of Stuttgart, Germany. The ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE addressed the state of the art in multibody dynamics placing special emphasis on nonlinear systems, virtual reality, and control design as required in mechatronics and its corresponding applications. Eighty-six participants from twenty-two countries representing academia, industry, government and research institutions attended the meeting. The high qualification of the participants contributed greatly to the success of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE in that it promoted the exchange of experience between leading scientists and young scholars, and encouraged discussions to generate new ideas and to define directions of research and future developments. The full program of the ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE included also contributed presentations made by participants where different topics were explored, among them: Such topics include: nonholonomic systems; flexible multibody systems; contact, impact and collision; numerical methods of differential-algebraical equations; simulation approaches; virtual modelling; mechatronic design; control; biomechanics; space structures and vehicle dynamics. These presentations have been reviewed and a selection will be published in this volume, and in special issues of the journals Multibody System Dynamics and Mechanics of Structures and Machines.

This volume contains the papers presented at the IUT AM Symposium of "Mesoscopic Dynamics of Fracture Process and Materials Strength", held in July 2003, at the Hotel Osaka Sun Palace, Osaka, Japan. The Symposium was proposed in 2001, aiming at organizing concentrated discussions on current understanding of fracture process and inhomogeneous deformation governing the materials strength with emphasis on the mesoscopic dynamics associated with evolutional mechanical behaviour under micro/macro mutual interaction. The decision of the General Assembly of International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUT AM) to accept our proposal was well-timed and attracted attention. Driven by the development of new theoretical and computational techniques, various novel challenges to investigate the mesoscopic dynamics have been actively done recently, including large-scaled 3D atomistic simulations, discrete dislocation dynamics and other micro/mesoscopic computational analyses. The Symposium attracted sixty-six participants from eight countries, and forty two papers were presented. The presentations comprised a wide variety of fundamental subjects of physics, mechanical models, computational strategies as well as engineering applications. Among the subjects, discussed are (a) dislocation patterning, (b) crystal plasticity, (c) characteristic fracture of amorphous/nanocrystal, (d) nano-indentation, (e) ductile-brittle transition, (f) ab-initio calculation, (g) computational methodology for multi-scale analysis and others.

It is with great pleasure that I accepted invitation of Adnan Ibrahimbegovic to write this preface, for this invitation gave me the privilege to be one of the ?rsttoreadhisbookandallowedmetoonceagainemphasizetheimportance for our discipline of solid mechanics, which is currently under considerable development, to produce the reference books suitable for students and all other researchers and engineers who wish to advance their knowledge on the subject. Thesolidmechanicshascloselyfollowedtheprogressincomputerscienceand is currently undergoing a true revolution where the numerical modelling and simulations are playing the central role. In the industrial environment, the 'virtual' (or the computing science) is present everywhere in the design and engineering procedures. I have a habit of saying that the solid mechanics has become the science of modelling and inthat respectexpanded beyondits t- ditional frontiers. Several facets of current developments have already been treated in di?erent works published within the series 'Studies in mechanics of materials and structures'; for example, modelling heterogeneous materials (Besson et al. ), fracture mechanics (Leblond), computational strategies and namely LATIN method (Ladev' eze), instability problems (NQ Son) and ve- ?cation of ?nite element method (Ladev' eze-Pelle). To these (French) books, one should also add the work of Lemaitre-Chaboche on nonlinear behavior of solid materials and of Batoz on ?nite element method.

The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Paleorift Systems with Emphasis on the Permian Oslo Rift" was held at Sundvollen near Oslo, Norway, 26. July - 5. August, 1977. The meeting included 6 field trips to various parts of the Oslo Region. 70 official participants and 16 observers from 14 countries attended the meeting. The majority of the invited lectures, short research papers and progress reports presented at the meeting are published in two volumes, of which this is volume No. II. A table of con tents for both volumes is include8 herein. The field trip guide is being published in the Nor gian Geological Survey Series, Vol. 327 (1978). We are especially pleased to acknowledge the efforts of the many authors of contributed papers, and the able assistance of secretaries, proof-readers and other staffmembers without whose help these volumes would not have been possible. Oslo, 20. February 1978. Ivar B. Ramberg Else-Ragnhild Neumann xi Organizing Committee members: O. Eldholm Department of Geology, University G. Grcentsnlie of Oslo J. Naterstad I.B. Ramberg (chairman) J.A. Dons Mineralogical-Geological Museum, B.T. Larsen (secretary) University of Oslo E.-R. Neumann (secretary) K.S. Heier (chairman) Norwegian Geological Survey S. Huseby B. Sundvoll M.A. Sellevoll Seismological Observatory, University of Bergen K. Storetvedt Geophysics Institute, University of Bergen P.M. Ihlen Geological Institute, University of Chr. Oftedahl Trondheim F.M. Vokes E.S. Husebye NTNF/NORSAR, 2007 Kjeller This volume is Scientific Report No. 40 of the Geodynamics Project

The ?eld of applied nonlinear dynamics has attracted scientists and engineers across many different disciplines to develop innovative ideas and methods to study c- plex behavior exhibited by relatively simple systems. Examples include: population dynamics, ?uidization processes, applied optics, stochastic resonance, ?ocking and ?ightformations, lasers, andmechanicalandelectricaloscillators. Acommontheme among these and many other examples is the underlying universal laws of nonl- ear science that govern the behavior, in space and time, of a given system. These laws are universal in the sense that they transcend the model-speci?c features of a system and so they can be readily applied to explain and predict the behavior of a wide ranging phenomena, natural and arti?cial ones. Thus the emphasis in the past decades has been in explaining nonlinear phenomena with signi?cantly less att- tion paid to exploiting the rich behavior of nonlinear systems to design and fabricate new devices that can operate more ef?ciently. Recently, there has been a series of meetings on topics such as Experimental Chaos, Neural Coding, and Stochastic Resonance, which have brought together many researchers in the ?eld of nonlinear dynamics to discuss, mainly, theoretical ideas that may have the potential for further implementation. In contrast, the goal of the 2007 ICAND (International Conference on Applied Nonlinear Dynamics) was focused more sharply on the implementation of theoretical ideas into actual - vices and system

Superplasticity is the ability of polycrystalline materials under certain conditions to exhibit extreme tensile elongation in a nearly homogeneous/isotropic manner. Historically, this phenomenon was discovered and systematically studied by metallurgists and physicists. They, along with practising engineers, used materials in the superplastic state for materials forming applications. Metallurgists concluded that they had the necessary information on superplasticity and so theoretical studies focussed mostly on understanding the physical and metallurgi cal properties of superplastic materials. Practical applications, in contrast, were led by empirical approaches, rules of thumb and creative design. It has become clear that mathematical models of superplastic deformation as well as analyses for metal working processes that exploit the superplastic state are not adequate. A systematic approach based on the methods of mechanics of solids is likely to prove useful in improving the situation. The present book aims at the following. 1. Outline briefly the techniques of mechanics of solids, particularly as it applies to strain rate sensitive materials. 2. Assess the present level of investigations on the mechanical behaviour of superplastics. 3. Formulate the main issues and challenges in mechanics ofsuperplasticity. 4. Analyse the mathematical models/constitutive equations for superplastic flow from the viewpoint of mechanics. 5. Review the models of superplastic metal working processes. 6. Indicate with examples new results that may be obtained using the methods of mechanics of solids."

This book is concerned with the numerical solution of crack problems. The techniques to be developed are particularly appropriate when cracks are relatively short, and are growing in the neighbourhood of some stress raising feature, causing a relatively steep stress gradient. It is therefore practicable to represent the geometry in an idealised way, so that a precise solution may be obtained. This contrasts with, say, the finite element method in which the geometry is modelled exactly, but the subsequent solution is approximate, and computationally more taxing. The family of techniques presented in this book, based loosely on the pioneering work of Eshelby in the late 1950's, and developed by Erdogan, Keer, Mura and many others cited in the text, present an attractive alternative. The basic idea is to use the superposition of the stress field present in the unfiawed body, together with an unknown distribution of 'strain nuclei' (in this book, the strain nucleus employed is the dislocation), chosen so that the crack faces become traction-free. The solution used for the stress field for the nucleus is chosen so that other boundary conditions are satisfied. The technique is therefore efficient, and may be used to model the evolution of a developing crack in two or three dimensions. Solution techniques are described in some detail, and the book should be readily accessible to most engineers, whilst preserving the rigour demanded by the researcher who wishes to develop the method itself.

This volume contains the contributions to the 10th International Workshop on Railway Noise, held October 18-22, 2010, in Nagahama, Japan, organized by the Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI), Japan. With 11 sessions and 3 poster sessions, the workshop featured presentations by international leaders in the field of railway noise and vibration. All subjects relating to 1. prospects, legal regulation, and perception; 2. wheel and rail noise; 3. structure-borne noise and squeal noise; 4. ground-borne vibration; 5. aerodynamic noise and micro-pressure waves from tunnel portals; 6. interior noise and sound barriers; and 7. prediction, measurements, and monitoring are addressed here. This book is a useful "state-of-the-art" reference for scientists and engineers involved in solving environmental problems of railways.

As Directors of this NATO Workshop, we welcome this opportunity to record formally our thanks to the NATO Scientific Affairs Division for making our meeting possible through generous financial support and encouragement. This meeting has two purposes: the first obvious one because we have collected scientists from East, far East and west to discuss new development in the field of fracture mechanics: the notch fracture mechanics. The second is less obvious but perhaps in longer term more important that is the building of bridges between scientists in the frame of a network called Without Walls Institute on Notch Effects in Fatigue and Fracture." Physical perception of notch effects is not so easy to understand as the presence of a geometrical discontinuity as a worst effect than the simple reduction of cross section. Notch effects in fatigue and fracture is characterised by the following fundamental fact: it is not the maximum local stress or stress which governs the phenomena of fatigue and fracture. The physic shows that a process volume is needed probably to store the necessary energy for starting and propagating the phenomenon. This is a rupture of the traditional "strength of material" school which always give the prior importance of the local maximum stress. This concept of process volume was strongly affirmed during this workshop.

The problems and exercises in Strength and Stability that exceed the bounds of the ordinary university course in complexity and their statement are considered. The advanced problems liberalizing the readers and all- ing to see the connection of the Strength of Materials with some adjacent courses are collected in this book. All the problems and exercises are - compained with the detailed solutions. The set of new problems connected with the development of computer methods and with the application of composite materials in engineering are introduced in this publication. Author: Vsevolod I. Feodosiev Bauman Moscow State Technical University 2-nd Baumanskaya st. 5 105005 Moscow Russian Federation Translators: Sergey A. Voronov Sergey V. Yaresko Department of Applied Mechanics Bauman Moscow State Technical University 2-nd Baumanskaya st. 5 105005 Moscow Russian Federation E-mail: voronov@rk5. bmstu. ru Contents Part I. Problems and Questions 1. Tension, Compression and Torsion :::::::::::::::::::::::: 3 2. Cross-Section Geometry Characteristics: Bending::::::::: 17 3. Complex Stress State, Strength Criteria, Anisotropy ::::: 33 4. Stability :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 41 5. Various Questions and Problems :::::::::::::::::::::::::: 63 Part II. Answers and Solutions 1. Tension, Compression and Torsion :::::::::::::::::::::::: 81 2. Cross-Section Geometry Characteristics. Bending::::::::: 127 3. Complex Stress State, Strength Criteria, Anisotropy ::::: 195 4. Stability :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 219 5. Various Questions and Problems :::::::::::::::::::::::::: 359 References :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 415 Preface This is a book, written by the famous late Russian engineer and educator Vsevolod I.

Presents a comprehensive overview of the developments in the field of seismic resistant steel structures. This book is suitable for civil, earthquake and structural engineers.

Concrete has traditionally been known as a material used widely in the construction of roads, bridges and buildings. Since cost effectiveness has always been one of the more important aspects of design, concrete, when reinforced and/or prestressed, is finding more use in other areas of application such as floating marine structures, storage tanks, nuclear vessel containments and a host of other structures. Because of the demand for concrete to operate under different loading and environmen tal conditions, increasing attention has been paid to study concrete specimens and structure behavior. A subject of major concern is how the localized segregation of the constituents in concrete would affect its global behavior. The degree of nonhomogeneity due to material property and damage. by yielding and/or cracking depends on the size scale and loading rate under consideration. Segregation or clustering of aggregates at the macroscopic level will affect specimen behavior to a larger degree than it would to a large structure such as a dam. Hence, a knowledge of concrete behavior over a wide range of scale is desired. The parameters governing micro-and macro-cracking and the techniques for evaluating and observing the damage in concrete need to be better understood. This volume is intended to be an attempt in this direction. The application of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics to concrete is discussed in several of the chapters."

Authors: Hugo Bachmann, Walter J. Ammann, Florian Deischl, Josef Eisenmann, Ingomar Floegl, Gerhard H. Hirsch, Gunter K. Klein, Goran J. Lande, Oskar Mahrenholtz, Hans G. Natke, Hans Nussbaumer, Anthony J. Pretlove, Johann H. Rainer, Ernst-Ulrich Saemann, Lorenz Steinbeisser. Large structures such as factories, gymnasia, concert halls, bridges, towers, masts and chimneys can be detrimentally affected by vibrations. These vibrations can cause either serviceability problems, severely hampering the user's comfort, or safety problems. The aim of this book is to provide structural and civil engineers working in construction and environmental engineering with practical guidelines for counteracting vibration problems. Dynamic actions are considered from the following sources of vibration: - human body motions, - rotating, oscillating and impacting machines, - wind flow, - road traffic, railway traffic and construction work. The main section of the book presents tools that aid in decision-making and in deriving simple solutions to cases of frequently occurring "normal" vibration problems. Complexer problems and more advanced solutions are also considered. In all cases these guidelines should enable the engineer to decide on appropriate solutions expeditiously. The appendices of the book contain fundamentals essential to the main chapters.

This monograph presents in detail the novel "wave" approach to finite element modeling of transient processes in solids. Strong discontinuities of stress, deformation, and velocity wave fronts as well as a finite magnitude of wave propagation speed over elements are considered. These phenomena, such as explosions, shocks, and seismic waves, involve problems with a time scale near the wave propagation time. Software packages for 1D and 2D problems yield significantly better results than classical FEA, so some FORTRAN programs with the necessary comments are given in the appendix. The book is written for researchers, lecturers, and advanced students interested in problems of numerical modeling of non-stationary dynamic processes in deformable bodies and continua, and also for engineers and researchers involved designing machines and structures, in which shock, vibro-impact, and other unsteady dynamics and waves processes play a significant role.

In this volume on the mechanics of fracture of Portland cement concrete, the general theme is the connection between microstructural phenomena and macroscopic models. The issues addressed include techniques for observation over a wide range of scales, the influence of .microcracking on common measures of strength and de formability , and ultimately, the relationship between microstructural changes in concrete under load and its resistance to cracking. It is now commonly accepted that, in past attempts to force-fit the behavior of concrete into the rules of linear elastic fracture mechanics, proper attention has not been paid to scale effects. Clearly, the relationships among specimen size, crack length and opening, and characteristic material fabric dimensions have been, in comparison to their counterparts in metals, ceramics, and rocks, abused in concrete. Without a fundamental understanding of these relationships, additional testing in search of the elusive, single measure of fracture toughness has spawned additional confusion and frustration. No one is in a better position to document this observation than Professor Mindess.

These volumes contain contributions from a conference on the themes of measurement and prediction of residual stress in railroad rails. The subtitle, Effects of rail integrity and railroad economics', expresses an ultimate goal of reducing technical results to practical knowledge of interest to transportation engineers. Volume I contains elements of practical railway experience, laboratory tests, including experimental strees analysis, and theoretical evaluations of residual stress, crack propagation, and rail fracture. Observations of the effects of residual stress on rails in service, field tests, and laboratory experiments and recounted in the first three chapters of the volume. Experiments in which samples of new rail are subjected to precisely controlled rolling contact loads under laboratory conditions are dealt with in Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 6 describes a method for programming loads on compact tension specimens to stimulate the stress intensity factor history of an internal transverse crack in rail head. Chapter 7 outlines a method for setting rail inspection intervals in service, based on what is presently known about the behaviour of transverse cracks in the rail head. The remainder of the volume deals with experimental stress analysis. Chapter 8 describes an elaborate procedure for combining stair change and length to evaluate internal stress distribution, and several other measurement techniques are also evaluated as possible alternates. Chapter 9 discusses the neutron diffraction method and its recent application to rail. Chapter 10 summarizes a technique based on MoirA(c) interferometry and reports on the first step in the developments of rail stress measurementprocedure based on this alternate. Chapter 13 concludes the experimental contributions with a summary of some typical measurements of the residual stress states in rails from several different producers and service environments in Europe. The reader will find that a reasonable qualitative picture of the rail residual stress field emerges from the experimental stress analyses. However, the details always vary from one rail to another, and there are sufficient differences to prevent the drawing of general quantitative conclusions from the experimental work alone. Theoretical and numerical analyses' are presented in Volume II, in the hope that models based on solid mechanics can correlate the experimental stress measurements and lead to a better understanding of the effects of residual stress upon crack propagation, fracture, and ultimately the economics of rail in the modern railroad environment.

The International Conference on the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms is organized every four years, under the auspices of the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM) and the Czech Society for Mechanics. This eleventh edition of the conference took place at the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic, 4-6 September 2012. This volume offers an international selection of the most important new results and developments, in 73 papers, grouped in seven different parts, representing a well-balanced overview, and spanning the general theory of machines and mechanisms, through analysis and synthesis of planar and spatial mechanisms, dynamics of machines and mechanisms, linkages and cams, computational mechanics, rotor dynamics, biomechanics, mechatronics, vibration and noise in machines, optimization of mechanisms and machines, control and monitoring systems of machines, accuracy and reliability of machines and mechanisms, robots and manipulators to the mechanisms of textile machines.

This volume contains the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Model Order Reduction of Coupled System, held in Stuttgart, Germany, May 22-25, 2018. For the understanding and development of complex technical systems, such as the human body or mechatronic systems, an integrated, multiphysics and multidisciplinary view is essential. Many problems can be solved within one physical domain. For the simulation and optimization of the combined system, the different domains are connected with each other. Very often, the combination is only possible by using reduced order models such that the large-scale dynamical system is approximated with a system of much smaller dimension where the most dominant features of the large-scale system are retained as much as possible. The field of model order reduction (MOR) is interdisciplinary. Researchers from Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science identify, explore and compare the potentials, challenges and limitations of recent and new advances.

This text is an advancement of the theory of vibration protection of mechanical systems with lumped and distributed parameters. The book offers various concepts and methods of solving vibration protection problems, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, and the fields of their effective applications. Fundamental approaches of vibration protection, which are considered in this book, are the passive, parametric and optimal active vibration protection. The passive vibration protection is based on vibration isolation, vibration damping and dynamic absorbers. Parametric vibration protection theory is based on the Shchipanov-Luzin invariance principle. Optimal active vibration protection theory is based on the Pontryagin principle and the Krein moment method. The book also contains special topics such as suppression of vibrations at the source of their occurrence and the harmful influence of vibrations on humans.< Numerous examples, which illustrate the theoretical ideas of each chapter, are included. This book is intended for graduate students and engineers. It is assumed that a reader has working knowledge of theory of vibrations, differential equations, andcomplex analysis. About the Authors. Igor A Karnovsky, Ph.D., Dr. Sci., is a specialist in structural analysis, theory of vibration and optimal control of vibration. He has 40 years of experience in research, teaching and consulting in this field, and is the author of more than 70 published scientific papers, including two books in Structural Analysis (published with Springer in 2010-2012) and three handbooks in Structural Dynamics (published with McGraw Hill in 2001-2004). He also holds a number of vibration-control-related patents. Evgeniy Lebed, Ph.D., is a specialist in applied mathematics and engineering. He has 10 years of experience in research, teaching and consulting in this field. The main sphere of his research interests are qualitative theory of differential equations, integral transforms and frequency-domain analysis with application to image and signal processing. He is the author of 15 published scientific papers and a US patent (2015).

"There are three words that characterize this work: thoroughness, completeness and clarity. The authors are congratulated for taking the time to write an excellent linear systems textbook! a ]The authors have used their mastery of the subject to produce a textbook that very effectively presents the theory of linear systems as it has evolved over the last thirty years. The result is a comprehensive, complete and clear exposition that serves as an excellent foundation for more advanced topics in system theory and control." a "IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

"In assessing the present book as a potential textbook for our first graduate linear systems course, I find...[that] Antsaklis and Michel have contributed an expertly written and high quality textbook to the field and are to be congratulateda ]. Because of its mathematical sophistication and completeness the present book is highly recommended for use, both as a textbook as well as a reference." a "Automatica

Linear systems theory plays a broad and fundamental role in electrical, mechanical, chemical and aerospace engineering, communications, and signal processing. A thorough introduction to systems theory with emphasis on control is presented in this self-contained textbook.

The book examines the fundamental properties that govern the behavior of systems by developing their mathematical descriptions. Linear time-invariant, time-varying, continuous-time, and discrete-time systems are covered. Rigorous development of classic and contemporary topics in linear systems, as well as extensive coverage of stability and polynomial matrix/fractional representation, provide the necessary foundation for further study of systemsand control.

Linear Systems is written as a textbook for a challenging one-semester graduate course; a solutions manual is available to instructors upon adoption of the text. The booka (TM)s flexible coverage and self-contained presentation also make it an excellent reference guide or self-study manual.

*******

For a treatment of linear systems that focuses primarily on the time-invariant case using streamlined presentation of the material with less formal and more intuitive proofs, see the authorsa (TM) companion book entitled A Linear Systems Primer.

An International Conference on the Application of Fracture Mechanics to Ma terials and Structures was held at the Hotel Kolpinghaus in Freiburg, West Ger many, June 20-24, 1983. It was attended by more than 250 participants from different countries which include Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Republic of Germany, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, People's Republic of China, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, USSR and Yugoslavia. Conference Co-Chairmen were Professor G. C. Sih, Lehigh University, Bethle hem, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., Dr. E. Sommer, Fraunhofer-Institut fur Werkstoff mechanik, Freiburg, FRG and Professor W. Dahl, Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, FRG. Dr. Wenrich, as the representative of the Land Baden-WUrttemberg, delivered the opening address with the remarks that International Conferences can serve the means to further enhance the technology development of a country. He empha sized that the Federal Republic of Germany is presently in need of strengthening the engineering manpower in order to keep her in a competitive position. The Conference was officially cast off with the leading plenary lectures that under lined the theme of the technical lectures for the first day. This pattern was observed for the five-day meeting. The interplay between material and design re quirements was the theme and emphasized in many of the technical presentations that amounted to approximately ninety (90) papers."