Although several books and conference proceedings have already appeared dealing with either the mathematical aspects or applications of homogenization theory, there seems to be no comprehensive volume dealing with both aspects. The present volume is meant to fill this gap, at least partially, and deals with recent developments in nonlinear homogenization emphasizing applications of current interest. It contains thirteen key lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Workshop on Nonlinear Homogenization and Its Applications to Composites, Polycrystals and Smart Materials. The list of thirty one contributed papers is also appended.

The key lectures cover both fundamental, mathematical aspects of homogenization, including nonconvex and stochastic problems, as well as several applications in micromechanics, thin films, smart materials, and structural and topology optimization. One lecture deals with a topic important for nanomaterials: the passage from discrete to continuum problems by using nonlinear homogenization methods. Some papers reveal the role of parameterized or Young measures in description of microstructures and in optimal design. Other papers deal with recently developed methods both analytical and computational for estimating the effective behavior and field fluctuations in composites and polycrystals with nonlinear constitutive behavior.

All in all, the volume offers a cross-section of current activity in nonlinear homogenization including a broad range of physical and engineering applications. The careful reader will be able to identify challenging open problems in this still evolving field. For instance, there is the need to improve bounding techniques for nonconvex problems, as well as for solving geometrically nonlinear optimum shape-design problems, using relaxation and homogenization methods."

Designed for engineers, this work considers flow-induced vibrations. It covers topics such as body oscillators; fluid loading and response of body oscillators; fluid oscillators; vibrations due to extraneously-induced excitation; and vibrations due to instability-induced excitation.

A few years ago the Helmholtz Association (HGF) consisting of 15 research Institutions including the German Aerospace Center (DLR) started a network research program called 'Virtual Institutes'. The basic idea of this program was to establish research groups formed by Helmholtz research centers and universities to study and develop methods or technologies for future applications and educate young scientists. It should also enable and encourage the partners of this Virtual Institute after 3 years funding to continue their cooperation in other programs. Following this HGF request and chance the DLR Windtunnel Department of the Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology took the initiative and established a network with other DLR institutes and German u- versities RWTH Aachen, University of Stuttgart and Technical University Munich. The main goal of this network was to share the experience in system analysis, ae- dynamics and material science for aerospace for improving the understanding and applicability of some key technologies for future reusable space transportation s- tems. Therefore, the virtual institute was named RESPACE (Key Technologies for Re- Usable Space Systems).

With the advent of the 80's there has been an increasing need for analytic and numerical techniques, based on a thorough understanding of microstructural processes, that express in a manner suitable for practicing engineers the reliability of components and structures that are being subjected to degradation situations. Such situations fall within the framework offracture mechanics, fatigue, corrosion fatigue and pitting corrosion. Luckily, such techniques are now being developed and it was felt timely to combine in one volume reports by the leaders in this field who are currently making great strides towards solving these problems. Hence the idea of this monograph was born and I am pleased to be associated both with it and the contributors whose chapters are included in this volume. A very large part of the credit for this monograph must go to the authors who have taken time out from their busy schedules to prepare their submissions. They have all worked diligently over the last few months in order to get their manuscripts to me on time and I sincerely thank them for their help throughout the preparation of this volume.

This volume details the principles underlying rapid solidification processing, material structure and properties, and their applications. This practical resource presents a manifold approach to both amorphous and crystalline rapidly solidified metallic alloys.;Written by over 30 internationally acclaimed specialists in their respective fields, Rapidly Solidified Alloys: surveys nucleation and growth studies in undercooled melts; examines various processes for the production of rapidly solidified alloys; discusses the compaction of amorphous alloys; describes surface remelting treatments for the rapid solidification of surface layers and the resultant improved workpiece properties; covers the closely related topics of structural relaxation, atomic transport and other thermally induced processes; demonstrates microstructure-property relationships in rapidly quenched crystalline alloy systems and their beneficial effects in applications; and elucidates the basic, engineeering, and applications-oriented magnetic properties of amorphous alloys.;Furnishing more than 2300 literature citations for further study of specific subjects, Rapidly Solidified Alloys is intended for materials, mechanical, product, and civil engineers; metallurgists; magneticians; physicists; physical chemists; and graduate students in these disciplines.

Computational kinematics is an enthralling area of science with a rich spectrum of problems at the junction of mechanics, robotics, computer science, mathematics, and computer graphics. The covered topics include design and optimization of cable-driven robots, analysis of parallel manipulators, motion planning, numerical methods for mechanism calibration and optimization, geometric approaches to mechanism analysis and design, synthesis of mechanisms, kinematical issues in biomechanics, construction of novel mechanical devices, as well as detection and treatment of singularities.

The results should be of interest for practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students from the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and computer graphics.

This volume is a collection of the papers given at the workshop on Fracture Scaling, held at the University of Maryland, USA, 10-12 June 1999, under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA, USA. These papers can be grouped under five major themes: Micromechanical analysis Size effects in fiber composites Scaling and heterogeneity Computational aspects and nonlocal or gradient models Size effects in concrete, ice and soils . This workshop is the result of a significant research effort, supported by the Office of Naval Research, into the problems of scaling of fracture in fiber composites, and generally into the problems of scaling in solid mechanics. These problems, which are of interest for many materials, especially all quasibrittle materials, share similar characteristics. Thus, progress in the understanding of scaling problems for one material may help progress for another material. This makes it clear that a dialogue between researchers in various fields of mechanics is highly desirable and should be promoted. In view of this, this volume should be of interest to researchers and advanced graduate students in materials science, solid mechanics and civil engineering.

The present monograph defines, interprets and uses the matrix of partial derivatives of the state vector with applications for the study of some common categories of engineering. The book covers broad categories of processes that are formed by systems of partial derivative equations (PDEs), including systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The work includes numerous applications specific to Systems Theory based on Mpdx, such as parallel, serial as well as feed-back connections for the processes defined by PDEs. For similar, more complex processes based on Mpdx with PDEs and ODEs as components, we have developed control schemes with PID effects for the propagation phenomena, in continuous media (spaces) or discontinuous ones (chemistry, power system, thermo-energetic) or in electro-mechanics (railway - traction) and so on. The monograph has a purely engineering focus and is intended for a target audience working in extremely diverse fields of application (propagation phenomena, diffusion, hydrodynamics, electromechanics) in which the use of PDEs and ODEs is justified.

Since January 1990, when the first edition ofthis first-of-a-kind book appeared, there has been much experimental and theoretical progress in the multi disciplinary subject of tribology and mechanics of magnetic storage devices. The subject has matured into a rigorous discipline, and many university tribology and mechanics courses now routinely contain material on magnetic storage devices. The major growth in the subject has been on the micro- and nanoscale aspects of tribology and mechanics. Today, most large magnetic storage industries use atomic force microscopes to image the magnetic storage components. Many companies use variations of AFMs such as friction force microscopes (FFMs) for frictional studies. These instruments have also been used for studying scratch, wear, and indentation. These studies are valuable in the fundamental understanding of interfacial phenomena. In the second edition, I have added a new chapter, Chapter 11, on micro and nanoscale aspects of tribology and mechanics of magnetic storage compo nents. This chapter presents the state of the art of the micro/nanotribology and micro/nanomechanics of magnetic storage components. In addition, typographical errors in Chapters 1 to 10 and the appendixes have been corrected. These additions update this book and make it more valuable to researchers of the subject. I am grateful to many colleagues and particularly to my students, whose work is reported in Chapter 11. I thank my wife, Sudha, who has been forbearing during the progress of the research reported in this chapter.

Self contained, this book presents a thorough introduction to the complementary notions of physical forces and material (or configurational) forces. All the required elements of continuum mechanics, deformation theory and differential geometry are also covered. This book will be a great help to many, whilst revealing to others a rather new facet of continuum mechanics in general, and elasticity in particular. An organized exposition of continuum mechanics on the material manifold is given which allows for the consideration of material inhomogeneities in their most appropriate framework. In such a frame the nonlinear elasticity of anisotropic inhomogenous materials appears to be a true field theory. Extensions to the cases of electroelasticity and magnetelasticity are then straightforward. In addition, this original approach provides systematic computational means for the evaluation of characteristic parameters which are useful in various branches of applied mechanics and mathematical physics. This is the case for path-independent integrals and energy-release rates in brittle fracture, the influence of electromagnetic fields on fracture criteria (such as in ceramics), the notion of momentum of electromagnetic fields in matter in optics, and the perturbation of solitons propagating in elastic dispersive systems.

This text presents the most recent research on fracture and damage of concrete and rock. It provides an improved understanding of the basic physical and mechanical principles of fracture mechanics in these materials with a strong view towards applications in construction engineering and mining engineering. It forms the proceedings of the international conference held in Vienna in November 1992. The background to the book comes from three main areas: fatigue and ageing of complex concrete structures have been responsible both for loss of life and for expenditure running into billions of dollars in recent decades; lack of virgin building land and high property values in cities and urban areas have led to more demolition and recycling of concrete structures, and related environmental problems; and more engineering structures are being built on and in rock mass of low quality and difficult terrain. Rock fracture mechanics has matured to a fully recognized discipline and is now being applied to problems of excavation, tunnelling, blasting and anchoring. FDCR Conferences provide a forum for international, interdisciplinary co-operation and exchange of ideas and experience between scienti

Despite their apparent simplicity, the behaviour of pendulums can be remarkably complicated. Historically, pendulums for specific purposes have been developed using a combination of simplified theory and trial and error. There do not appear to be any introductory books on pendulums, written at an intermediate level, and covering a wide range of topics. This book aims to fill the gap. It is written for readers with some background in elementary geometry, algebra, trigonometry and calculus. Historical information, where available and useful for the understanding of various types of pendulum and their applications, is included. Perhaps the best known use of pendulums is as the basis of clocks in which a pendulum controls the rate at which the clock runs. Interest in theoretical and practical aspects of pendulums, as applied to clocks, goes back more than four centuries. The concept of simple pendulums, which are idealised versions of real pendulums is introduced. The application of pendulums to clocks is described, with detailed discussion of the effect of inevitable differences between real pendulums and simple pendulums. In a clock, the objective is to ensure that the pendulum controls the timekeeping. However, pendulums are sometimes driven, and how this affects their behaviour is described. Pendulums are sometimes used for occult purposes. It is possible to explain some apparently occult results by using modern pendulum theory. For example, why a ring suspended inside a wine glass, by a thread from a finger, eventually strikes the glass. Pendulums have a wide range of uses in scientific instruments, engineering, and entertainment. Some examples are given as case studies. Indexed in the Book Citation Index- Science (BKCI-S)

The area of material damage models has undergone a rapid development in the past few years. This is an extensive and comprehensive survey of one- and three-dimensional damage models for elastic and inelastic solids. The state-of-the-art is reported by about 200 references. The book not only provides a rich current source of knowledge, but also describes examples of practical applications, numerical procedures, and computer codes. The style of presentation is systematic, clear, and concise and is supported by illustrative diagrams.

This book presents the theory of plates and shells on the basis of the three-dimensional parent theory. The authors explore the thinness of the structure to represent the mechanics of the actual thin three-dimensional body under consideration by a more tractable two-dimensional theory associated with an interior surface. In this way, the relatively complex three-dimensional continuum mechanics of the thin body is replaced by a far more tractable two-dimensional theory. To ensure that the resulting model is predictive, it is necessary to compensate for this 'dimension reduction' by assigning additional kinematical and dynamical descriptors to the surface whose deformations are modelled by the simpler two-dimensional theory. The authors avoid the various ad hoc assumptions made in the historical development of the subject, most notably the classical Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis requiring that material lines initially normal to the shell surface remain so after deformation. Instead, such conditions, when appropriate, are here derived rather than postulated.

This is the second of three volumes containing the proceedings of the International Colloquium 'Free Boundary Problems: Theory and Applications', held in Montreal from June 13 to June 22, 1990. The main theme of this volume is the concept of free boundary problems associated with solids. The first free boundary problem, the freezing of water - the Stefan problem - is the prototype of solidification problems which form the main part of this volume. The two sections treting this subject cover a large variety of topics and procedures, ranging from a theoretical mathematical treatment of solvability to numerical procedures for practical problems. Some new and interesting problems in solid mechanics are discussed in the first section while in the last section the important new subject of solid-solid-phase transition is examined.

Research and development of various parallel mechanism applications in engineering are now being performed more and more actively in every industrial field. Parallel robot based machine tools development is considered a key technology of robot applications in manufacturing industries. The material covered here describes the basic theory, approaches, and algorithms in the field of parallel robot based machine tools. In addition families of new alternative mechanical architectures which can be used for machine tools with parallel architecture are introduced. Given equal importance is the design of mechanism systems such as kinematic analysis, stiffness analysis, kinetostatic modeling, and optimization.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Mechanical Vibrations and Audible Noise in Alternating Current Machines, Leuven, Belgium, August 4-8, 1986

Following Volumes III and IV that dealt with the fracture mechanics of concrete emphasizing both material testing and structural application in general, it was felt that specimen size and loading rate effects for concrete require further attention. The only criterion that has thus far successfully linearized the highly nonlinear crack growth data of concrete is the strain energy density theory. In particular, the crack growth resistance curves plotting the strain energy density factor versus crack growth known as the SR.curves are straight lines as specimen size and loading steps or rates are altered. This allows the extrapolation of data and provides a useful design methodology. This book is unique in that it is devoted specifically to the application of the strain energy density theory to civil engineering structural members made of concrete. Analyzed in detail is the strain softening behavior of concrete for a variety of different components including the influence of steel reinforcement. Permanent damage of the material is accounted for each increment of loading by invoking the mechanism of elastic unloading. This assumption is justified in concrete structures where the effective stiffness depends primarily on the crack growth rate and load history. Crack growth data are presented in terms of SR-curves with emphases placed on scaling specimen size which alone can change the mode of failure from plastic collapse to brittle fracture. Loading rate effects can also be scaled to control failure by yielding and fracture."

Review(s) ...recommend this book to the applied community as a valuable source of practical examples of parametric excitations, treated in a modern fashion. - "Mathematical Reviews"; [Cartmell] has successfully presented the usually complicated and difficult subjects of parametric and nonlinear vibrations in a concise, clear and easy-to-understand manner - "Choice".

This book presents a liber amicorum dedicated to Wolfgang H. Muller, and highlights recent advances in Prof. Muller's major fields of research: continuum mechanics, generalized mechanics, thermodynamics, mechanochemistry, and geomechanics. Over 50 of Prof. Muller's friends and colleagues contributed to this book, which commemorates his 60th birthday and was published in recognition of his outstanding contributions.

New developments in the response spectrum method have led to calculations in seismic stresses that are more accurate, and usually lower, than those obtained by conventional methods. This new textbook examines the wealth of information on the response spectrum method generated by the latest research and presents the background theory in simplified form.
Applications of these methods is essential in the seismic design of critical structures, such as nuclear power plants and petroleum facilities. In new construction, the reduced seismic stresses will result in efficient and economic design. For facilities already built, these more accurate methods can be used where the facility is being reassessed for higher loads and in the calculation of margins.
Written by an acknowledged expert in this and related fields, this volume is ideal as a graduate text for courses in structural and earthquake engineering. It is also an excellent reference for civil, structural, mechanical, and earthquake engineers.

This volume emphazises the most early 1990s advances in fracture mechanics as specifically applied to steel bar reinforced concrete. Fracture mechanics has been applied to plain and fibre reinforced concrete with increasing success over recent years. This workshop extended these concepts to steel bar reinforced and pre-stressed concrete design. Particularly for high strength concrete, which is a very brittle material, and in the case of large structural members, the application of fracture mechanics appears to be very useful for improving the present design rules. The participants at the Turin workshop contributed expert opinions in four selected areas for which a rational approach, using fracture mechanics, could introduce variations into the concrete design codes: size effects; anchorage and bond; minimum reinforcement for elements in flexure; and shear resistance. The 23 chapters logically address these themes and demonstrate the unique ability of fracture mechanics to capture all the experimentally observed characteristics.

This book offers a unique treatment of building insulating products and the integration of these products with building components. This book was written for all those involved in building design, specification, construction, and commissioning, providing them with an understanding of and appreciation for the wide variety of thermal insulation products and technologies available for use in all types of buildings. The book proceeds from basic definitions and discussion of heat-transfer topics and thermal insulation concepts, to the design and use of these products. The impact of thermal insulation on dynamic building performance, including factors other than heating and cooling, is also discussed. The book does not require an advanced mathematical background. The authors provide sufficient information to provide a qualitative understanding, with more mathematical sections included for those interested in modeling and analysis. The basic physics associated with heat transfer in buildings are presented, along with the steady-state and transient analysis techniques needed for the effective implementation of thermal insulation and assemblies. Modern building design involves the integration of comfort, safety, economics, durability and cost considerations, all of which impact the selection and use of thermal insulation materials in buildings. In addition to theoretical explanations of the underlying science, the book details the properties and application of new thermal insulation materials, including vacuum panels, gas-filled panels, aerogels, phase-change materials, and radiation control technologies. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to researchers and building engineers wishing to understand the latest technologies and materials available, so as to achieve reduced energy consumption in commercial and residential buildings.

This book focuses on the nonlinear dynamics based on the vector fields with univariate quadratic functions. This book is a unique monograph for two-dimensional quadratic nonlinear systems. It provides different points of view about nonlinear dynamics and bifurcations of the quadratic dynamical systems. Such a two-dimensional dynamical system is one of simplest dynamical systems in nonlinear dynamics, but the local and global structures of equilibriums and flows in such two-dimensional quadratic systems help us understand other nonlinear dynamical systems, which is also a crucial step toward solving the Hilbert's sixteenth problem. Possible singular dynamics of the two-dimensional quadratic systems are discussed in detail. The dynamics of equilibriums and one-dimensional flows in two-dimensional systems are presented. Saddle-sink and saddle-source bifurcations are discussed, and saddle-center bifurcations are presented. The infinite-equilibrium states are switching bifurcations for nonlinear systems. From the first integral manifolds, the saddle-center networks are developed, and the networks of saddles, source, and sink are also presented. This book serves as a reference book on dynamical systems and control for researchers, students, and engineering in mathematics, mechanical, and electrical engineering.

This work reviews methods for the experimental determination of concrete toughness and presents theories and models suitable for describing cracking and fracturing phenomena in plain and reinforced concrete. Test methods based on classsical linear fracture mechanics cannot be applied to laboratory sized concrete specimens. The book compares the currently used methods and presents recommended test procedures for mode I fracture/toughness using notched beam and other specimens. Crack propagation under mixed-mode loading (Mode II) is discussed and current test methods are extensively reviewed. Effects of loading rate, temperature and humidity effects are treated in a separate chapter. The book concludes with descriptions and recommendations of techniques for detecting the fracture process zone in concrete, in particular, pulse velocity and laser interferometry techniques. The introduction of the concepts of fracture toughness and fracture energy into structural concrete design codes means that the experimental determination of fracture porperties is ceasing to be an academic exercise and is becoming a technical need. This book has been prepared by RILEM Technical committee 89-FMT and