The fundamental properties of deep luminescence centres in Si associated with transition metals such as Cu, Ag, Au, and Pt have been a focus of interest for decades, both as markers for these deleterious contaminants, and also in the quest for efficient Si-based light emission. This dissertation presents the results of ultra-high resolution photoluminescence studies of these centres in specially prepared, highly enriched 28-Si samples. The greatly improved spectral resolution due to this enrichment led to the discovery of isotopic fingerprints. These fingerprints have revealed that the detailed constituents of all of the centres previously studied had been identified incorrectly. They also revealed the existence of several different families of impurity complexes containing either four or five atoms chosen from Li, Cu, Ag, Au, and Pt. These centres' constituents have been determined, together with no-phonon transition energies, no-phonon isotope shifts, local vibrational mode energies, and the isotope shifts of the local vibrational mode energies. The data presented here for these centres should prove useful for the currently sought theoretical explanations of their formation, stability, and properties.

Laser shock processing (LSP) is a new and promising surface treatment technique for improving the fatigue durability, corrosion, wear resistance and other mechanical properties of metals and alloys. During LSP, the generated shock wave can introduce a deep compressive residual stress into the material, due to its high-pressure (GPa-TPa), ultra-fast (several tens nanoseconds), ultra-high strain-rate and high-energy. The overall properties and behavior of metal materials subjected to LSP were significantly improved because a refined surface layer was successfully obtained. Nevertheless, up to now, a clear scenery between micro-structure and macro-property of the refined surface layer, especially formation of sub-micrometer grains from coarse grains during severe plastic deformation, is still pending. Therefore, the basic studies of the underlying mechanism for grain refinement by ultra-high strain-rate presented in this book becomes more and more crucial.

Tin (Sn) whiskers are electrically conductive, single crystal eruptions that grow from Sn film surfaces. Their high aspect ratio presents reliability problems for the electronics industry due to bridging and metal arcing, leading to malfunctions and catastrophic failures in many electronic systems (including satellite and defense sectors). Due to legislation in the EU, Japan, and the U.S., mandating a gradual shift from lead (Pb)-based to lead-free solders and board finishes, there has been a reemergence of Sn whiskers. Continuing reports of Sn whisker induced failures coupled with the lack of an industry-accepted understanding of whisker growth and/or test methods to identify whisker prone products has made pure/high Sn substitutes a risky proposition in high reliability systems. This thesis is designed to clarify and control the fundamental mechanisms that govern whisker formation. The research focuses on reproducible "laboratory" created whiskers under a variety of rigorously controlled environmental factors such as film thickness, film stress, substrate material, gas environment, and humidity exposure, which are known to play a significant role in whisker production. The ultimate question of how to impede and/or prevent whisker growth is also addressed and shows that whisker prevention is possible via hard metal capping films, which are impenetrable by whiskers.

This book equips a reader with knowledge necessary for critical analysis of innovations in electric arc furnaces and helps to select the most effective ones and for their successful implementation. The book also covers general issues related to history of development, current state and prospects of steelmaking in Electric Arc Furnaces. Therefore, it can be useful for everybody who studies metallurgy, including students of colleges and universities.
The modern concepts of mechanisms of Arc Furnace processes arediscussed in the book at the level sufficient to solve practical problems: To help readers lacking knowledge required in the field of heat transfer as well as hydro-gas dynamics, it contains several chapters which provide the required minimum of information in these fields of science. In order to better assess different innovations, the book describes experience of the application of similar innovations in open-hearth furnaces and oxygen converters. Some promising ideas on key issues regarding intensification of the heat, which are of interest for developers of new processes and equipment for Electric Arc Furnaces, are also the concern of the book
It should be noted, that carrying out the simplified calculations as distinct from using "off the shelf" programs greatly promotes comprehensive understanding of physical basics of processes and effects produced by various factors. This book gives numerous examples of such calculations performed by means of simplified methods and formulas.
Getting familiar with material in this book will allow the reader to perform required calculations on his / her own without any difficulties.
"

Creep-resistant steels are widely used in the petroleum, chemical and power generation industries. Creep-resistant steels must be reliable over very long periods of time at high temperatures and in severe environments. Understanding and improving long-term creep strength is essential for safe operation of plant and equipment. This book provides an authoritative summary of key research in this important area.
The first part of the book describes the specifications and manufacture of creep-resistant steels. Part two covers the behaviour of creep-resistant steels and methods for strengthening them. The final group of chapters analyses applications in such areas as turbines and nuclear reactors.
With its distinguished editors and international team of contributors, Creep-resistant steels is a valuable reference for the power generation, petrochemical and other industries which use high strength steels at elevated temperatures.
Describes the specifications and manufacture of creep-resistant steelsStrengthening methods are discussed in detailDifferent applications are analysed including turbines and nuclear reactors

Hydroforming uses a pressurised fluid to form component shapes. The process allows the manufacture of lighter, more complex shapes with increased strength at lower cost compared to more traditional techniques such as stamping, forging, casting or welding. As a result hydroformed components are increasingly being used in the aerospace, automotive and other industries. This authoritative book reviews the principles, applications and optimisation of this important process.
After an introduction, the first part of the book reviews the principles of hydroforming, from equipment and materials to forming processes, design and modelling. The second part of the book reviews the range of hydroforming techniques, the shaping of particular components and the application of hydroforming in aerospace and automotive engineering.
With its distinguished editor and team of contributors, Hydroforming for advanced manufacturing is a valuable reference for all those developing and applying this important process.
Reviews the principles of hydroformingExplores the range of hydroforming techniquesHighlights the application of hydroforming in aerospace and automotive engineering

This book introduces readers to the fundamental properties and practical applications of shape memory alloys (SMAs) from the perspective of seismic engineering. It objectively discusses the superiority of this novel class of materials, which could potentially overcome the limitations of conventional seismic control technologies. The results, vividly presented in the form of tables and figures, are demonstrated with rigorous experimental verifications, supplemented by comprehensive numerical and analytical investigations. The book allows readers to gain an in-depth understanding of the working mechanisms of various SMA-based structural devices and members, including beam-to-column connections, dampers, and braces, while also providing them with a broader vision of next-generation, performance-based seismic design for novel adaptive structural systems. Helping to bridge the gap between material science and structural engineering, it also sheds light on the potential of commercializing SMA products in the construction industry. The cutting-edge research highlighted here provides technical incentives for design professionals, contractors, and building officials to use high-performance and smart materials in structural design, helping them stay at the forefront of construction technology.

This book explores the interconnections and differentiations between artisanal workshops and alchemical laboratories and between the arts and alchemy from Antiquity to the eighteenth century. In particular, it scrutinizes epistemic exchanges between producers of the arts and alchemists. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the term "laboratorium" uniquely referred to workplaces in which chemical operations were performed: smelting, combustion, distillation, dissolution and precipitation. Artisanal workshops equipped with furnaces and fire in which chemical operations were performed were also known as laboratories. Transmutational alchemy (the transmutation of all base metals into more noble ones, especially gold) was only one aspect of alchemy in the early modern period. The practice of alchemy was also about the chemical production of things--medicines, porcelain, dyes and other products as well as precious metals and about the knowledge of how to produce them. This book uses examples such as the "Uffizi" to discuss how Renaissance courts established spaces where artisanal workshops and laboratories were brought together, thus facilitating the circulation of materials, people and knowledge between the worlds of craft (today s decorative arts) and alchemy. Artisans became involved in alchemical pursuits beyond a shared material culture and some crafts relied on chemical expertise offered by scholars trained as alchemists. Above all, texts and books, products and symbols of scholarly culture played an increasingly important role in artisanal workshops. In these workplaces a sort of hybrid figure was at work. With one foot in artisanal and the other in scholarly culture this hybrid practitioner is impossible to categorize in the mutually exclusive categories of scholar and craftsman. By the seventeenth century the expertise of some glassmakers, silver and goldsmiths and producers of porcelain was just as based in the worlds of alchemical and bookish learning as it was grounded in hands-on work in the laboratory. This book suggests that this shift in workshop culture facilitated the epistemic exchanges between alchemists and producers of the decorative arts."

This book comprises chapters on research work done around the globe in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in sheet metal forming. The first chapter offers an introduction to various AI techniques and sheet metal forming, while subsequent chapters describe traditional procedures/methods used in various sheet metal forming processes, and focus on the automation of those processes by means of AI techniques, such as KBS, ANN, GA, CBR, etc. Feature recognition and the manufacturability assessment of sheet metal parts, process planning, strip-layout design, selecting the type and size of die components, die modeling, and predicting die life are some of the most important aspects of sheet metal work. Traditionally, these activities are highly experience-based, tedious and time consuming. In response, researchers in several countries have applied various AI techniques to automate these activities, which are covered in this book. This book will be useful for engineers working in sheet metal industries, and will serve to provide future direction to young researchers and students working in the area.

Solder joints are ubiquitous in electronic consumer products. The European Union has a directive to ban the use of Pb-based solders in these products on July 1st, 2006. There is an urgent need for an increase in the research and development of Pb-free solders in electronic manufacturing. For example, spontaneous Sn whisker growth and electromigration induced failure in solder joints are serious issues. These reliability issues are quite complicated due to the combined effect of electrical, mechanical, chemical, and thermal forces on solder joints. To improve solder joint reliability, the science of solder joint behavior under various driving forces must be understood. In this book, the advanced materials reliability issues related to copper-tin reaction and electromigration in solder joints are emphasized and methods to prevent these reliablity problems are discussed.

Magnesium, with a density of 1.74 g/cm, is the lightest structural metal, and magnesium and its alloys are increasingly the material of choice for weight-critical applications such as in land-based transport systems. Magnesium Technology substantially updates and complements existing reference sources on this key material. It assembles international contributions from seven countries covering the wide range of research programs into new alloys with the requisite property profiles, i.e., the current state of both research and technological application of magnesium. In particular, the international team of authors cover key topics, such as: casting and wrought alloys; fabrication methods; corrosion and protection; engineering requirements and strategies, examples from the automobile, aerospace, and consumer-goods industries, and recycling. This authoritative reference and overview addresses materials researchers as well as design engineers.

The physics of metal forming and metal removing is normally expressed using non-linear partial differential equations which can be solved using the finite element method (FEM). However, when the process parameters are uncertain and/or the physics of the process is not well understood, soft computing techniques can be used with FEM or alone to model the process.

Using FEM, fuzzy set theory and neural networks as modeling tools; Modeling of Metal Forming and Machining Processes provides a complete treatment of metal forming and machining, and includes:

a [ an explanation of FEM and its application to the modeling of manufacturing processes;

a [ a discussion of the numerical difficulties of FEM;

a [ chapters on the application of soft computing techniques in this modeling process.

The algorithms and solved examples included make Modeling of Metal Forming and Machining Processes of value to postgraduates, senior undergraduates, lecturers and researchers in these fields. R&D engineers and consultants for the manufacturing industry will also find it of use.

Modern metallic materials are used extensively in a wide variety of applications, some of which are quite obvious (vehicles, cables, buildings and packaging) and others perhaps less so as in the critical structures of planes, skyscrapers, micro-electronic devises, nuclear and other energy plants. Many of the alloys used for these applications have undergone major transformations over the last 20 years. These transformations have been implemented to improve the material performances at minimum cost to the user. In many cases, if not most, they have resulted from advances in Thermo-Mechanical Processing - the set of operations by which basic materials are transformed into high quality components.
Divided into three sections, the first section covers the microstructural science base of the subject, including the microstructure determined mechanical properties of metals. The second section deals with the current mechanical technology of plastic forming of metals. The concluding section illustrates the interaction of the first two disciplines in a series of case studies of successful current TMP processing and also looks ahead to possible new developments in the field.
This book aims to fill this gap between two scientific approaches and illustrate also their successful linkage by the use of suitable modern case studies.
* Covers both physical metallurgy and metals processing
* Links basic science to real everyday applications
* Written by four internationally-known experts in the field

This book helps designers and manufacturers to select and develop the most suitable and competitive steel structures, which are safe, fit for production and economic. An optimum design system is used to find the best characteristics of structural models, which guarantee the fulfilment of design and fabrication requirements and minimize the cost function. Realistic numerical models are used as main components of industrial steel structures. Chapter 1 containts some experiences with the optimum design of steel structures Chapter 2 treats some newer mathematical optimization methods. Chapter 3 gives formulae for fabrication times and costs. Chapters 4 deals with beams and columns. Summarizes the Eurocode rules for design. Chapter 5 deals with the design of tubular trusses. Chapter 6 gives the design of frame structures and fire-resistant design rules for a frame. In Chapters 7 some minimum cost design problems of stiffened and cellular plates and shells are worked out for cases of different stiffenings and loads. Chapter 8 gives a cost comparison of cylindrical and conical shells. The book contains a large collection of literatures and a subject list and a name index.

The application of microbiological methods to the extraction of metals from minerals has definitely gained a prominent role and is supported by the several bioleaching and biooxidation processes operating in different sites over the world. In recent years, new techniques and new results about proteomic and bioinformatics offer a new perspective on the microbial processes.This book focuses on the basic aspects of the process with special emphasis on recent contributions regarding the chemical and microbial aspects of the bioleaching process and the use of microorganisms in the treatment of complex ores and concentrates. It has been written by recognized researchers in order to introduce the main subjects of microbial processing to undergraduate and postgraduate students, scientists working in this field as well as interested industrialists.

This book presents the physical concepts and tools to characterize and describe the formation of metastable solids from undercooled melts. Its aim is to facilitate understanding of the development of the science and technology of solidification of melts and to introduce new concepts within this exciting research field in order to fulfil the challenges of the future in the field of undercooled melts.

A comprehensive description of the science and applications of the undercooling phenomenon is given. It is composed of several main parts: experimental techniques for undercooling; characterization of the undercooled melt as the first step in rapid solidification; introducing the concepts of modern theories of rapid dendrite and eutectic growth and their comparison with experimental results, and a survey of metastable materials formed from the non-equilibrium state of an undercooled melt.
* Showing clear links to possible application of results obtained from basic research
* The subject matter is multidisciplinary and will be of interest to material scientists, physicists, physical chemists, mechanical and electrical engineers

This book introduces readers to titanium matrix composites (TMCs) with novel network microstructures. The bottleneck problem of extreme brittleness and low strengthening effect surrounding TMCs fabricated by means of powder metallurgy has recently been solved by designing network microstructures, which yield both high strength and superior ductility. As such, network structured TMCs will increasingly offer materials characterized by low weight, high strength, high temperature resistance and superior deformability. The book systematically addresses the design, fabrication, microstructure, properties, modification, and toughening mechanisms of these composites, which will help us find innovative solutions to a range of current and future engineering problems.

Contents -
Introduction -
1. The Mechanism of Electrodeposition -
2. The Laws and Characteristics of Plating Baths -
3. The Control of a Plating Bath -
4. The Deposit -
5. The Preparatory Steps -
6. Cadmium Cyanide Baths -
7. Chromium Baths -
8. Acid Copper Baths -
9. Copper Cyanide Baths -
10. Iron Plating -
11. Lead Plating -
12. Nickel Plating -
13. Silver Plating -
14. Acid Tin Baths -
15. Alkaline Tin Baths -
16. Acid Zinc Baths -
17. Zinc Cyanide Baths -
18. Electroplated Alloys -
19. Copper Plating for Selective Carburization -
20. Diffusion Coatings -
21. Selection of a Plating Bath -
22. Continuous Plating -
23. Applications of Electroplating -
24. Plating-Bath Troubles -
25. Analytical Methods for Plating Baths -
Appendix -
Glossary -
Index -

This edited volume presents new data and insights from the most internationally respected PGE experts, representing a variety of disciplines ranging from chemistry, geochemistry, biology, environmental science to toxicology and environmental health. It builds upon three previous co-edited books published by Springer, Zereini and Alt (Eds.) (1999, 2000 and 2006), incorporating the most recent advances on the topic. The book covers the following topical areas related to PGE: sources and applications, analytical methods, environmental fate, bioavailability and chemical behaviour, use of bioindicators and human exposures and health risk potential. Highly interdisciplinary in orientation, this book is a comprehensive guide to academics, students and professionals working in a number of different scientific fields, who are interested in topics related to platinum metal emissions in the environment.

Laser shock peening (LSP) is a relatively new surface treatment for metallic materials. LSP is a process to induce compressive residual stresses using shock waves generated by laser pulses. LSP can greatly improve the resistance of a material to crack initiation and propagation brought on by cyclic loading and fatigue. This pioneering book was the first of its kind to consolidate scattered knowledge into one comprehensive volume. It describes the mechanisms of LSP and its substantial role in improving fatigue performance in terms of modification of microstructure, surface morphology, hardness and strength. In particular it describes numerical simulation techniques and procedures which can be adopted by engineers and research scientists to design, evaluate and optimise LSP processes in practical applications.
Provides for the first time, a comprehensive coverage of this important areaWritten by two world renowned experts