Computational Mechanics

Air pollution XV; proceedings.

Papers from an April conference reveal the latest advances in air pollution modeling, air quality management, emission studies, monitoring and laboratory studies, aerosols and particles, climate change and air pollution, environmental health effects, and indoor pollution. Specific subjects discussed include air pollution and child respiratory diseases in Portugal, optimizing the prediction models of air quality in cities, air quality management in various countries, and wood processing as a source of terpene emission compared to natural sources. Other topics under discussion include simulation of fuel consumption and emissions in typical traffic circumstances in Belgium, atmospheric volatile organic compounds in a Portuguese mountain region, and generation of monodisperse aerosols through condensation nuclei control. There is no subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The art of resisting extreme natural forces; proceedings.

This collection, representing papers offered at the July 2007 conference, provides current information on innovations and new techniques. International contributors cover building bridges that span the equivalent of fjords, improving the analysis of long-span bridge flutter, making the most of seismic analysis, taming wind storms, reducing the risk of snow load, reducing cross-winds for trains and cars, managing a notorious lake for sustainability, keeping fire in its place in historical areas, modifying stainless steel beams in case of fire, the storage of ammonia safe under extreme forces, and assessing the performance of early warning systems. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Boundary elements and other mesh reduction methods XXIX; proceedings.

These proceedings include the full range of papers presented describing current research and applications. Topics include meshless techniques, including stress analysis by local integral equations, advanced formulations, including a new boundary element analysis of acoustic problems with the fictitious eigenvalue issue, the dual reciprocity methods, including an evaluation of strong shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid flow using a single-domain dual reciprocity/boundary element methods, computational issues such as inmost singularities and appropriate quadrature rules in boundary element methods, fluid mechanics applications, including a meshless analysis of flow and concentration in a water reservoir, heat and mass transfer, as in the use of a boundary element methods for double diffusive natural convection, wave propagation, including a methods of obtaining a sparse matrix from the volume integral equation for elastic wave propagation, damage mechanics and fracture, electrical engineering and electromagnetics and inverse problems. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computer aided optimum design in engineering X; proceedings.

These proceedings of the May 2007 conference include papers on algorithmic and topology optimization (including global versus local statement of stress constraints in topology optimization of continuum structures), shape optimization (including optimization of geometry for the lateral buckling process of a cantilever beam), and applications in construction engineering, mechanical and aircraft engineering and process optimization. Each article includes examples or samples and full bibliographies. Many of the authors have also provided clear and concise illustrations. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computational ballistics III; proceedings.

The 21 papers presented here by Brebbia (Wessex Institute of Technology, UK) and Motta (Brazilian Navy Research Institute, Brazil) originated from the Third International Conference on Computational Ballistics, which was held in the UK in June of 2007. The papers are organized into sections covering fluid flow aerodynamics, interior ballistics, terminal ballistics, experimental mechanics/ballistics and field testing, new developments in computational techniques, and systems and technology. Examples of specific topics include fast calculation of direct fire trajectories taking the earth's rotation into account, an aerodynamic model for projectile flight simulation using unsteady time accurate computational fluid dynamic results, suppression of axial combustion instability in solid rocket motors, stochastic study of 60-mm gun-projectile responses, a method to increase the tip velocity of a shaped charge jet using a hollow cavity, offshore platforms survivability from underwater explosions, scalable parallel computation of explosively formed penetrators, data mining in military systems, and analysis of weapon systems protecting military camps against mortar fire. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computational methods and experimental measurements XIII; proceedings.

This collection of papers describing recent research and findings is comprised primarily of advanced approaches and applications in numerical methods and experimental determinations, with the intention of showing how the two are mutually beneficial. General topics include computational and experimental methods, experimental and computational analysis, fluid flow, salts in porous materials, heat transfer, structural and stress analysis, experiment and analysis of reinforced concrete members, structural dynamics, dynamics and vibrations, detection and signal processing, advances in measurements and experiments and industrial applications. Several of the topics were presented in special sessions. The editors provide and author index and each paper has its own citations and references. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computational methods and experiments in materials characterisation III; proceedings.

Proceedings from a conference on materials and their microstructures, experimental characterization techniques, and computational methods, held in 2007 in Bologna, Italy. Forty-three contributions are organized into sections on the microstructures of novel composite materials, of ceramics and advanced materials, of alloys, and of cements and cement-based materials; experimental methods, including imaging and analysis, thermal analysis, mechanical characterization and testing, and new methods; and computational methods, including discrete computational methods, damage mechanics, and innovative techniques. A sampling of topics: testing of palm fiber as reinforcement material in polyester composites, blocking and self- locking of superdislocations in intermetallics, martensitic transformation in hot stamping processes, reactive powder concrete, the spatial controlling Lamb waves excited by a point source on the cylindrical wall, thermo-analytical evaluation of wear debris for thermoplastic and sintered polyimide, modeling of viscoelastic properties of a curing adhesive, and seismic damage assessment of steel components. No subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computer methods and experimental measurements for surface effects and contact mechanics VIII; proceedings.

Taken from those presented at the conference of June 2007, these papers describe research in surface treatments as they relate to contact mechanics. Here the basic issues are wear, corrosion and friction, all of which threaten product quality as well as production yields, so the topics here include surface treatments, including improving Ti alloys with DLC coverings and using laser cladding to thicken tool steel coatings, thin coatings, including observing ionic migration behavior in minute wiring on a flexible substrate and multilayer contacts in electrical connectors, surface problems in contact mechanics, including the case of a fussy lens, contact mechanics, including several articles on numerical analysis and characterization, material surfaces in contact, including measurement techniques and wear assessment, fracture and fatigue, including evaluations of those deadly nanoscratches, and applications. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Computational methods in multiphase flow IV; proceedings.

Drawn from those presented at the June 2007 conference, these papers describe new work in one of the great unsolved problems in fluid mechanics. Flows are very diverse in nature and so the laws that explain them are also varied, and length scales are often fully coupled, further complicating an already complicated situation. By way of finding an elegant solution, the topics of these papers include multiphase flow simulation, including a methodology for momentum flux measurements in two-phase blast flows, flow in porous media, including transient groundwater flow in a single fracture, interfaces, including micro-scale distillation simulation, bubble and drop dynamics, including the nonlinear dynamics of lipid-shelled ultrasound microbubble contrast agents, suspensions, including an experimental investigation of sedimentation of flows in suspensions of biological water treatment plants, and turbulent flows, including notes on crossing trajectory effects in gas-particle turbulent flows. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Data mining; data, text and web mining and their business applications VIII; proceedings.

Will this young but not nascent industry eventually consolidate or start to find boundaries in its research? According to these proceedings of the 2007 conference it appears the potential applications are still vast and the discipline provides solutions for complex and delicate questions. The papers here cover such topics as categorization methods (including bio-inspired metaheuristic approaches), data preparation (including genetic algorithms in a dynamically changing environment), enterprise information systems (including a double wave warehouse lifecycle model), mining environment and geospatial data (including that sought in a transductive setting), text mining (including the challenges facing search engines), applications in business and government (including self-regulated learning strategies and physician use of the Internet), customer relationship management (including marketing analysis and assessment of service) and national security (terrorist finance, multilingual open source intelligence and encryption systems). The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Domain decomposition techniques for boundary elements; application to fluid flow.

These first steps in using the boundary element method (BEM) in conjunction with a large number of sub-domains result in meshes that resemble those produced by the finite element method (FEM) with increased efficiency. The editors and their contributors work first from diffusion-convection problems with numerical examples, then move to viscous compressible fluid dynamics and an appraisal of using multi-domain dual reciprocity methods (DRMs) and BEMs for the numerical simulation of non-isothermal flow problems. They model flow and solute transport in fractured porous media using the DRM multidomain technique, present a parallel domain decomposition BEM approach for large-scale transient and steady nonlinear heat conduction, develop a computational implementation for three-dimensional problems and conclude with iterative schemes for the solution of systems of equations arising from the DRM in multidomains. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Earthquake resistant engineering structures VI; proceedings.

Brebbia (Wessex Institute of Technology, UK) presents selected papers from a 2007 conference on the design and construction of new earthquake resistant structures and retrofitting of existing buildings. Areas covered include bridges, seismic isolation, passive protection devices, self-centering systems, and site effects and geotechnical aspects, as well as seismic behavior and vulnerability, lifelines, monitoring and testing, retrofitting, and structural dynamics. Specific topics examined include the behavior of coupling beams with vertical slits, testing of a large-scale two-span bridge model on multiple shake tables, modeling of the structural impact of seismically isolated buildings, and self-centering behavior of unbonded precast concrete shear walls. Other subjects covered include liquefaction potential evaluation for a site, evaluation of lateral load patterns in pushover analysis, shaking table tests on shallow foundations, and dynamic analysis of plates stiffened by parallel beams. There is no subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Energy and sustainability; proceedings.

This collection of papers from the June 2007 conference includes reports current technologies and strategies applied in different parts of the world, with contributors from the energy and industrial sectors as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations and other experts on sustainability. General topics range from energy resources (including micro co-generation with a price-variable heat storage switch and clean energy saving) to energy efficiency (including several innovative systems), energy and life cycle analysis (including the use of the technique in wind turbines), energy and the environment (including new research on fuel cells and preparing for seismic events), energy and the built environment (including creating double roofs), renewable technologies, computer modeling, nuclear fuels, hydrocarbon exploration and recover, and energy markets and policy. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Environmental health risk III; proceedings.

In 28 papers that represent most of the presentations at the conference, physical, environmental, and medical scientists and engineers describe experimental and modelling tools to help develop measures that will eliminate or reduce factors from the environment that can result in health risk to humans. They cover air pollution, water quality, the built environment, occupational health, social and economic issues, and risk prevention and monitoring. There is no subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Fluid structure interaction and moving boundary problems IV; proceedings.

These proceedings of the May 2007 conferences on fluid structure interactions and moving boundaries address a range of situations when fluid meets other materials and structures. Along with the situational studies these papers describe the basic mathematical formulations of fluid structure interaction and their complex modeling, focusing on the borders or interphase boundaries determined as part of the solution. Topics include hydrodynamic forces, offshore structure and ship dynamics, offshore engineering, response of structures including fluid dynamics, computational methods, experimental studies and validation, flow-induced vibration, moving boundary problems, and acoustics and noise. Each paper is complete with references. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Integral equations and their applications.

Rahman (applied mathematics and fluid mechanics, Dalhousie U.) offers senior undergraduate and first-year graduate students of engineering and science courses (as well as of mathematics and physical sciences) recent developments, including preliminary backgrounds of formulations of integral equations governing physical situations and elegant analytical and numerical methods. He covers Volterra integral equations, Fredholm integral equations, nonlinear integral equations, the singular integral equation, integro-differential equations, symmetric kernals and orthogonal systems of functions, and a range of applications. He includes appendices including a table of Laplace transforms and specialized Laplace inverses. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

River basin management IV; proceedings.

A May 2007 conference addressed the latest developments in the overall management of riverine systems. Papers from the conference look at engineering issues and current methods, offering a broad view of an integrated approach to river basin management within the framework of competing human demands, environmental problems, and national and international legislation. Material is in sections on water resource management, river and watershed management, hydraulics and hydrology, hydrological modeling, flood studies, sediment transport, stream bank erosion, water quality, and ecological and environmental impacts. Some specific topics covered include an integrated cell model for river basin simulation, the effect of buildings in floodplain overbank areas, using a neural network model to forecast flood events, hydraulics of bendway weirs, and monitoring river pollution with high-resolution satellite images. Case studies describe recent work in rivers in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. There is no subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Safety and security engineering II; proceedings.

A 2007 conference highlighted recent developments in theoretical and practical aspects of safety and security engineering. Papers from the conference, presented here, reflect the field's multidisciplinary and systemic approach. Major themes are risk analysis and management, modeling and theoretical studies, fire prevention and protection, and environmental protection, as well as industrial cases, transportation problems, public safety, emergency and disaster prevention and management, and terrorism protection. Some specific subjects examined include risk acceptability criteria, heavy metals concentration in vegetables grown in Iraq, search and rescue robots, road tunnel safety in Italy, an open software platform for preventive security in crowded public places, and agent-based simulation of human movements during emergency evacuations of facilities. The editor is affiliated with the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. There is no subject index. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Simulation of electrochemical processes II; proceedings.

These proceedings from the May 2007 conference include papers which describe the diverse theories and uses of electrochemical processes ranging from cradle (fabrication) to grave (corrosion and destruction). The papers demonstrate the close link between computational and experimental methods, covering modeling technologies, including computer modeling of the relationship between metallurgical microstructure and localized corrosion effects and kinetic Monte Carlo modeling of the leaching of Raney Ni-Al alloys; cathodic protection systems, including systems for ships' hulls and overhead lines; experimental measurements and computer results, including using a scanning vibrating electrode technique in measuring corrosion of a welded pipeline; interference and signature control, including a way to predict corrosion related signatures; stress corrosion, cracking and corrosion fatigue, including a study of corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete bridges; and detecting and monitoring corrosion, including a report on an environmentally protective weathering steel. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Structural studies, repairs and maintenance of heritage architecture X; proceedings.

After hundreds of generations of tearing down the past or just building on top of it, many cultures are now devoting both money and effort into sustaining historical architecture and heritage spaces. But how can they make up for lost time? This collection reflects that relatively new interest with case studies and essays that range from the theoretical to the completely practical, giving architects, developers and policy makers the good news that their peers are serious about conservation. Topics include heritage architecture worldwide and the tourism and other activities it attracts, including reports from Mexico, Japan and Atlanta, regional architecture in Asia and elsewhere, non-destructive evaluation techniques of masonry structures including the sonic pulse velocity method, material characterization, repair and maintenance, including that on medieval beams, preservation and prevention, structural issues, simulation and modeling, and seismic vulnerability. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sustainable development and planning III; proceedings; 2v.

This two-volume set contains 101 scientific papers from an April 2007 international conference addressing the subjects of sustainable development and regional planning. The editors (of the U. of Thessaly in Greece and the Wessex Institute of Technology in the UK) have organized the papers according to the following topics: regional planning; city planning; rural development; environmental impact assessment; environmental management; environmental legislation and policy; ecosystems analysis, protection, and remediation; social and cultural issues; environmental economics; urban landscapes; transport issues; resources management; waste management; and sustainable tourism. Each of these broad topics receives about equal attention. A few examples of specific topics discussed include urban and regional typologies in relation to self-sufficiency strategies, facilitating land use forecasting in planning agencies, specification of urban planning regulation in a sustainable city, authenticity versus hybridity in rural Greece, assessment of technological structures' environmental impact and risk, priority setting in old pollution abatement, zoning protection models and eco-development areas in Greece, rehabilitation of traditional adobe constructions in Portugal, the potential or cultural and eco-tourism in North East India, sustainable reclamation of industrial areas in urban landscapes, and attempts towards sustainable motorway development in Greece. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Water resources management IV; proceedings.

Sixty-four papers from the May 2007 conference present recent technological and scientific developments associated with the management of surface and sub-surface water resources. Several of the contributions explore different approaches to monitoring water quality and modeling regional water demand, rainwater runoff, and sediment transport. Other topics include oxidation processes for the remediation of PCP contaminated wastewaters, water transfer from Basilicata to Puglia, water pollution legislation in Iran, and the effect of subsurface amendments and drip irrigation on tomato growth. No subject index is provided. The US office of WIT Press is Computational Mechanics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)