Ian Bond - Böcker

Adaptive structures have the ability to adapt, evolve or change their properties or behaviour in response to the environment around them. The analysis and design of adaptive structures requires a highly multi-disciplinary approach which includes elements of  structures, materials, dynamics, control, design and inspiration taken from biological systems. Development of adaptive structures has been taking place in a wide range of industrial applications, but is particularly advanced in the aerospace and space technology sector with morphing wings, deployable space structures; piezoelectric devices and vibration control of tall buildings.Bringing together some of the foremost world experts in adaptive structures, this unique text: includes discussions of the application of adaptive structures in the aerospace, military, civil engineering structures, automotive and MEMS.presents the impact of biological inspiration in designing adaptive structures, particularly the use of hierarchy in nature, which typically induces multi-functional behavior.sets the agenda for future research in adaptive structures in one distinctive single volume.Adaptive Structures: Engineering Applications is essential reading for engineers and scientists working in the fields of intelligent materials, structural vibration, control and related smart technologies. It will also be of interest to senior undergraduate and postgraduate research students as well as design engineers working in the aerospace, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering sectors.

Written by experts, this long-established and definitive guide to the workings of the European Union provides comprehensive, straightforward and readable coverage of this sometimes misunderstood and complex institution.This fully revised second edition explains not only what happens but why, analysing the EU’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities for it to be more effective. With the EU’s very existence under pressure due to Euroscepticism, continued crises with migration and borders, the re-emergence of the far right, and renewed great power competition in Europe and the world, it specifically outlines:How the EU has evolved over the last 70 yearsHow it works: the institutions, the mechanismsEvery area of EU competence from agriculture to defenceThe effects of the single market, a single currency and the successes and stresses of the eurozoneThe impact of the enlargement of the EU, prospects for further enlargement and closer political integrationReforming the EU’s decision-making and defending the rule of lawThe EU’s place in an ever more disorderly worldThe Routledge Guide to the European Union is well-established as the clearest and most comprehensive guide to how the EU operates. This new edition brings you up to date at a crucial stage in its history, at a time when it has never been under greater internal and external threat, but conversely is perhaps more important than ever.