Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics – serie

This work provides a posteriori error analysis for mathematical idealizations in modeling boundary value problems, especially those arising in mechanical applications, and for numerical approximations of numerous nonlinear var- tional problems. An error estimate is called a posteriori if the computed solution is used in assessing its accuracy. A posteriori error estimation is central to m- suring, controlling and minimizing errors in modeling and numerical appr- imations. In this book, the main mathematical tool for the developments of a posteriori error estimates is the duality theory of convex analysis, documented in the well-known book by Ekeland and Temam ([49]). The duality theory has been found useful in mathematical programming, mechanics, numerical analysis, etc. The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter reviews some basic notions and results from functional analysis, boundary value problems, elliptic variational inequalities, and finite element approximations. The most relevant part of the duality theory and convex analysis is briefly reviewed in Chapter 2.

This book is based on lecture notes for a graduate course that has been offered at University of Nebraska-Lincoln on and off since 1998. The course is intended to provide graduate students with the basic aspects of the continuum modeling of electroelastic interactions in solids. A concise treatment of linear, nonlinear, static and dynamic theories and problems is presented. The emphasis is on formulation and understanding of problems useful in device applications rather than solution techniques of mathematical problems. The mathematics used in the book is minimal. The book is suitable for a one-semester graduate course on electroelasticity. It can also be used as a reference for researchers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank UNL for a Maude Hammond Fling Faculty Research Fellowship in 2003 for the preparation of the first draft of this book. I also wish to thank Ms. Deborah Derrick of the College of Engineering and Technology at UNL for editing assistance with the book, and Professor David Y. Gao of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for recommending this book to Kluwer for publication in the series of Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics. JSY Lincoln, Nebraska 2004 Preface Electroelastic materials exhibit electromechanical coupling. They experience mechanical deformations when placed in an electric field, and become electrically polarized under mechanical loads. Strictly speaking, piezoelectricity refers to linear electromechanical couplings only.

On average, 60% of the world's people and cargo is transported by vehicle that move on rubber tires over roadways of various construction, composition, and quality. The number of such vehicles, including automobiles and all manner of trucks, increases continually with a growing positive impact on accessibility and a growing negative impact on interactions among humans and their relationship to the surrounding environment. This multiplicity of vehicles, through their physical impact and their emissions, is responsible for, among other negative results: waste of energy, pollution through emission of harmful compounds, degradation of road surfaces, crowding of roads leading to waste of time and increase of social stress, and decrease in safety and comfort. In particular, the safety of vehicular traffic depends on a man-vehicle-road system that includes both active and passive security controls. In spite of the drawbacks mentioned above, the governments of almost every country in the world not only expect but facilitate improvements in vehicular transport performance in order to increase such parameters as load capacity and driving velocity, while decreasing such parameters as costs to passengers, energy resources investments, fuel consumption, etc. Some of the problems have clear, if not always easily attainable, solutions.

The notion dealt with in this volume of proceedings is often traced back to the late 19th-century writings of a rather obscure scientist, C. V. Burton. A probable reason for this is that the painstaking de­ ciphering of this author's paper in the Philosophical Magazine (Vol. 33, pp. 191-204, 1891) seems to reveal a notion that was introduced in math­ ematical form much later, that of local structural rearrangement. This notion obviously takes place on the material manifold of modern con­ tinuum mechanics. It is more or less clear that seemingly different phe­ nomena - phase transition, local destruction of matter in the form of the loss of local ordering (such as in the appearance of structural defects or of the loss of cohesion by the appearance of damage or the exten­ sion of cracks), plasticity, material growth in the bulk or at the surface by accretion, wear, and the production of debris - should enter a com­ mon framework where, by pure logic, the material manifold has to play a prominent role. Finding the mathematical formulation for this was one of the great achievements of J. D. Eshelby. He was led to consider the apparent but true motion or displacement of embedded material inhomogeneities, and thus he began to investigate the "driving force" causing this motion or displacement, something any good mechanician would naturally introduce through the duahty inherent in mechanics since J. L. d'Alembert.

Inthecourseofthelast?ftyyears, developmentsinnonsmoothana- sisandnonsmoothmechanicshaveoftenbeencloselylinked. Thepresent book acts as an illustration of this. Its objective is two-fold. It is of course intended to help to di?use the recent results obtained by various renownedspecialists. ButthereisanequaldesiretopayhomagetoJean Jacques Moreau, who is undoubtedly the most emblematic ?gure in the correlated, not to say dual, advances in these two ?elds. Jean Jacques Moreau appears as a rightful heir to the founders of di?erential calculus and mechanics through the depth of his thinking in the ?eld of nonsmooth mechanics and the size of his contribution to the development of nonsmooth analysis. His interest in mechanics has focused on a wide variety of subjects: singularities in ?uid ?ows, the initiation of cavitation, plasticity, and the statics and dynamics of gr- ular media. The 'Ariadne's thread' running throughout is the notion of unilateral constraint. Allied to this is his investment in mathematics in the ?elds of convex analysis, calculus of variations and di?erential m- sures.When considering these contributions, regardless of their nature, one cannot fail to be struck by their clarity, discerning originality and elegance. Precision and rigor of thinking, clarity and elegance of style are the distinctive features of his work.

Plasticity and Geotechnics is the first attempt to summarize and present, in one volume, the major developments achieved to date in the field of plasticity theory for geotechnical materials and its applications to geotechnical analysis and design. The author believes that there is an urgent need for the geotechnical and solid mechanics community to have a unified presentation of plasticity theory and its application to geotechnical engineering.In its thorough, comprehensive treatment of the subject, the book covers classical, recent, and modern developments of appropriate constitutive theories of stress-strain relations for geomaterials and a wide range of analytical and computational techniques that are available for solving geotechnical design problems. The emphasis is on key concepts behind the most useful theoretical developments, the inter-relation of these concepts, and their implementation in numerical procedures for solving practical problems in geotechnical engineering.

Markov decision processes (MDPs), also called stochastic dynamic programming, were first studied in the 1960s. MDPs can be used to model and solve dynamic decision-making problems that are multi-period and occur in stochastic circumstances. There are three basic branches in MDPs: discrete-time MDPs, continuous-time MDPs and semi-Markov decision processes. Starting from these three branches, many generalized MDPs models have been applied to various practical problems. These models include partially observable MDPs, adaptive MDPs, MDPs in stochastic environments, and MDPs with multiple objectives, constraints or imprecise parameters.Markov Decision Processes With Their Applications examines MDPs and their applications in the optimal control of discrete event systems (DESs), optimal replacement, and optimal allocations in sequential online auctions. The book presents four main topics that are used to study optimal control problems: a new methodology for MDPs with discounted total reward criterion; transformation of continuous-time MDPs and semi-Markov decision processes into a discrete-time MDPs model, thereby simplifying the application of MDPs; MDPs in stochastic environments, which greatly extends the area where MDPs can be applied; applications of MDPs in optimal control of discrete event systems, optimal replacement, and optimal allocation in sequential online auctions.This book is intended for researchers, mathematicians, advanced graduate students, and engineers who are interested in optimal control, operation research, communications, manufacturing, economics, and electronic commerce.

This book has emerged from the study of a new concept in material science that has been realized about a decade ago. Before that, I had been working for more than 20 years on conventional composites assembled in space and therefore adjusted to optimal material design in statics. The reason for that adjustmentisthatsuchcompositesappearedtobecomenecessaryparticipants in almost any optimal material design related to a state of equilibrium. A theoretical study of conventional composites has been very extensive over a long period of time. It received stimulation through many engineering applications, and some of the results have become a part of modern industrial technology. But again, the ordinary composites are all about statics, or, at the utmost, are related to control over the free vibration modes, a situation conceptually close to a static equilibrium. The world of dynamics appears to be quite di?erent in this aspect. When it comes to motion, the immovable material formations distributed in space alone become insu?cient as the elements of design because they are incapable of getting fully adjusted to the temporal variation in the environment. To be able to adequately handle dynamics, especially the wave motion, the material medium must itself be time dependent, i.e. its material properties should vary in space and time alike. Any substance demonstrating such variation has been termed a dynamic material [1].

The articles that comprise this distinguished annual volume for the Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics series have been written in honor of Gilbert Strang, a world renowned mathematician and exceptional person. Written by leading experts in complementarity, duality, global optimization, and quantum computations, this collection reveals the beauty of these mathematical disciplines and investigates recent developments in global optimization, nonconvex and nonsmooth analysis, nonlinear programming, theoretical and engineering mechanics, large scale computation, quantum algorithms and computation, and information theory.Much of the material, including the various methodologies, is written for nonexperts and is intended to stimulate graduate students and young faculty to venture into this rich domain of research; it will also benefit researchers and practitioners in several areas of applied mathematics, mechanics, and engineering.

Accurate models to describe real-world phenomena are indispensable for research in such scientific fields as physics, engineering, biology, chemistry, and economics. The tools and techniques of applied analysis facilitate the development of mathematical models and can thereby serve as an excellent resource for students and researchers in various scientific and mathematical disciplines.This self-contained, comprehensive handbook provides an in-depth examination of important theoretical methods and procedures in applied analysis.Unique features of the Handbook of Applied Analysis:• Presents an accessible introduction to modern analysis, while still serving as a useful reference for researchers and practitioners;• Covers a large number of diverse topics: smooth and nonsmooth differential calculus, optimal control, fixed point theory, critical point theory, linear and nonlinear eigenvalue problems, nonlinear boundary value problems, set-valued analysis, game theory, stochastic analysis, and evolutionary equations;• Serves as a complete guide to the theory of nonlinear analysis;• Includes numerous examples that demonstrate and expand upon the topics presented;• Suggests many directions for further research and study.In this one volume, the reader can find many of the most important theoretical trends in nonlinear analysis and applications to different fields. These features, together with an extensive bibliography, make the volume a valuable tool for every researcher working on nonlinear analysis.

This book is motivated by stimulating problems in contact mechanics, emphasizing antiplane frictional contact with linearly elastic and viscoelastic materials. It focuses on the essentials with respect to the qualitative aspects of several classes of variational inequalities (VIs). Clearly presented, easy to follow, and well-referenced, this work treats almost entirely VIs of the second kind, with much of the material being state-of-the-art.

As any human activity needs goals, mathematical research needs problems. —David Hilbert Mechanics is the paradise of mathematical sciences. —Leonardo da Vinci Mechanics and mathematics have been complementary partners since N- ton’s time, and the history of science shows much evidence of the bene?cial in?uence of these disciplines on each other. Driven by increasingly ela- rate modern technological applications, the symbiotic relationship between mathematics and mechanics is continually growing. However, the increasingly large number of specialist journals has generated a duality gap between the partners, and this gap is growing wider. Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics (AMMA) is intended to bridge the gap by providing multidisciplinary publications that fall into the two f- lowing complementary categories: 1. An annual book dedicated to the latest developments in mechanics and mathematics; 2. Monographs, advanced textbooks, handbooks, edited volumes, and selected conference proceedings. The AMMA annual book publishes invited and contributed compreh- sive research and survey articles within the broad area of modern mechanics and applied mathematics. The discipline of mechanics, for this series, includes relevantphysicalandbiologicalphenomenasuchas:electromagnetic,thermal, viii Series Preface and quantum e?ects, biomechanics, nanomechanics, multiscale modeling, - namical systems, optimization and control, and computation methods. - pecially encouraged are articles on mathematical and computational models and methods based on mechanics and their interactions with other ?elds. All contributions will be reviewed so as to guarantee the highest possible sci- ti?c standards. Each chapter will re?ect the most recent achievements in the area.

Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics (AMMA) is intended to bridge the gap by providing multi-disciplinary publications. This volume, AMMA 2002, includes two parts with three articles by four subject experts. Part 1 deals with nonsmooth static and dynamic systems. A systematic mathematical theory for multibody dynamics with unilateral and frictional constraints and a brief introduction to hemivariational inequalities together with some new developments in nonsmooth semi-linear elliptic boundary value problems are presented. Part 2 provides a comprehensive introduction and the latest research on dendritic growth in fluid mechanics, one of the most profound and fundamental subjects in the area of interfacial pattern formation, a commonly observed phenomenon in crystal growth and solidification processes.

This volume contains presentations from the Symposium on the Mechanics of Electromagnetic Materials and Structures of the Fourth International Conference on Nonlinear Mechanics, which took place in Shanghai, China. The presentations reflect some of the recent activities in the mechanics of electromagnetic materials and structures.

As any human activity needs goals, mathematical research needs problems -David Hilbert Mechanics is the paradise of mathematical sciences -Leonardo da Vinci Mechanics and mathematics have been complementary partners since Newton's time and the history of science shows much evidence of the ben­ eficial influence of these disciplines on each other. Driven by increasingly elaborate modern technological applications the symbiotic relationship between mathematics and mechanics is continually growing. However, the increasingly large number of specialist journals has generated a du­ ality gap between the two partners, and this gap is growing wider. Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics (AMMA) is intended to bridge the gap by providing multi-disciplinary publications which fall into the two following complementary categories: 1. An annual book dedicated to the latest developments in mechanics and mathematics; 2. Monographs, advanced textbooks, handbooks, edited vol­ umes and selected conference proceedings. The AMMA annual book publishes invited and contributed compre­ hensive reviews, research and survey articles within the broad area of modern mechanics and applied mathematics. Mechanics is understood here in the most general sense of the word, and is taken to embrace relevant physical and biological phenomena involving electromagnetic, thermal and quantum effects and biomechanics, as well as general dy­ namical systems. Especially encouraged are articles on mathematical and computational models and methods based on mechanics and their interactions with other fields. All contributions will be reviewed so as to guarantee the highest possible scientific standards.

A unified approach is proposed for applied mechanics and optimal control theory. The Hamilton system methodology in analytical mechanics is used for eigenvalue problems, vibration theory, gyroscopic systems, structural mechanics, wave-guide, LQ control, Kalman filter, robust control etc. All aspects are described in the same unified methodology. Numerical methods for all these problems are provided and given in meta-language, which can be implemented easily on the computer. Precise integration methods both for initial value problems and for two-point boundary value problems are proposed, which result in the numerical solutions of computer precision. Key Features of the text include: -Unified approach based on Hamilton duality system theory and symplectic mathematics. -Gyroscopic system vibration, eigenvalue problems. -Canonical transformation applied to non-linear systems. -Pseudo-excitation method for structural random vibrations. -Precise integration of two-point boundary value problems. -Wave propagation along wave-guides, scattering. -Precise solution of Riccati differential equations. -Kalman filtering. -HINFINITY theory of control and filter.

Complementarity, duality, and symmetry are closely related concepts, and have always been a rich source of inspiration in human understanding through the centuries, particularly in mathematics and science. The Proceedings of IUTAM Symposium on Complementarity, Duality, and Symmetry in Nonlinear Mechanics brings together some of world's leading researchers in both mathematics and mechanics to provide an interdisciplinary but engineering flavoured exploration of the field's foundation and state of the art developments. Topics addressed in this book deal with fundamental theory, methods, and applications of complementarity, duality and symmetry in multidisciplinary fields of nonlinear mechanics, including nonconvex and nonsmooth elasticity, dynamics, phase transitions, plastic limit and shakedown analysis of hardening materials and structures, bifurcation analysis, entropy optimization, free boundary value problems, minimax theory, fluid mechanics, periodic soliton resonance, constrained mechanical systems, finite element methods and computational mechanics.A special invited paper presented important research opportunities and challenges of the theoretical and applied mechanics as well as engineering materials in the exciting information age. Audience: This book is addressed to all scientists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians, as well as advanced students (doctoral and post-doctoral level) at universities and in industry.

Convective flow in the liquid phase is always present in a realistic process of freezing and melting and may significantly affect the dynamics and results of the process. The study of the interplay of growth and convection flow during the solidification has been an important subject in the broad fields of materials science, condensed matter physics, fluid physics, micro-gravity science, etc. The present book is concerned with the dynamics of free dendritic growth with convective flow in the melt. It systematically presents the results obtained in terms of a unified asymptotic approach in the framework of the interfacial wave (IFW) theory. In particular, the book explores the effect of the various types of convection flow on the selection and pattern formation of dendritic growth based on the global stability analysis. Audience: Applied mathematicians, physicists, material scientists and engineers will all find this volume of interest.

In this work, methods of analysis and models of contacting systems dynamics, including heat generation and wear exhibited by such systems, are presented. It should be emphasised that the methods and mathematical models of contacting systems exhibited by rigid/elastic bodies and heat/wear processes have been so far applied separately. Tribological processes occurring on a contact surface were not taken into consideration in the analysis of the dynamic rigid or elastic body models. On the other hand, most of the introduced models of bodies in contact that took tribological e?ects into consideration did not allow for their inertia analysis. This study contributes to the development of this ?eld, as the models presented here yield prediction of the behaviour of contacting systems taking into account both mentioned aspects simultaneously. When considered from the mathematical point of view, the method of analysis is reduced to the solution of the system of di?erential equations describing the velocities of contacting bodies and Volterra integral equation modelling contact pressure. The latter equation is obtained with the use of the Laplace integral transform.

This book is motivated by stimulating problems in contact mechanics, emphasizing antiplane frictional contact with linearly elastic and viscoelastic materials. It focuses on the essentials with respect to the qualitative aspects of several classes of variational inequalities (VIs). Clearly presented, easy to follow, and well-referenced, this work treats almost entirely VIs of the second kind, with much of the material being state-of-the-art.

This work provides a posteriori error analysis for mathematical idealizations in modeling boundary value problems, especially those arising in mechanical applications, and for numerical approximations of numerous nonlinear var- tional problems. An error estimate is called a posteriori if the computed solution is used in assessing its accuracy. A posteriori error estimation is central to m- suring, controlling and minimizing errors in modeling and numerical appr- imations. In this book, the main mathematical tool for the developments of a posteriori error estimates is the duality theory of convex analysis, documented in the well-known book by Ekeland and Temam ([49]). The duality theory has been found useful in mathematical programming, mechanics, numerical analysis, etc. The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter reviews some basic notions and results from functional analysis, boundary value problems, elliptic variational inequalities, and finite element approximations. The most relevant part of the duality theory and convex analysis is briefly reviewed in Chapter 2.

This monograph provides an overview of the theory of stability analysis and its applications. It focuses on various methods for analyzing wheeled vehicle behavior. The authors provide both basic and advanced knowledge of the subject. The book summarizes their research experience and extensive teaching. A large number of practical examples are included throughout to help readers understand the theory introduced. The book has several original features: / The stability analysis of nonlinear systems that is carried out utilizes the definitions of stability in the sense of Lapunov ("mathematical stability") and the definitions of stability in the sense of Bogusz ("technical stability"). / The book emphasizes stability analysis of wheeled vehicles and their systems. / Computer-aided methods for investigations of wheeled vehicle behaviors are discussed.

The notion dealt with in this volume of proceedings is often traced back to the late 19th-century writings of a rather obscure scientist, C. V. Burton. A probable reason for this is that the painstaking de­ ciphering of this author's paper in the Philosophical Magazine (Vol. 33, pp. 191-204, 1891) seems to reveal a notion that was introduced in math­ ematical form much later, that of local structural rearrangement. This notion obviously takes place on the material manifold of modern con­ tinuum mechanics. It is more or less clear that seemingly different phe­ nomena - phase transition, local destruction of matter in the form of the loss of local ordering (such as in the appearance of structural defects or of the loss of cohesion by the appearance of damage or the exten­ sion of cracks), plasticity, material growth in the bulk or at the surface by accretion, wear, and the production of debris - should enter a com­ mon framework where, by pure logic, the material manifold has to play a prominent role. Finding the mathematical formulation for this was one of the great achievements of J. D. Eshelby. He was led to consider the apparent but true motion or displacement of embedded material inhomogeneities, and thus he began to investigate the "driving force" causing this motion or displacement, something any good mechanician would naturally introduce through the duahty inherent in mechanics since J. L. d'Alembert.

Inthecourseofthelast?ftyyears, developmentsinnonsmoothana- sisandnonsmoothmechanicshaveoftenbeencloselylinked. Thepresent book acts as an illustration of this. Its objective is two-fold. It is of course intended to help to di?use the recent results obtained by various renownedspecialists. ButthereisanequaldesiretopayhomagetoJean Jacques Moreau, who is undoubtedly the most emblematic ?gure in the correlated, not to say dual, advances in these two ?elds. Jean Jacques Moreau appears as a rightful heir to the founders of di?erential calculus and mechanics through the depth of his thinking in the ?eld of nonsmooth mechanics and the size of his contribution to the development of nonsmooth analysis. His interest in mechanics has focused on a wide variety of subjects: singularities in ?uid ?ows, the initiation of cavitation, plasticity, and the statics and dynamics of gr- ular media. The 'Ariadne's thread' running throughout is the notion of unilateral constraint. Allied to this is his investment in mathematics in the ?elds of convex analysis, calculus of variations and di?erential m- sures.When considering these contributions, regardless of their nature, one cannot fail to be struck by their clarity, discerning originality and elegance. Precision and rigor of thinking, clarity and elegance of style are the distinctive features of his work.

Plasticity and Geotechnics is the first attempt to summarize and present, in one volume, the major developments achieved to date in the field of plasticity theory for geotechnical materials and its applications to geotechnical analysis and design. The author believes that there is an urgent need for the geotechnical and solid mechanics community to have a unified presentation of plasticity theory and its application to geotechnical engineering.In its thorough, comprehensive treatment of the subject, the book covers classical, recent, and modern developments of appropriate constitutive theories of stress-strain relations for geomaterials and a wide range of analytical and computational techniques that are available for solving geotechnical design problems. The emphasis is on key concepts behind the most useful theoretical developments, the inter-relation of these concepts, and their implementation in numerical procedures for solving practical problems in geotechnical engineering.

Markov decision processes (MDPs), also called stochastic dynamic programming, were first studied in the 1960s. MDPs can be used to model and solve dynamic decision-making problems that are multi-period and occur in stochastic circumstances. There are three basic branches in MDPs: discrete-time MDPs, continuous-time MDPs and semi-Markov decision processes. Starting from these three branches, many generalized MDPs models have been applied to various practical problems. These models include partially observable MDPs, adaptive MDPs, MDPs in stochastic environments, and MDPs with multiple objectives, constraints or imprecise parameters.Markov Decision Processes With Their Applications examines MDPs and their applications in the optimal control of discrete event systems (DESs), optimal replacement, and optimal allocations in sequential online auctions. The book presents four main topics that are used to study optimal control problems: a new methodology for MDPs with discounted total reward criterion; transformation of continuous-time MDPs and semi-Markov decision processes into a discrete-time MDPs model, thereby simplifying the application of MDPs; MDPs in stochastic environments, which greatly extends the area where MDPs can be applied; applications of MDPs in optimal control of discrete event systems, optimal replacement, and optimal allocation in sequential online auctions.This book is intended for researchers, mathematicians, advanced graduate students, and engineers who are interested in optimal control, operation research, communications, manufacturing, economics, and electronic commerce.

The articles that comprise this distinguished annual volume for the Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics series have been written in honor of Gilbert Strang, a world renowned mathematician and exceptional person. Written by leading experts in complementarity, duality, global optimization, and quantum computations, this collection reveals the beauty of these mathematical disciplines and investigates recent developments in global optimization, nonconvex and nonsmooth analysis, nonlinear programming, theoretical and engineering mechanics, large scale computation, quantum algorithms and computation, and information theory.Much of the material, including the various methodologies, is written for nonexperts and is intended to stimulate graduate students and young faculty to venture into this rich domain of research; it will also benefit researchers and practitioners in several areas of applied mathematics, mechanics, and engineering.

Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics (AMMA) is intended to bridge the gap by providing multi-disciplinary publications. This volume, AMMA 2002, includes two parts with three articles by four subject experts. Part 1 deals with nonsmooth static and dynamic systems. A systematic mathematical theory for multibody dynamics with unilateral and frictional constraints and a brief introduction to hemivariational inequalities together with some new developments in nonsmooth semi-linear elliptic boundary value problems are presented. Part 2 provides a comprehensive introduction and the latest research on dendritic growth in fluid mechanics, one of the most profound and fundamental subjects in the area of interfacial pattern formation, a commonly observed phenomenon in crystal growth and solidification processes.

Convective flow in the liquid phase is always present in a realistic process of freezing and melting and may significantly affect the dynamics and results of the process. The study of the interplay of growth and convection flow during the solidification has been an important subject in the broad fields of materials science, condensed matter physics, fluid physics, micro-gravity science, etc. The present book is concerned with the dynamics of free dendritic growth with convective flow in the melt. It systematically presents the results obtained in terms of a unified asymptotic approach in the framework of the interfacial wave (IFW) theory. In particular, the book explores the effect of the various types of convection flow on the selection and pattern formation of dendritic growth based on the global stability analysis.