NATO Science Series II – serie

A detailed presentation of the major role played by correctly designed and fabricated joints in the safe and reliable response of steel, composite and timber structures. The typology/morphology of connections is discussed for both conventional pinned and rigid joints and semi-rigid types. All relevant topics are comprehensively surveyed: definitions, classification, and influence of joint behaviour on overall structural response. Also presented are the application of the component method, the notion of rotational capacity, the local ductility of different types of earthquake-resistant structural joints as determined in cyclic experiments, numerical techniques for the realistic simulation of joint response, simple and moment-resistant structural connections.

This wide-ranging survey of the physical aspects of fracture shows that the old barriers between different scales will soon themselves fracture. It is no longer unrealistic to imagine that a crack initiated through a molecular dynamics description could be propagated at the grain level thanks to dislocation dynamics included in a crystal plasticity model, itself implemented in a finite element code. Linking what happens at the atomic scale to fracture of structures as large as a dam is the new emerging challenge. The volume includes papers on most materials of practical interest from concrete to ceramics through metallic alloys, glasses, polymers and composite materials. The classical fields of fracture mechanisms are addressed. Brittle and ductile fractures are considered. The text is carefully balanced between experiments, simulations and theoretical models, and between the contributions by the various communities. New topics of damage and fracture mechanics are also explored, such as the effect of disorder and statistical aspects, dynamic fracture, friction and fracture of interfaces.

This is an expert and illuminating review of the leading models of nuclear structure: effective field theories based on quantum chromodynamics; ab initio models based on Monte Carlo methods employing effective nucleon-nucleon interactions; diagonalization and the Monto Carlo shell model; non-relativistic and relativistic mean-field theory and its extensions; and symmetry-dictated approaches. Theoretical advances in major areas of nuclear structure are discussed: nuclei far from stability and radioactive ion beams; gamma ray spectroscopy; nuclear astrophysics and electroweak interactions in nuclei; electron scattering; nuclear superconductivity; superheavy elements. The interdisciplinary aspects of the many-body problem are also discussed. Recent experimental data are examined in light of state-of-the-art calculations. Recent advances in several broad areas of theoretical structure are covered, making the book ideal as a supplementary textbook.

As society comes to rely increasingly on software for its welfare and prosperity there is an urgent need to create systems in which it can trust. Experience has shown that confidence can only come from a more profound understanding of the issues, which in turn can come only if it is based on logically sound foundations. This volume contains contributions from leading researchers in the critical disciplines of computing and information science, mathematics, logic, and complexity. All contributions are self-contained, aiming at comprehensibility as well as comprehensiveness. The volume also contains introductory hints to technical issues, concise surveys, introductions, and various fresh results and new perspectives.

The influence of scientific computing has become very wide over the last few decades: almost every area of science and engineering is greatly influenced by simulations - image processing, thin films, mathematical finance, electrical engineering, moving interfaces and combustion, to name but a few. One half of this book focuses on the techniques of scientific computing: domain decomposition, the absorption of boundary conditions and one-way operators, convergence analysis of multi-grid methods and other multi-grid techniques, dynamical systems, and matrix analysis. The remainder of the book is concerned with combining techniques with concrete applications: stochastic differential equations, image processing, thin films, and asymptotic analysis for combustion problems.

Initially this book focuses on the chemical and morphological properties of dust particles, both cosmological and terrestrial, and some of techniques used to gain information. When light or other electromagnetic radiation interacts with dust or other particles it is scattered in all directions. The scattering interaction are relevant to many fields of science: dust affects communications, dust particles affect the output of aerosol monitors, and dust particles are an important astrophysical component, making up a large part of the dark matter in the universe. The electromagnetic forces exerted on these particles may play an important role in bringing the particles together to form larger astronomical bodies.Optics of Cosmic Dust describes what we currently know about cosmic dust, how we know it, and the research efforts undertaken to provide that knowledge. Areas treated include observational information, dust morphology and chemistry, light-scattering models, characterisation methodologies, and backscatter polarisation and dynamics. Suitable as an introductory text, the book is also a reference guide for the advanced researcher.

Structural vibrations have become the critical factor limiting the performance of many engineering systems, typical amplitudes ranging from meters to a few nanometers. Many acoustic nuisances in transportation systems and residential and office buildings are also related to structural vibrations. The active control of such vibrations involves nine orders of magnitude of vibration amplitude, which exerts a profound influence on the technology. Active vibration control is highly multidisciplinary, involving structural vibration, acoustics, signal processing, materials science, and actuator and sensor technology. Chapters 1-3 of this book provide a state-of-the-art introduction to active vibration control, active sound control, and active vibroacoustic control, respectively. Chapter 4 discusses actuator/sensor placement, Chapter 5 deals with robust control of vibrating structures, Chapter 6 discusses finite element modelling of piezoelectric continua and Chapter 7 addresses the latest trends in piezoelectric multiple-degree-of-freedom actuators/sensors. Chapters 8-12 deal with example applications, including semi-active joints, active isolation and health monitoring.Chapter 13 addresses MEMS technology, while Chapter 14 discusses the design of power amplifiers for piezoelectric actuators.

Research of the interstellar medium (ISM) has been advancing rapidly during the last 10 years, mainly due to immensely improved observational facilities and techniques in all wavelength ranges. We are now able to investigate the ISM in external galaxies and even the intergalactic and intracluster medium in great detail. Increased spatial and spectral resolution have provided us with a great deal of information on the interstellar gas in its various phases, the magnetic field and the cosmic rays, and of course, also the stellar component, which is the driving agent of the interstellar matter cycle. Since only fairly recently, a sufficient amount of computing power has become available to tackle these problems with some prospect of obtaining a self-consistent picture of the ISM, a major goal of this workshop was to bring together observers and theoreticians sufficiently close, so that intense discussions about the necessities and desiderata of modelling the ISM could be stimulated.Observers have shown in great detail on this conference of what is seen on all scales of the ISM, near and far, and what boundary conditions would be appropriate for realistic models, and theoreticians pointed out what assumptions and simplifications their codes need, and how future observations could test their models. As a first step towards this goal, some self-consistent numerical simulations with a minimum number of relevant physical processes were also presented on this meeting. There was wide agreement, that this approach - to keep observers and theoreticians in close contact and also in sometimes quite controversial discussions - will bear fruitful results in the near future.

Despite the tremendous advances in the techniques and equipment for carrying out high-pressure crystallography, the application or exploration of the high-pressure variable in detailed structural studies remains rare. The chapters in this book provide a set of lecture notes and supplementary material for a course on high pressure crystallography. The material comprises state-of-the-art reviews of high-pressure experiments using X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques at synchrotron and neutron facilities and in the laboratory, as well as complementary experimental high-pressure techniques and theoretical methods for investigating matter at elevated pressures. The materials studies range from elemental solids and liquids to inorganic compounds, minerals, organic compounds, clathrates and pharmaceutical compounds, to large biological molecules such as proteins and viruses. The book provides a reference for workers in high-pressure science wishing to learn more about crystallography and for established crystallographers potentially interested in high pressure as a variable, as well as an introductory guide to new researchers in the field.

Most topics dealt with here deal with complex analysis of both one and several complex variables. Several contributions come from elasticity theory. Areas covered include the theory of p-adic analysis, mappings of bounded mean oscillations, quasiconformal mappings of Klein surfaces, complex dynamics of inverse functions of rational or transcendental entire functions, the nonlinear Riemann-Hilbert problem for analytic functions with nonsmooth target manifolds, the Carleman-Bers-Vekua system, the logarithmic derivative of meromorphic functions, G-lines, computing the number of points in an arbitrary finite semi-algebraic subset, linear differential operators, explicit solution of first and second order systems in bounded domains degenerating at the boundary, the Cauchy-Pompeiu representation in L2 space, strongly singular operators of Calderon-Zygmund type, quadrature solutions to initial and boundary-value problems, the Dirichlet problem, operator theory, tomography, elastic displacements and stresses, quantum chaos, and periodic wavelets.