This book focuses on the latest applications of nonlinear approaches in engineering and addresses a range of scientific problems. Examples focus on issues in automotive technology with a strong emphasis on application, physical meaning, and methodologies of the approaches. The book’s chapters are written by world-class experts who advance the future of engineering by discussing the development of more optimal, accurate, efficient, cost, and energy-effective systems. Topics covered are of high interest in engineering and physics, and an attempt has been made to expose engineers and researchers to a broad range of practical topics and approaches.

This is the fifth book of the Kluwer's series Advances in Robot Kine­ matics. The book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufactur­ ing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics. The issues addressed are fundamentally kinematic in nature, including synthesis, calibration, redundancy, force control, dexterity, inverse and forward kinematics, kinematic singularities, as well as over-constrained systems. Methods used include line geometry, quaternion algebra, screw alge­ bra, and linear algebra. These methods are applied to both parallel and serial multi-degree-of-freedom systems. The results should interest researchers, teachers and students, in fields of engineering and mathe­ matics related to robot theory, design, control and application. Each contribution in this book had been rigorously reviewed by two or three independent reviewers and 53 articles had been recommended for publication. We are happy to observe that Advances in Robot Kine­ matics has always attracted the most outstanding authors and has de­ veloped a remarkable scientific community in the area. Many important and original scientific results were for the first time reported and dis­ cussed in these books. All articles in this book were also reported at the eight international symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics that was organised in June 2002 in Caldes de Malavella in Spain.

This textbook describes the fundamentals of the phenomena of fluid dynamics in the context of engineering instances. It is designed to replace introductory books and notes on the subject for first-level engineering courses as well as higher-level courses or for professional use. The use of this book requires the basic knowledge of mathematics and physics normally delivered in the early years of undergraduate study. However, the extensive use of examples and solved exercises proposes a parallel intuitive route to understanding the necessary mathematical formalisms. It proves that a new fluid dynamics text should not contain new ideas or formalisms, but should present the material in a modern and intuitive way. The approach chosen is primarily practical, so that that readers can practice by solving the proposed problems and examples in order to be prepared to solve the new problems they will encounter in their academic and professional activities. It serves as a teaching tool for coursesin basic fluid dynamics, advanced fluid dynamics, turbulence, and aerodynamics.

This third of three volumes presents papers from the third series of NODYCON to be held in June of 2023. The conference papers reflect a broad coverage of topics in nonlinear dynamics, both traditionally placed in established streams of research as well as they stand as newly explored and emerging venues of research. These include• Multi-scale dynamics: multiple time/space scales, large system dynamics

This book contains selected and expanded contributions presented at the 15th Conference on Acoustics and Vibration of Mechanical Structures held in Timisoara, Romania, May 30-31, 2019. The conference focused on a broad range of topics related to acoustics and vibration, such as analytical approaches to nonlinear noise and vibration problems, environmental and occupational noise, structural vibration, biomechanics and bioacoustics, as well as experimental approaches to vibration problems in industrial processes.

Contact mechanics was and is an important branch in mechanics which covers a broad field of theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations. In this carefully edited book the reader will obtain a state-of-the-art overview on formulation, mathematical analysis and numerical solution procedures of contact problems. The contributions collected in this volume summarize the lectures presented during the 4th Contact Mechanics Interantional symposium (CMIS) held in Hannover, Germany, 2005, by leading scientists in the area of contact mechanics.

This book presents recent research in the field of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting in which intentionally designed nonlinearities as well as inherently present are widely considered. It provides an overview of the state-of-the-art, with a sharp classification into linear and nonlinear devices, and recalls the fundamentals of piezoelectricity and magnetostatics. A detailed treatment of linear and nonlinear mathematical modeling of piezoelectric harvesters is then developed to provide the reader with a wide range of modeling possibilities. Theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to modeling the magnetic interaction are also provided. Several cases of innovative piezoelectric harvester designs based on magnetic interaction as a frequency up-conversion mechanism (FuC) are developed. Improvements of the magnetic FuC are proposed, in combination with indirect impacts as well as the manipulation of magnetic forces with novelty methods. Novel studies on the magnetic interaction itself and its implications for the dynamic behavior of the harvester are also summarized. The book provides an integrated view of theoretical, computational, and experimental research in this field, as such it can be useful for researchers interested in linear and nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvesting, for graduate courses on smart structures and devices, microsystems, and for designers.

All real systems in nature - physical, biological and engineering ones - can malfunction and fail due to faults in their components. Logically,the chances for malfunctions increase with the systems' complexity. The complexity of engineering systems is permanently growing due to their growing size and the degree of automation, and accordingly increasing is the danger of fail­ ing and aggravating their impact for man and the environment. Therefore, in the design and operation of engineering systems, increased attention has to be paid to reliability, safety and fault tolerance. But it is obvious that, compared to the high standard of perfection that nature has achieved with its self-healing and self-repairing capabilities in complex biological organisms, fault management in engineering systems is far behind the standards of their technological achievements; it is still in its infancy, and tremendous work is left to be done. In technical control systems, defects may happen in sensors, actuators, components of the controlled object - the plant, or in the hardware or soft­ ware of the control framework. Such defects in the components may develop into a failure of the whole system.

Modern technical advancements in areas such as robotics, multi-body systems, spacecraft, control, and design of complex mechanical devices and mechanisms in industry require the knowledge to solve advanced concepts in dynamics. “Mechanisms and Robots Analysis with MATLAB” provides a thorough, rigorous presentation of kinematics and dynamics. The book uses MATLAB as a tool to solve problems from the field of mechanisms and robots. The book discusses the tools for formulating the mathematical equations, and also the methods of solving them using a modern computing tool like MATLAB. An emphasis is placed on basic concepts, derivations, and interpretations of the general principles. The book is of great benefit to senior undergraduate and graduate students interested in the classical principles of mechanisms and robotics systems. Each chapter introduction is followed by a careful step-by-step presentation, and sample problems are provided at the end of every chapter.

This book discusses continuous and discrete nonlinear systems in systematic and sequential approaches. The unique feature of the book is its mathematical theories on flow bifurcations, nonlinear oscillations, Lie symmetry analysis of nonlinear systems, chaos theory, routes to chaos and multistable coexisting attractors. The logically structured content and sequential orientation provide readers with a global overview of the topic. A systematic mathematical approach has been adopted, featuring a multitude of detailed worked-out examples alongside comprehensive exercises. The book is useful for courses in dynamical systems and chaos and nonlinear dynamics for advanced undergraduate, graduate and research students in mathematics, physics and engineering.

Robust and Adaptive Control (second edition) shows readers how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications, the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-time dynamical systems.

This text is a short yet complete course on nonlinear dynamics of deterministic systems. Conceived as a modular set of 15 concise lectures it reflects the many years of teaching experience by the authors. The lectures treat in turn the fundamental aspects of the theory of dynamical systems, aspects of stability and bifurcations, the theory of deterministic chaos and attractor dimensions, as well as the elements of the theory of Poincare recurrences.Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the generation of periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic self-sustained oscillations and to the issue of synchronization in such systems.