The authors detail the multiple levels and scales of impact that metallurgical advances have had and continue to have on society. They include case studies with guidance for future research design and innovation of metallic materials relevant to societal needs.

• Includes case studies written by industry professionals with guidance for future research design and innovation;
  
• Demonstrates metal materials design that reflects relevant societal needs;
  
• Covers a broad range of applied materials used in aircraft, armor, bridges, and power generation, among others.

The author is a well-known researcher in the subject with hands-on experience of the topics covered and a reputation for lucid explanations. The target readership for the book includes researchers who encounter contact problems but whose primary focus is not contact mechanics. Coverage is also suitable for a graduate course in contact mechanics and end-of-chapter problems are included.

With regard to construction materials, the book discusses steel, aluminum alloys and fiber reinforced composites. Various methods of steel material preparation are discussed, and plate cutting and forming of plates and sections are explained. The concept of line heating for plate bending is introduced.Welding power source characteristics, metal transfer mechanisms, welding parameters and their effects on the fusion zone, weld deposit, and weld bead profile are discussed in detail. Various fusion welding methods, MMAW, GMAW, SAW, Electroslag welding and Electrogas welding and single side welding are explained in detail. Friction stir welding as one of the key methods of solid state welding as applied to aluminum alloys is also addressed.
The mechanisms of residual stress formation and distortion are explained in connection with stiffened panel fabrication, with an emphasis on weld induced buckling of thin panels. Further, the basic principles of distortion prevention, in-process distortion control and mitigation techniques like heat sinking, thermo-mechanical tensioning etc. are dealt with in detail.
In its final section, the book describes in detail various types of weld defects that are likely to occur, together with their causes and remedial measures. The nondestructive testing methods that are most relevant to ship construction are explained. Lastly, a chapter on accuracy control based on statistical principles is included, addressing the need for a suitable mechanism to gauge the ranges of variations so that one can quantitatively target the end product accuracy.

This new book provides practicing gas turbine designers and young engineers working in the industry with design material that the manufacturers would keep proprietary. The book is also intended to provide instructors of turbomachinery courses around the world with a powerful tool to assign gas turbine components as project and individual modules that are integrated into a complete system. Quoting many statements by the gas turbine industry professionals, the young engineers graduated from the turbomachinery courses offered by the author, had the competency of engineers equivalent to three to four years of industrial experience.

The book presents a range of intelligent algorithms that can be used to filter useful information in the above-mentioned application areas and efficiently solve particular problems. Its main objective is to raise awareness for this important field among students, researchers, and industrial practitioners.

After the pioneering work of N. Bernstein in the 60’s on the existence of motor synergies, numerous researchers “walking on the border” of their disciplines tend to discover laws and principles underlying the human motions and how the brain reduces the redundancy of the system. These synergies represent the fundamental building blocks composing complex movements. In robotics, researchers face the same redundancy and complexity challenges as the researchers in life sciences. This book gathers works of roboticists and researchers in biomechanics in order to promote an interdisciplinary research on anthropomorphic systems at large and on humanoid robotics in particular.