This book presents some fundamental concepts behind the basic theories and tools of discrete element methods (DEM), its historical development, and its wide scope of applications in geology, geophysics and rock engineering. Unlike almost all books available on the general subject of DEM, this book includes coverage of both explicit and implicit DEM approaches, namely the Distinct Element Methods and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) for both rigid and deformable blocks and particle systems, and also the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) approach for fluid flow and solute transport...

Vertisols, one of the eleven established soil orders, are clay soils with unusual and interesting properties. They cover more than 350 million hectares of land in the world and in tropical Africa alone there are over 100 million hectares. Because of their very small particle size and high surface area, these soils have higher physical and chemical reactivity than other soils. Their interaction with agrochemicals/industrial wastes, has been, increasingly, the subject of research especially in the last two decades. Vertisols create special problems when used for engineering purposes.

This...

Damage mechanics is concerned with mechanics-based analyses of microstructural events in solids responsible for changes in their response to external loading. The microstructural events can occur as cracks, voids, slipped regions, etc., with a spatial distribution within the volume of a solid. If a solid contains oriented elements in its microsctructure, e.g. fibers, the heterogeneity and asisotropy aspects create situations which form a class of problems worthy of special treatment. This book deals with such treatments with particular emphasis on application to technological composite...

Active researchers in the areas of geography and psychology have contributed to this book. Both fields are capable of increasing our scientific knowledge of how human behavior is interfaced with the molar physical environment. Such knowledge is essential for the solution of many of today's most urgent environmental problems. Failure to constrain use of scarce resources, pollution due to human activities, creation of technological hazards and deteriorating urban quality due to vandalism and crime are all well known examples.

The influence of psychology in geographical research has...

This volume aims to contribute to the integration of three traditions that have remained separate in psychology. Specifically, the developmental, the psychometric, and the cognitive tradition. In order to achieve this aim, the text deals with these three aspects of human knowing that have been the focus of one or more of the three traditions for many years. Answers are provided to questions such as the following: What is common to intelligence, mind, and reasoning? What is specific to each of these three aspects of human knowing? How does each of them affect the functioning and development of...

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) involve substituting machines capable of performing a wide and redefinable variety of tasks for machines dedicated to the performance of specific tasks. FMS can also be programmed to handle new products, thus extending the machines' life cycles. Thus they represent a change from "standardized goods produced by customized machines" to "customized goods produced by standardized machines." This volume contains new and updated material in this field, and will be of great interest to researchers, managers and students concerned with problems related to flexible...

The electromechanical systems employed in different branches of industry are utilized most often as drives of working machines which must be fed with electric energy in a continuous, periodic or even discrete way. Some of these machines operate at constant speed, others require wide and varying energy control. In many designs the synchronous cooperation of several electric drives is required in addition to the desired dynamic properties. For these reasons the control of the cooperation and dynamics of electromechanical systems requires the use of computers.
This book adopts an unusual...

This book reviews problems in the mechanical behaviour of cyclically loaded metallic materials, primarily with regard to the nature of the fatigue process. The first edition of the book appeared in 1980. The present second edition represents a revised form of the original book and also covers recent developments in the field. As the book focuses on physical-metallurgical aspects, it occupies a unique and important position in the technical literature, which has so far been devoted mainly to engineering metal fatigue problems and their technical solution in specific practical cases. The book...

In this edited volume on advances in forensic geotechnical engineering, a number of technical contributions by experts and professionals in this area are included.

This book presents a one-stop reference to the empirical correlations used extensively in geotechnical engineering. The objective of this book is to present a critical evaluation of a wide range of empirical correlations reported in the literature, along with typical values of soil parameters, in the light of their experience and knowledge.