This book features articles written by some of the most prominent leading applied mathematicians as well as young and promising ones. The common objective of these articles is to present an important issue which is currently widely discussed in scientific investigation with major human, economic or ecological implications. Each article is as deep as an expert lecture but is also self-contained, so that even isolated scientists with limited resources can profit greatly from it.
Bringing together the world's leading researchers and practitioners of computational mechanics, these new volumes meet and build on the eight key challenges for research and development in computational mechanics.Researchers have recently identified eight critical research tasks facing the field of computational mechanics. These tasks have come about because it appears possible to reach a new level of mathematical modelling and numerical solution that will lead to a much deeper understanding of nature and to great improvements in engineering design.The eight tasks are: - The automatic solution of mathematical models - Effective numerical schemes for fluid flows - The development of an effective mesh-free numerical solution method - The development of numerical procedures for multiphysics problems - The development of numerical procedures for multiscale problems - The modelling of uncertainties - The analysis of complete life cycles of systems - Education - teaching sound engineering and scientific judgement Readers of Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics 2003 will be able to apply the combined experience of many of the world's leading researchers to their own research needs. Those in academic environments will gain a better insight into the needs and constraints of the industries they are involved with; those in industry will gain a competitive advantage by gaining insight into the cutting edge research being carried out by colleagues in academia. Features - Bridges the gap between academic researchers and practitioners in industry - Outlines the eight main challenges facing Research and Design in Computational mechanics and offers new insights into the shifting the research agenda - Provides a vision of how strong, basic and exciting education at university can be harmonized with life-long learning to obtain maximum value from the new powerful tools of analysis
An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
MIT's second conference on computational fluid and solid mechanics celebrated the advent of new levels of mathematical modelling that will eventually lead to a much deeper understanding of nature and to great improvements in engineering designs.
Honoring the contributions of one of the field's leading experts, Lu Ting, this indispensable volume contains important new results at the cutting edge of research. A wide variety of significant new analytical and numerical results in critical areas are presented, including point vortex dynamics, superconductor vortices, cavity flows, vortex breakdown, shock/vortex interaction, wake flows, magneto-hydrodynamics, rotary wake flows, and hypersonic vortex phenomena.The book will be invaluable for those interested in the state of the art of vortex dominated flows, both from a theoretical and applied perspective.Professor Lu Ting and Joe Keller have worked together for over 40 years. In their first joint work entitled ?Periodic vibrations of systems governed by nonlinear partial differential equations?, perturbation analysis and bifurcation theory were used to determine the frequencies and modes of vibration of various physical systems. The novelty was the application to partial differential equations of methods which, previously, had been used almost exclusively on ordinary differential equations. Professsor Lu Ting is an expert in both fluid dynamics and the use of matched asymptotic expansions. His physical insight into fluid flows has led the way to finding the appropriate mathematical simplications used in the solutions to many difficult flow problems.
This monograph considers engineering systems with random parame ters. Its context, format, and timing are correlated with the intention of accelerating the evolution of the challenging field of Stochastic Finite Elements. The random system parameters are modeled as second order stochastic processes defined by their mean and covari ance functions. Relying on the spectral properties of the covariance function, the Karhunen-Loeve expansion is used' to represent these processes in terms of a countable set of un correlated random vari ables. Thus, the problem is cast in a finite dimensional setting. Then, various spectral approximations for the stochastic response of the system are obtained based on different criteria. Implementing the concept of Generalized Inverse as defined by the Neumann Ex pansion, leads to an explicit expression for the response process as a multivariate polynomial functional of a set of un correlated random variables. Alternatively, the solution process is treated as an element in the Hilbert space of random functions, in which a spectral repre sentation in terms of the Polynomial Chaoses is identified. In this context, the solution process is approximated by its projection onto a finite subspace spanned by these polynomials.
The big stories -- The skills of the new machines : technology races ahead -- Moore's law and the second half of the chessboard -- The digitization of just about everything -- Innovation : declining or recombining? -- Artificial and human intelligence in the second machine age -- Computing bounty -- Beyond GDP -- The spread -- The biggest winners : stars and superstars -- Implications of the bounty and the spread -- Learning to race with machines : recommendations for individuals -- Policy recommendations -- Long-term recommendations -- Technology and the future (which is very different from "technology is the future").
The combined finite discrete element method is a relatively new computational tool aimed at problems involving static and / or dynamic behaviour of systems involving a large number of solid deformable bodies. Such problems include fragmentation using explosives (e.g rock blasting), impacts, demolition (collapsing buildings), blast loads, digging and loading processes, and powder technology. The combined finite-discrete element method - a natural extension of both discrete and finite element methods - allows researchers to model problems involving the deformability of either one solid body, a large number of bodies, or a solid body which fragments (e.g. in rock blasting applications a more or less intact rock mass is transformed into a pile of solid rock fragments of different sizes, which interact with each other). The topic is gaining in importance, and is at the forefront of some of the current efforts in computational modeling of the failure of solids. * Accompanying source codes plus input and output files available on the Internet * Important applications such as mining engineering, rock blasting and petroleum engineering * Includes practical examples of applications areas Essential reading for postgraduates, researchers and software engineers working in mechanical engineering.
Engineering and Philosophy seem two worlds apart. But things and ideas are not disjunct in this world, and their synthesis is certainly essential in engineering design. In this book, the author explores how the concerns of philosophers are relevant to engineering thought and practice -in negotiating tradeoffs, in diagnosing failure, in constructing adequate models and simulations, and in teaching. This book is based on a number of lectures given at the Technical University of Delft, where the author was a Visiting Professor hosted by the Philosophy section and the School of Industrial Engineering Design. Louis Bucciarelli is a Professor of Engineering and Technology Studies at MIT. He is the author of numerous publications including the book Designing Engineers. Contents include: Designing, like language, is a social process, What engineers don't know & why they believe it, Knowing that and how, Learning engineering, Extrapolation, Index.
