Skip to main content

Books in Physical sciences and engineering

  • The Future of Decentralized Electricity Distribution Networks

    • 1st Edition
    • Fereidoon Sioshansi
    • English
    The Future of Decentralized Electricity Distribution Networks assesses the evolution of the services delivered by the distribution network as demands placed on it proliferates from distributed, self-generating, power storing and power sharing ‘consumers’ – which Sioshansi terms ‘prosumagers’. The work outlines the processes by which passive and homogeneous electricity consumers become prosumers and prosumagers, the nature of their service needs, and dependence on the services delivered by the distribution network diverges. Contributors assess how consumers are discovering and exercising options to migrate away from total reliance on upstream generators to produce electricity and on the delivery network for its transmission. As they do so, the "utilities" – be they distributors or retailers – must rethink the traditional utility business model. How will they find sufficient revenues to cover their fixed and variable costs as volumetric consumption declines when some consumers become prosumers – or go a step further and become prosumagers? This work argues that new service, business models and new methods for collecting sufficient revenues to maintain the network are mandatory for the survival of modern utilities.
  • Fundamental Physicochemical Properties of Germanene-related Materials

    A Theoretical Perspective
    • 1st Edition
    • Chi-Hsuan Lee + 4 more
    • English
    Fundamental Physicochemical Properties of Germanene-related Materials: A Theoretical Perspective provides a comprehensive review of germanene-related materials to help users understand the essential properties of these compounds. The book covers various germanium complex states such as germanium oxides, germanium on Ag, germanium/silicon composites and germanium compounds. Diverse phenomena are clearly illustrated using the most outstanding candidates of the germanium/germanene-... material. Delicate simulations and analyses are thoroughly demonstrated under the first-principles method, being fully assisted by phenomenological models. Macroscopic phenomena in chemical systems, including their principles, practices and concepts of physics such as energy, structure, thermodynamics and quantum chemistry are fully covered. Germanium-based materials play critical roles in the basic and applied sciences, as clearly revealed in other group-IV and group-V condensed-matter systems. Their atomic configurations are suitable for creating the active chemical bonding among the identical and/or different nearest-neighboring atoms leading to diverse physical/chemical/ma... environments.
  • Advances in Yeast Biotechnology for Biofuels and Sustainability

    Value-Added Products and Environmental Remediation Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • Achlesh Daverey + 3 more
    • English
    Advances in Yeast Biotechnology for Biofuels and Sustainability: Value-Added Products and Environmental Remediation Applications showcases the uses for engineered yeast in environmental applications, especially as an innovative source of biofuels. Beginning with a thorough review of recent advances and future potential for yeast biotechnology, the book proceeds to outline several options for biofuels, including lignocellulosic biofuels and alternative feedstock production through hydrolysis and alternative value-added products, including industrial acids and bioplastics and applications in agriculture and environmental remediation. Placing case studies at the center of each chapter, this book presents a future-focused perspective on the potential of yeast biotechnologies to support sustainability.
  • Climate Change, Community Response and Resilience

    Insight for Socio-Ecological Sustainability
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 6
    • Uday Chatterjee + 4 more
    • English
    Climate Change, Community Response, and Resilience: Insight for Socio-Ecological Sustainability, Volume Six presents a fundamental theoretical framework for understanding how community resilience and risk assessment affect climate change adaptation behavior. This framework is based on a 26-chapter theoretical and empirical examination that includes pioneer projects from various regions that illustrate the relationship between theory and practice, reflect a paradigm shift in climate change, community response, and resilience, and focus on these important aspects from a sectoral perspective. Climate change, ecological consequences and resilience are then discussed in the final section. Members of the Royal Meteorological Society are eligible for a 35% discount on all Developments in Weather and Climate Science series titles. See the RMetS member dashboard for the discount code.
  • Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and COVID-19

    • 1st Edition
    • Parag Chatterjee + 1 more
    • English
    Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and COVID-19 showcases theoretical concepts and implementational and research perspectives surrounding AI. The book addresses both medical and technological visions, making it even more applied. With the advent of COVID-19, it is obvious that leading universities and medical schools must include these topics and case studies in their usual courses of health informatics to keep up with the pace of technological and medical advancements. This book will also serve professors teaching courses and industry practitioners and professionals working in the R&D team of leading medical and informatics companies who want to embrace AI and eHealth to fight COVID-19. Since AI in healthcare is a comparatively new field, there exists a vacuum of literature in this field, especially when applied to COVID-19. With the area of AI in COVID-19 being quite young, students and researchers usually face a struggle to rely on the few published papers (which are obviously too specific) or whitepapers by tech-giants (which are too wide).
  • Micro Fluidization

    Fundamentals and Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • Guangwen Xu + 3 more
    • English
    Micro Fluidization: Fundamentals and Applications provides background and history on micro fluidized bed research and development, summarizes and analyzes the hydrodynamic characteristics of gas-solid micro fluidized beds, and delves into areas such as research results of delayed onsets of minimum, bubbling and slugging fluidization regimes, as well as of the advanced transitions to turbulent and fast fluidization regimes. Based on these results, the wall effects – the key mechanism resulting in the unique behavior of micro fluidization – are analyzed. Other sections discuss gas and solid mixing characteristics in terms of gas residence time distribution, gas backmixing, and solids mixing. Final sections focus on presentations of the so-called micro fluidized bed reaction analyzer (MFBRA) – a powerful tool for catalyst screening, process development, optimization of reaction parameters, studies of reaction mechanism and kinetics, among many other purposes. The book describes, in detail, the MFBRA’s system design characteristics, analytic methodologies and various applications in thermochemical and catalytic reaction analysis.
  • Advanced Ceramic Coatings for Emerging Applications

    • 1st Edition
    • Ram K. Gupta + 4 more
    • English
    Advanced Ceramic Coatings for Emerging Applications covers new developments in automotive, construction, electronic, space and defense industries. The book is one of four volumes that together provide a comprehensive resource in the field of Advanced Ceramic Coatings, also including titles covering fundamentals, manufacturing and classification, energy and biomedical applications. These books will be extremely useful for academic and industrial researchers and practicing engineers who need to find reliable and up-to-date information about recent progresses and new developments in the field of advanced ceramic coatings. These books will also be of value to early career scientists providing background knowledge to the field. Smart ceramic coatings containing multifunctional components are now finding application in transportation and automotive industries, in electronics, and energy, sectors, in aerospace and defense, and in industrial goods and healthcare. Their wide application and stability in harsh environments are only possible due to the stability of the inorganic components that are used in ceramic coatings.
  • Acoustic Emission Signal Analysis and Damage Mode Identification of Composite Wind Turbine Blades

    • 1st Edition
    • Pengfei Liu
    • English
    Acoustic Emission Signal Analysis and Damage Mode Identification of Composite Wind Turbine Blades covers both the underlying theory and various techniques for effective structural monitoring of composite wind turbine blades via acoustic emission signal analysis, helping readers solve critical problems such as noise elimination, defect detection, damage mode identification, and more. Author Pengfei Liu introduces techniques for identifying and analyzing progressive failure under tension, delamination, damage localization, adhesive composite joint failure, and other degradation phenomena, outlining methods such as time-difference, wavelet, machine learning, and more including combined methods. The disadvantages and advantages of using each method are covered as are techniques for different blade-lengths and various blade substructures. Piezoelectric sensors are discussed as is experimental analysis of damage source localization. The book also takes great lengths to let readers know when techniques and concepts discussed can be applied to composite materials and structures beyond just wind turbine blades.
  • Uncertainty in Data Envelopment Analysis

    Fuzzy and Belief Degree-Based Uncertainties
    • 1st Edition
    • Farhad Hosseinzadeh Lotfi + 4 more
    • English
    Classical data envelopment analysis (DEA) models use crisp data to measure the inputs and outputs of a given system. In cases such as manufacturing systems, production processes, service systems, etc., the inputs and outputs may be complex and difficult to measure with classical DEA models. Crisp input and output data are fundamentally indispensable in the conventional DEA models. If these models contain complex uncertain data, then they will become more important and practical for decision makers.Uncertainty in Data Envelopment Analysis introduces methods to investigate uncertain data in DEA models, providing a deeper look into two types of uncertain DEA methods, fuzzy DEA and belief degree-based uncertainty DEA, which are based on uncertain measures. These models aim to solve problems encountered by classical data analysis in cases where the inputs and outputs of systems and processes are volatile and complex, making measurement difficult.
  • Moving Particle Semi-implicit Method

    Recent Developments and Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • Gen Li + 3 more
    • English
    Moving Particle Semi-implicit Method: Recent Developments and Applications offers detailed step-by-step guidance for advanced numerical models in the MPS method. With a strong focus on overcoming challenges, such as low improving accuracy and numerical stability, the book also examines the applications of MPS, particularly within nuclear engineering. Beginning with an introduction to grid-based and particle-based numerical methods, the book then reviews the original MPS method. Following chapters examine how the original method can be improved, covering topics such as improved discretization models, stabilization methods, multiphase flow and turbulence models, and improving efficiency. Closing chapters analyze applications in nuclear and ocean engineering, as well as considering future developments and implications. This book is an essential read for graduates, researchers and engineers interested in nuclear engineering and computational fluid dynamics.