the Academic NEST

Dimitrios Kolymbas ... 438 pages - Publisher: Springer; (March, 2008) - Language: English - ISBN-10: 3540251960 - ISBN-13: 978-3540251965.

This book covers not only practical aspects but also the underlying theoretical approaches. It also covers the fundamentals of rock mechanics. The book addresses not only students but also professionals who are interested to understand the underlying principles and methods and – possibly – to further develop them. Emphasis is given to the mechanical approach rather than to hardly tractable empirical statements. The text is concise and comprises a large list of citations.

Iris Eisenbach ... 
109 pages
Publisher: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag; 2011 edition (February 24, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3834809578
ISBN-13: 978-3834809575

This textbook is intended for students of materials science, of different branches of engineering and of related disciplines who need to re-activate their English language skills. Using authentic materials and figures selected from scientific texts, students will improve their reading, writing and speaking skills in a context relevant to their specialist studies.

Contents: Introduction - Characteristics of Materials - Metals - Ceramics - Polymers - Composites - Advanced Materials - Environmental Issues

Target Group: students of natural sciences, materials science and of different branches of engineering,
students of technical subjects at Berufsakademien, professionals in industry.

Evelien Keizer ... 
320 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1st edition (March 29, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199571872
ISBN-13: 978-0199571871

This is the first textbook on Functional Discourse Grammar, a recently developed theory of language structure which analyses utterances at four independent levels of grammatical representation: pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic and phonological. The book offers a very systematic and highly accessible introduction to the theory: following the top-down organization of the model, it takes the reader step-by-step though the various levels of analysis (from pragmatics down to phonology), while at the same time providing a detailed account of the interaction between these different levels. The many exercises, categorized according to degree of difficulty, ensure that students are challenged to use the theory in a creative manner, and invite them to test and evaluate the theory by applying it to the new data in various linguistic contexts.

Evelien Keizer uses examples from a variety of sources to demonstrate how the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar can be used to analyse and explain the most important functional and formal features of present-day English. The book also contains examples from a wide variety of other typologically diverse languages, making it attractive not only to students of English linguistics but to anyone interested in linguistic theory more generally.

Pierre-Yves Hicher ... 396 pages - Publisher: Wiley-ISTE; 1st edition (December, 2011) ... Language: English - ISBN-10: 1848212461 - ISBN-13: 978-1848212466 ...

This book addresses the latest issues in multiscale geomechanics. Written by leading experts in the field as a tribute to Jean Biarez (1927-2006), it can be of great use and interest to researchers and engineers alike. A brief introduction describes how a major school of soil mechanics came into being through the exemplary teaching by one man. Biarez's life-long work consisted of explaining the elementary mechanisms governing soil constituents in order to enhance understanding of the underlying scientific laws which control the behavior of constructible sites and to incorporate these scientific advancements into engineering practices. He innovated a multiscale approach of passing from the discontinuous medium formed by individual grains to an equivalent continuous medium. The first part of the book examines the behavior of soils at the level of their different constituents and at the level of their interaction. Behavior is then treated at the scale of the soil sample. The second part deals with soil mechanics from the vantage point of the construction project. It highlights Biarez's insightful adoption of the Finite Element Codes and illustrates, through numerous construction examples, his methodology and approach based on the general framework he constructed for soil behavior, constantly enriched by comparing in situ measurements with calculated responses of geostructures.

Mingjing Jiang, Fang Liu ... 1240 pages - Publisher: CRC Press; 1st edition (September, 2010) ... Language: English - ISBN-10: 0415612950 - ISBN-13: 978-0415612951 ...

Soils are composed of grains but they are generally treated as continua in the classical framework of geomechanics. Their macroscopic response under loading, such as their non-linearity, yielding and anisotropy, is controlled by their micro-structure, the characteristics of the grains and the disposition of contacts between them. There have been rapid advances in technology both to investigate the microscopic properties of soils, and to simulate their granular behaviour explicitly through Discrete Element Method (DEM). DEM was originally used to reproduce element tests, but it is now being advocated for boundary-value problems. Geomechanics and Geotechnics: From Micro to Macro includes 174 peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Symposium on Geomechanics and Geotechnics: From Micro to Macro (IS-Shanghai 2010, Shanghai, China, 10-12 October 2010). The symposium provided an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and information on experiments, numerical models and engineering applications related to the discrete nature of geomaterials. The main goal was to explore further advances in the use of micro-geomechanical approaches, and by doing so to improve the understanding of macro-geomechanical phenomena by offering experiments, constitutive relations, numerical analyses and engineering applications associated with the discrete nature of geomaterials. Geomechanics and Geotechnics: From Micro to Macro will be of interest to academics and engineers involved in Soil Mechanics, Geomechanics, Geotechnical Engineering, Geoengineering and Civil Engineering.

Swapna Mukherjee ...
335 pages - Publisher: Springer; (July 23, 2013)
Language: English - ISBN-10: 9400766823 - ISBN-13: 978-9400766822

This book is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and coherent description of three widely separated aspects of clays: the science of clays; the industrial uses of clays; and the role of clays in the environment. Most of the existing literature lacks such an integrated study and this work endeavours to fill that gap.

An exhaustive account of the science of clays is presented in Part I of the book, which includes the classification, origin and evolution, composition and internal structure, chemical and physical properties of clays; soil mechanics; and  analytical techniques for determining clay constituents. Part II provides a comprehensive description of the applications of clays and their derivatives in various industries, while Part III describes the role of clays in the environment; the pollution caused by clay minerals; and the application of clays in order to prevent environmental hazards.

A principal feature of the book is its explanation of how the structure and composition of particular clay types facilitate their specific industrial or environmental applications, thus describing the interrelationship between three widely varying aspects of clay. A number of thought-provoking questions are raised at the end of the work in order to leave readers with a better insight in this regard.