Introduction to Contact Mechanics, Second Edition is a gentle introduction to the mechanics of solid bodies in contact for graduate students, post doctoral individuals, and the beginning researcher.
This second edition maintains the introductory character of the first with a focus on materials science as distinct from straight solid mechanics theory. Every chapter has been updated to make the book easier to read and more informative. A new chapter on depth sensing indentation has been added, and the contents of the other chapters have been completely overhauled with added figures, formulae and explanations.

Modelling, Monitoring and Diagnostic Techniques for Fluid Power Systems covers the background theory of fluid power and indicates the range of concepts needed for a modern approach to condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. The theory is leavened by 15-years-worth of practical measurements by the author, working with major fluid power companies, and real industrial case studies.

The idea to use air for transmitting power is very old. Ctesibius in - cient Greece described a catapult using pneumatic cylinders to first store energy and then rapidly accelerate an arrow. Heron of Alexandria dev- oped automatic temple doors which opened and closed by means of hot air. And from the Greek word for breath he coined the term that was used as title for his book and today describes a whole industry: - pneumatics. Pneumatic components and systems have become an important topic for textbooks. Most have their focus on the description of the steady-state - haviour, practical problems like troubleshooting or Boolean algebra to help designing control algorithms. Only a few textbooks covering the theore- cal analysis and design of pneumatic systems have been published (Z- manzon et al. 1965; Andersen 1967; Andersson et al. 1975). But they were written at a time when digital computers were not easily available to en- neers and therefore contain few material about modelling and simulation. This book tries to bridge the gap between scientific disciplines (fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, mathematics, control, etc.), the conventional approach to describe pneumatic components and systems by their stea- state behaviour, the wish of a design engineer to test his design before - tually building hardware and the resulting need for mathematical models in order to use today’s powerful digital computers.

Microfluidics-based biochips, also known as lab-on-a-chip or bio-MEMS, are becoming increasingly popular for DNA analysis, clinical diagnostics, and the detection/manipulation of bio-molecules. As the use of microfluidics-based biochips increases, their complexity is expected to become significant due to the need for multiple and concurrent assays on the chip, as well as more sophisticated control mechanisms for resource management. Time-to-market and fault tolerance are also expected to emerge as design considerations. As a result, current full-custom design techniques will not scale well for larger designs. There is a need to deliver the same level of CAD support to the biochip designer that the semiconductor industry now takes for granted.