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Elsevier Science

  • China's Oil Industry and Market

    • 1st Edition
    • H.H. Wang
    • English
    This authoritative book on China's oil demand and government policies and practices rests on two essential foundations: first and foremost on the author's considerable knowledge of China's oil situation and prospects, together with his access to Chinese energy literature and data; and secondly, on that insight afforded to him and, therefore, his readers from his fluency in Chinese.The author analyzes the Chinese oil market and the rising pressure on Beijing to reform policies which constrain China's ability to meet soaring demand and to pay for crucial imports at a time of growing political and economic uncertainties. Dr Wang acknowledges the importance of China meeting its growing domestic oil demand, if at all possible, through national production. The sheer weight of China's population, and its burgeoning requirements as industrialization spreads into most regions, dwarfs the needs of others and places unprecedented strain on international oil trades.The author stresses the fact that the outcome is hard to define, yet the time required to tackle the nation's energy needs is not limitless. Moreover, he reminds the reader of the perennial difficulty in meeting widely disparate economic and energy needs in different regions of the vast country.
  • Stability and Ductility of Steel Structures (SDSS'99)

    • 1st Edition
    • D. Dubin&acaron; + 1 more
    • English
    With the gradual development of rules for designing against instability the idea emerged, in London, in 1974 to hold an International Colloquium treating every aspect of structural instability of steel structures.There have been 17 International Colloquia Stability Sessions around the world, starting with the first one in Paris in 1972, until with the last one in Nagoya in 1997. In Nagoya it was decided to continue the series of travelling colloquia by launching the Sixth Colloquium in September 1999 with the First Session to be held at the "Politehnica" University of Timişoara, România, which will be followed by another in the year 2000 at the Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, Lithuania, a third one during SSRC's Year 2000 Annual Meeting in the US, and a fourth one in Australia or New Zealand.At present important research projects are in progress around the world, like SAC Joint Venture Project in USA, INCO-COPERNICUS "RECOS" in Europe and others, which are devoted to improve and develop new methods for the safety design of steel structures in seismic zones. Special attention is paid in Europe, USA and Japan to improve the design codes and detailing of seismic resistant steel structures.This was the reason to organise the Session of Nagoya as "Stability and Ductility of Steel Structures" Colloquium. Romania is also a strong seismic territory and therefore, the topic of the Timişoara Session covered both stability and ductility problems. The technical programme of the SDSS'99 Colloquium in Timişoara has been split into nine working sessions.
  • Porous Materials in Environmentally Friendly Processes

    Proceedings of the 1st International FEZA Conference, Eger, Hungary, 1-4 September, 1999
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 125
    • I. Kiricsi + 3 more
    • English
    To leave our planet liveable in the next millennium mankind is forced to find environmentally friendly ways in solving the problems of everyday life. Among others, technologies of producing chemicals, absolutely necessary for maintaining a comfortable life, have to be modified, in some instances fundamentally changed now, or in the very near future.Developing new technologies requires strong and innovative fundamental research. In order to provide opportunity for crossfertilization the Federation of European Zeolite Associations (FEZA) decided to organise a conference, where researchers from academia as well as industry can meet, exchange ideas, show and discuss research efforts and results concerning the development of environmentally friendly processes and technologies.The conference, and thus the proceedings are divided into two main parts. The first part contains works concerning the synthesis, modification and characterisation of zeolitic materials as catalyst candidates in environmentally friendly technologies. Works in the second part describe various applications starting from developing highly selective reactions for the fine chemical industry, through waste-water treatment to applying zeolite for formulating bacteria for pest control.
  • Carbon Materials for Advanced Technologies

    • 1st Edition
    • T.D. Burchell
    • English
    The inspiration for this book came from an American Carbon Society Workshop entitled "Carbon Materials for Advanced Technologies" which was hosted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1994. Chapter 1 contains a review of carbon materials, and emphasizes the structure and chemical bonding in the various forms of carbon, including the four allotropes diamond, graphite, carbynes, and the fullerenes. In addition, amorphous carbon and diamond films, carbon nanoparticles, and engineered carbons are discussed. The most recently discovered allotrope of carbon, i.e., the fullerenes, along with carbon nanotubes, are more fully discussed in Chapter 2, where their structure-property relations are reviewed in the context of advanced technologies for carbon based materials. The synthesis, structure, and properties of the fullerenes and nanotubes, and modification of the structure and properties through doping, are also reviewed. Potential applications of this new family of carbon materials are considered.The manufacture and applications of adsorbent carbon fibers are discussed in Chapter 3. The manufacture, structure and properties of high performance fibers are reviewed in Chapter 4, and the manufacture and properties of vapor grown fibers and their composites are reported in Chapter 5. The properties and applications of novel low density composites developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are reported in Chapter 6.Coal is an important source of energy and an abundant source of carbon. The production of engineering carbons and graphite from coal via a solvent extraction route is described in Chapter 7. Applications of activated carbons are discussed in Chapters 8-10, including their use in the automotive arena as evaporative loss emission traps (Chapter 8), and in vehicle natural gas storage tanks (Chapter 9). The application of activated carbons in adsorption heat pumps and refrigerators is discussed in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 reports the use of carbon materials in the fast growing consumer electronics application of lithium-ion batteries. The role of carbon materials in nuclear systems is discussed in Chapters 12 and 13, where fusion device and fission reactor applications, respectively, are reviewed. In Chapter 12 the major technological issues for the utilization of carbon as a plasma facing material are discussed in the context of current and future fusion tokamak devices.The essential design features of graphite moderated reactors, (including gas-, water- and molten salt-cooled systems) are reviewed in Chapter 13, and reactor environmental effects such as radiation damage and radiolytic corrosion are discussed. The fracture behaviour of graphite is discussed in qualitative and quantitative terms in Chapter 14. The applications of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics and Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics to graphite are reviewed and a study of the role of small flaws in nuclear graphites is reported.
  • Computational Neuroscience

    Trends in Research 1999
    • 1st Edition
    • J.M. Bower
    • English
    This volume includes papers originally presented at the 7th annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS'98) held in July of 1998 at the Fess Parker Doubletree Inn in Santa Barbara, California. The CNS meetings bring together computational neuroscientists representing many different fields and backgrounds as well as many different experimental preparations and theoretical approaches. The papers published here range from pure experimental neurobiology, to neuro-ethology, mathematics, physics, and engineering. In all cases the research described is focused on understanding how nervous systems compute. The actual subjects of the research include a highly diverse number of preparations, modeling approaches, and analysis techniques. Accordingly, this volume reflects the breadth and depth of current research in computational neuroscience taking place throughout the world.
  • Biology of Brassica Coenospecies

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • C. Gomez-Campo
    • English
    Brassica crop species and their allies (Raphanus, Sinapis, Eruca, etc.) are important sources of edible roots, stems, leaves, buds and inflorescences, as well as of edible or industrial oils, condiments and forage. Many well known names of plants or plant products, such as kale, cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohl-rabi, Chinese cabbage, turnip, rape, rutabaga, swede, colza or rapeseed, canola, mustard, rocket, etc. are directly associated to this botanical group.The scientific interest for this botanical group has run parallel to its economical importance, and research achievements in our days would have certainly appeared unimaginable only two decades ago. As the end of the millenium approaches, entirely new fields (transformation, somatic fusion, etc.) have been added to the classical ones. Thus, nobody can doubt the opportuneness of this book, which combines and presents both the basic and applied biological aspects of the Brassica species.
  • Mathematical and Physical Simulation of the Properties of Hot Rolled Products

    • 1st Edition
    • Maciej Pietrzyk + 2 more
    • English
    The objective of this publication is to comprehensively discuss the possibilities of producing steels with pre-determined attributes, demanded by the customer to fit exacting specifications. The information presented in the book has been designed to indicate the reasons for the expenses and to aid in the process of overcoming the difficulties and reducing the costs.In nine detailed chapters, the authors cover topics including:• steel as a major contributor to the economic wealth of a country in terms of its capabilities and production• current concerns of major steel producers• phenomena contributing to the quality of the product• information concerning the boundary conditions of the rolling process and initial conditions, put to use by mathematical models• the solid state incremental approach and flow formulation• parameters and variables - most of which make use of the exponential nature of phenomena that are activated by thermal energy• the application of three dimensional analysis to shape rolling• the evaluation of parameters by a form of inverse analysis to the flat rolling process• knowledge based modeling, using artificial intelligence, expert systems and neural networksThey conclude that when either mathematical or physical modeling of the rolling process is considered and the aim is to satisfy the demands for customers, it is possible to produce what the customer wants, exactly.
  • Unsteady-state Fluid Flow

    Analysis and Applications to Petroleum Reservoir Behavior
    • 1st Edition
    • E.J. Hoffman
    • English
    The ubiquitous examples of unsteady-state fluid flow pertain to the production or depletion of oil and gas reservoirs. After introductory information about petroleum-bearing formations and fields, reservoirs, and geologic codes, empirical methods for correlating and predicting unsteady-state behavior are presented. This is followed by a more theoretical presentation based on the classical partial differential equations for flow through porous media.Whereas these equations can be simplified for the flow of (compressible) fluids, and idealized solutions exist in terms of Fourier series for linear flow and Bessel functions for radial flow, the flow of compressible gases requires computer solutions, read approximations. An analysis of computer solutions indicates, fortuitously, that the unsteady-state behavior can be reproduced by steady-state density or pressure profiles at successive times. This will demark draw down and the transition to long-term depletion for reservoirs with closed outer boundaries.As an alternative, unsteady-state flow may be presented in terms of volume and surface integrals, and the methodology is fully developed with examples furnished. Among other things, permeability and reserves can be estimated from well flow tests.The foregoing leads to an examination of boundary conditions and degrees of freedom and raises arguments that the classical partial differential equations of mathematical physics may not be allowable representations. For so-called open petroleum reservoirs where say water-drive exists, the simplifications based on successive steady-state profiles provide a useful means of representation, which is detailed in the form of material balances.Unsteady-St... Fluid Flow provides:• empirical and classical methods for correlating and predicting the unsteady-state behavior of petroleum reservoirs• analysis of unsteady-state behavior, both in terms of the classical partial differential equations, and in terms of volume and surface integrals• simplifications based on successive steady-state profiles which permit application to the depletion of both closed reservoirs and open reservoirs, and serves to distinguish drawdown, transition and long-term depletion performance.
  • Kohonen Maps

    • 1st Edition
    • E. Oja + 1 more
    • English
    The Self-Organizing Map, or Kohonen Map, is one of the most widely used neural network algorithms, with thousands of applications covered in the literature. It was one of the strong underlying factors in the popularity of neural networks starting in the early 80's. Currently this method has been included in a large number of commercial and public domain software packages. In this book, top experts on the SOM method take a look at the state of the art and the future of this computing paradigm.The 30 chapters of this book cover the current status of SOM theory, such as connections of SOM to clustering, classification, probabilistic models, and energy functions. Many applications of the SOM are given, with data mining and exploratory data analysis the central topic, applied to large databases of financial data, medical data, free-form text documents, digital images, speech, and process measurements. Biological models related to the SOM are also discussed.
  • Lubrication at the Frontier: The Role of the Interface and Surface Layers in the Thin Film and Boundary Regime

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 36
    • M. Priest + 9 more
    • English
    The 25th Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology was held at the Institut des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, from 8-11th September, 1998. Its central theme was, "Lubrication at the frontier: the role of the interface and surface layers in the thin film and boundary regime". This topic was chosen because it represents an important evolution of the research field.The Symposium opened with a keynote address entitled "Role of surface-anchored polymer chains in polymer friction" which described the processes taking place at the interface between "solid" and "liquid". The keynote address was followed by two invited lectures. Firstly, "Fuel efficient engine oils, additive interactions, boundary friction and wear" presented the industrial point of view on lubricant formulation and engine testing and its evolution. The second lecture was entitled "For establishment of a new EHL theory" and stressed the need to extend the current EHL theory.Beginning in 1974, The Leeds-Lyon Symposia have now covered a wide range of topics. The essential aim each year is to select a topic of current interest to tribologists and to contribute to further the advance of knowledge in selected fields.