Structural safety of industrial systems and components raises a steadily growing public, scientific and engineering interest, and causes permanent development of methods and techniques used for its assessment. In addition to the well established engineering methods, applied in the field, several new methods and tools have emerged recently. Among them, the most novel ones are probably those related to expert system applica tions, appearing as an important possible improvement of the current engineering practice. The issue has been addressed by the international course EXPERT SYSTEMS IN STRUCTURAL SAFETY ASSESSMENT organized by MPA Stuttgart and JRC Ispra (Stuttgart, October 2-4, 1989), and the proceedings of the course are contained in this volume of the Lecture Notes ill Engineering. The contributions (invited lectures) tackle the issues usually confronting developers and users of expert systems applied in structural engineering, i.e. in structural safety and integrity assessment. Both the book and the course are a combination of a tutorial and of presentation of the current achievements in the field. Starting from the basic elements of expert systems (knowledge based systems), the book should "guide" the reader up to the applications in various particular sub-domains.

This book serves as a reference for engineers, scientists, and students concerned with the use of materials in applications where reliability and resistance to corrosion are important. It updates the coverage of its predecessor, including coverage of: corrosion rates of steel in major river systems and atmospheric corrosion rates, the corrosion behavior of materials such as weathering steels and newer stainless alloys, and the corrosion behavior and engineering approaches to corrosion control for nonmetallic materials. New chapters include: high-temperature oxidation of metals and alloys, nanomaterials, and dental materials, anodic protection. Also featured are chapters dealing with standards for corrosion testing, microbiological corrosion, and electrochemical noise.

The petroleum and chemical industries contain a wide variety of corrosive environments, many of which are unique to these industries. Oil and gas production operations consume a tremendous amount of iron and steel pipe, tubing, pumps, valves, and sucker rods. Metallic corrosion is costly. However, the cost of corrosion is not just financial. Beyond the huge direct outlay of funds to repair or replace corroded structures are the indirect costs – natural resources, potential hazards, and lost opportunity. Wasting natural resources is a direct contradiction to the growing need for sustainable development. By selecting the correct material and applying proper corrosion protection methods, these costs can be reduced, or even eliminated. This book provides a minimum design requirement for consideration when designing systems in order to prevent or control corrosion damage safely and economically, and addresses: • Corrosion problems in petroleum and chemical industries • Requirements for corrosion control • Chemical control of corrosive environments • Corrosion inhibitors in refineries and petrochemical plants • Materials selection and service life of materials • Surface preparation, protection and maintainability • Corrosion monitoring - plant inspection techniques and laboratory corrosion testing techniques Intended for engineers and industry personnel working in the petroleum and chemical industries, this book is also a valuable resource for research and development teams, safety engineers, corrosion specialists and researchers in chemical engineering, engineering and materials science.

This five-volume series covers the entire range of technologies used in the petroleum refining industry. The books are intended for students and for the engineers and technicians who operate in refineries.This volume is devoted to the main equipment used in a refinery or a petrochemical complex, classified by technology. The basic principles for design and sizing are presented for each type of equipment. The details of practical implementation are also discussed with a view to maximum efficiency. Equipment selection criteria are provided for specific applications. Lastly, emphasis is placed on the major trends in equipment development.Contents: I. Separation technologies. 1. Gas-liquid contactors for distillation: plate columns. 2. Gas-liquid contactors for distillation: packed columns. 3. Solvent extraction equipment. 4. Techniques for physical separation of phases. II. Heat transfer technologies. 5. Process furnaces. 6. Heat exchangers. III. Reaction technologies. 7. Chemical reactor technology. IV. Mechanical operations. 8. Pumps, compressors, turbines and ejectors. 9. Agitation and mixing techniques. V. Control and optimization techniques. 10. Control and Monitoring. 11. Rational use of energy. References. Index.

Provides a methodology for integrating materials selection with the design process, including simultaneous technical and economic evaluation. Save hours of frustrating research time: Get fast answers about the best material for a particular application. In the past, researching the endless sources on corrosion and materials in their countless applications were next to impossible. That's why this book was written: to help simplify your materials selection problems. It's an exhaustive source on the different corrosion-resistant materials, types of corrosion, factors affecting corrosion, passivation, corrosion monitoring, corrosion control measures, methodology of materials selection, and more.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut The ?ow of academic ideas in the area of computational intelligence has penetrated industry with tremendous speed and persistence. Thousands of applications have proved the practical potential of fuzzy logic, neural networks, evolutionary com- tation, swarm intelligence, and intelligent agents even before their theoretical foundation is completely understood. And the popularity is rising. Some software vendors have pronounced the new machine learning gold rush to “Transfer Data into Gold”. New buzzwords like “data mining”, “genetic algorithms”, and “swarm optimization” have enriched the top executives’ vocabulary to make them look more “visionary” for the 21st century. The phrase “fuzzy math” became political jargon after being used by US President George W. Bush in one of the election debates in the campaign in 2000. Even process operators are discussing the perf- mance of neural networks with the same passion as the performance of the Dallas Cowboys. However, for most of the engineers and scientists introducing computational intelligence technologies into practice, looking at the growing number of new approaches, and understanding their theoretical principles and potential for value creation becomes a more and more dif?cult task.