The use of innovative new materials is an important trend in landscape architecture today. These materials include biodegradable geotextiles, super-absorbent polymers, and plants that react to changing soil conditions. This book presents the available materials and technologies in the context of practical applications.

This special issue aims to provide a high level research paper for researchers, engineers and scientists to present their new advances and research results in the field of materials and innovative technologies for mechanical engineering, construction electronic packaging. Ceramics, Steel, Alloys, Polymers, Composites, Building Materials, Processing Technology, Electronic Packaging Materials Science.

Today, architects and designers are beginning to look toward developments in new "smart" or "intelligent" materials and technologies for solutions to long-standing problems in building design. However, these new materials have so far been applied in a diverse but largely idiosyncratic nature, because relatively few architects have access to information about the types or properties of these new materials or technologies. Two of the leading experts in this field - Addington and Schodek - have solved this problem by incorporating all the relevant information of all the latest technologies available to architects and designers in this one volume. They present materials by describing their fundamental characteristics, and go on to identify and suggest how these same characteristics can be exploited by professionals to achieve their design goals. Here, the wealth of technical understanding already available in the materials science and engineering literature is at last made accessible to a design audience.

A wide variety of materials are used in automotive parts, and most of them are mechanical components. Steels are most widely used for the power train and automotive body construction, and the materials and their processing have been steadily improved. The use of aluminium alloys and polymeric materials have been contributed to the reduction in fuel consumption rates due to the lightweight nature. This book reviews research on material and automotive technologies, as well as how materials work for technological innovations, with particular emphasis placed on the relation between materials science and the performance of automobiles.

Materials selection is a crucial factor in determining the cost, quality, and corrosion protection for every engineering project. The variety of increasingly durable materials and their combinations, coupled with the rise of new and more critical service requirements and the demand for lower costs, have expanded upon trial-and-error criteria into m

The construction materials industry is a major user of the world’s resources. While enormous progress has been made towards sustainability, the scope and opportunities for improvements are significant. To further the effort for sustainable development, a conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies was held at Coventry University, Coventry, U.K., from June 11th - 13th, 2007, to highlight case studies and research on new and innovative ways of achieving sustainability of construction materials and technologies. This book presents selected, important contributions made at the conference. Over 190 papers from over 45 countries were accepted for presentation at the conference, of which approximately 100 selected papers are published in this book. The rest of the papers are published in two supplementary books. Topics covered in this book include: sustainable alternatives to natural sand, stone, and Portland cement in concrete; sustainable use of recyclable resources such as fly ash, ground municipal waste slag, pozzolan, rice-husk ash, silica fume, gypsum plasterboard (drywall), and lime in construction; sustainable mortar, concrete, bricks, blocks, and backfill; the economics and environmental impact of sustainable materials and structures; use of construction and demolition wastes, and organic materials (straw bale, hemp, etc.) in construction; sustainable use of soil, timber, and wood products; and related sustainable construction and rehabilitation technologies.