This book is the closing report of the national priority program Nature-Inspired Fluid Mechanics (Schwerpunktprogramm SPP 1207: Strömungsbeeinflussung in der Natur und Technik). Nature-inspired fluid mechanics is one subset of biomimetics, a discipline which has received increased attention over the last decade, with numerous faculties and degree courses devoted solely to exploring ‘nature as a model’ for engineering applications. To save locomotion energy, evolution has optimized the design of animals such that friction loss is minimized. In addition to many morphological adaptations, animals that are often exposed to water or air currents have developed special behaviors that allow them to use the energy contained in air or water fluctuations for energy savings. Such flow manipulation and control is not only important for many animals, but also for many engineering applications. Since living beings have been optimized by several million years of evolution it is very likely that many engineering disciplines can profit from the study of systems found in nature. Curiously, there has been little serious cross-disciplinary work and information exchange on the topic of fluid dynamics and flow control and this was the initial motivation to establish this national priority program.

This book provides the first fully-fledged history of hydrodynamics, including lively accounts of the concrete problems of hydraulics, navigation, blood circulation, meteorology, and aeronautics that motivated the main conceptual innovations. Richly illustrated, technically competent, and philosophically sensitive, it should attract a broad audience and become a standard reference for any one interested in fluid mechanics.

Master simple to advanced biomaterials and structures with this essential text. Featuring topics ranging from bionanoengineered materials to bio-inspired structures for spacecraft and bio-inspired robots, and covering issues such as motility, sensing, control and morphology, this highly illustrated text walks the reader through key scientific and practical engineering principles, discussing properties, applications and design. Presenting case studies for the design of materials and structures at the nano, micro, meso and macro-scales, and written by some of the leading experts on the subject, this is the ideal introduction to this emerging field for students in engineering and science as well as researchers.

Mechanics, the oldest branch of physics, to this day remains the basis for modern technology. This is especially evident with regard to the oil and gas industry. Almost all of the technological processes in these branches of industry, from the drilling of wells to the transporting of oil and gas products via pipelines, are mechanical in their nature. The processes of the development of oil and gas deposits are of primary importance in the whole technological chain of oil and gas extraction from the rocks and their transportation to the customer. The use of scientific methods for improving technology is a long-established tradition of oil and gas industry. For the Western reader, it is enough to mention the fundamental treatises by the outstanding American research scientist and engineer M. Muskat (1937, 1949) as well as the excellent books of Scheidegger (1960) and Collins (1961) which combine practical goals with profound theoretical analysis. The initiators of the application of mechanics for solving problems of the oil and gas industry in the U.S.S.R. were V.G. Shukhov (1981) and LS. Leibenzon (1934, 1947, 1953, 1955) whose works constitute admirable examples of Soviet technical thought. During recent times, the magnitude of oil and gas extraction has increased immensely and many reservoirs with complicated physical and geological properties have, therefore, entered into the development. The fundamental problem of enhancing oil and gas recovery from rocks has been intensively and deeply analyzed.

Nature-inspired computation and swarm intelligence have become popular and effective tools for solving problems in optimization, computational intelligence, soft computing and data science. Recently, the literature in the field has expanded rapidly, with new algorithms and applications emerging. Nature-Inspired Computation and Swarm Intelligence: Algorithms, Theory and Applications is a timely reference giving a comprehensive review of relevant state-of-the-art developments in algorithms, theory and applications of nature-inspired algorithms and swarm intelligence. It reviews and documents the new developments, focusing on nature-inspired algorithms and their theoretical analysis, as well as providing a guide to their implementation. The book includes case studies of diverse real-world applications, balancing explanation of the theory with practical implementation. Nature-Inspired Computation and Swarm Intelligence: Algorithms, Theory and Applications is suitable for researchers and graduate students in computer science, engineering, data science, and management science, who want a comprehensive review of algorithms, theory and implementation within the fields of nature inspired computation and swarm intelligence. - Introduces nature-inspired algorithms and their fundamentals, including: particle swarm optimization, bat algorithm, cuckoo search, firefly algorithm, flower pollination algorithm, differential evolution and genetic algorithms as well as multi-objective optimization algorithms and others - Provides a theoretical foundation and analyses of algorithms, including: statistical theory and Markov chain theory on the convergence and stability of algorithms, dynamical system theory, benchmarking of optimization, no-free-lunch theorems, and a generalized mathematical framework - Includes a diversity of case studies of real-world applications: feature selection, clustering and classification, tuning of restricted Boltzmann machines, travelling salesman problem, classification of white blood cells, music generation by artificial intelligence, swarm robots, neural networks, engineering designs and others

Do we have an adequate understanding of fluid dynamics phenomena in nature and evolution, and what physical models do we need? What can we learn from nature to stimulate innovations in thinking as well as in engineering applications? Concentrating on flight and propulsion, this unique and accessible book compares fluid dynamics solutions in nature with those in engineering. The respected international contributors present up-to-date research in an easy to understand manner, giving common viewpoints from fields such as zoology, engineering, biology, fluid mechanics and physics. This transdisciplinary approach eliminates barriers and opens wider perspectives to both of the challenging questions above. Contents: Applications in Engineering and Medicine; Inspiration from Nature; Steady and Unsteady Fluid Dynamics; Specific Numerical and Experimental Methods

Nature-Inspired Algorithms have been gaining much popularity in recent years due to the fact that many real-world optimisation problems have become increasingly large, complex and dynamic. The size and complexity of the problems nowadays require the development of methods and solutions whose efficiency is measured by their ability to find acceptable results within a reasonable amount of time, rather than an ability to guarantee the optimal solution. This volume 'Nature-Inspired Algorithms for Optimisation' is a collection of the latest state-of-the-art algorithms and important studies for tackling various kinds of optimisation problems. It comprises 18 chapters, including two introductory chapters which address the fundamental issues that have made optimisation problems difficult to solve and explain the rationale for seeking inspiration from nature. The contributions stand out through their novelty and clarity of the algorithmic descriptions and analyses, and lead the way to interesting and varied new applications.