Recognition of the need to introduce the ideas of uncertainty in a wide variety of scientific fields today reflects in part some of the profound changes in science and engineering over the last decades. Nobody questions the ever-present need for a solid foundation in applied mechanics. Neither does anyone question nowadays the fundamental necessity to recognize that uncertainty exists, to learn to evaluate it rationally, and to incorporate it into design.This volume provides a timely and stimulating overview of the analysis of uncertainty in applied mechanics. It is not just one more rendition of the traditional treatment of the subject, nor is it intended to supplement existing structural engineering books. Its aim is to fill a gap in the existing professional literature by concentrating on the non-probabilistic model of uncertainty. It provides an alternative avenue for the analysis of uncertainty when only a limited amount of information is available. The first chapter briefly reviews probabilistic methods and discusses the sensitivity of the probability of failure to uncertain knowledge of the system. Chapter two discusses the mathematical background of convex modelling. In the remainder of the book, convex modelling is applied to various linear and nonlinear problems. Uncertain phenomena are represented throughout the book by convex sets, and this approach is referred to as convex modelling.This book is intended to inspire researchers in their goal towards further growth and development in this field.

Five articles on recent developments in solids and structures comprise Volume 33 of the Advances in Applied Mechanics. Each chapter is a mix of field survey and new work. The topics include structural reliability, failure modes of composites and thin films, the mechanics of micro-structural evolution, and strain gradient plasticity.

This book presents, as a single package, three semingly contradictory and often competitive approaches to deal with ever present uncertainty in science and engineering. The book describes, as a unique view, probabilistic, fuzzy sets based and antioptimization based approaches, in order to remedy the present "tower ob Babel” situation, in which researchers in competing fields do not communicate. Integrative approach will attract scientists and engineers alike and provide a strong impetus towards integrative, hybrid approaches.

There have been stability theories developed for beams, plates and shells — the most significant elements in mechanical, aerospace, ocean and marine engineering. For beams and plates, the theoretical and experimental values of buckling loads are in close vicinity. However for thin shells, the experimental predictions do not conform with the theory, due to presence of small geometric imperfections that are deviations from the ideal shape.This fact has been referred to in the literature as ‘embarrassing’, ‘paradoxical’ and ‘perplexing’. Indeed, the popular adage, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is”, very much applies to thin shells whose experimental buckling loads may constitute a small fraction of the theoretical prediction based on classical linear theory; because in practice, engineers use knockdown factors that are not theoretically substantiated.This book presents a uniform approach that tames this prima-donna-like and capricious behavior of structures that has been dubbed the ‘imperfection sensitivity’ — thus resolving the conundrum that has occupied the best minds of elastic stability throughout the twentieth century.

This book comprised of three separate volumes presents the recent developments and research discoveries in structural and solid mechanics; it is dedicated to Professor Isaac Elishakoff. This third volume is devoted to non-deterministic mechanics. Modern Trends in Structural and Solid Mechanics 3 has broad scope, covering topics such: design optimization under uncertainty, interval field approaches, convex analysis, quantum inspired topology optimization and stochastic dynamics. The book is illustrated by many applications in the field of aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, biomedical engineering and automotive engineering. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics.

Have you ever wondered where the safety factors come from? Why is it that deterministic analysis has reached a very sophisticated level, but in the end empirical factors are still needed? Is there a way to select them, rather than assigning them arbitrarily as is often done? This book clearly shows that safety factors are closely related with the reliability of structures, giving yet another demonstration of Albert Einstein's maxim that "It is incomprehensible that Nature is comprehensible". The book shows that the safety factors are much more comprehensible if they are seen in a probabilistic context. Several definitions of the safety factors are given, analytical results on insightful numbers are presented, nonprobabilistic safety factors are shown, as well as their estimates derived by the inequalities of Bienayme, Markov, Chebushev and Camp-Meidell. A special chapter is devoted to important contributions by Japanese experts. This volume will help to critically re-think the issue of safety factors, which can create a false feeling of security. The deterministic paradigm can be enhanced by incorporating probabilistic concepts wisely where they are needed without treating all variables as probabilistic ones. The book shows that there is a need of their integration rather than separation. This book is intended for engineers, graduate students, lecturers and researchers.