Multibody dynamics started with the ideas of Jacob and Daniel Bernoul li and later on with d'Alembert's principle. In establishing a solution for the problem of the center of oscillation for a two-mass-pendulum Jacob Ber noulli spoke about balancing the profit-and-Ioss account with respect to the motion of the two masses. Daniel Bernoulli extended these ideas to a chain pendulum and called forces not contributing to the motion "lost forces", thus being already very close to d'Alembert's principle. D'Alembert considered a "system of bodies, which are interconnected in some arbitrary way. " He suggested separating the motion into two parts, one moving, the other being at rest. In modern terms, or at least in terms being applied in engineering mechanics, this means that the forces acting on a system of bodies are split into active and passive forces. Active forces generate motion, passive forces do not; they are a result of constraints. This interpretation of d'Alembert's principle is due to Lagrange and up to now has been the basis of multi body dynamics (D' Alembert, Traite de Dynamique, 1743; Lagrange, Mecanique Analytique, 1811). Thus, multibody dynamics started in France. During the nineteenth century there were few activities in the multi body field even though industry offered plenty of possible applications and famous re presentatives of mechanics were aware of the problems related to multibody dynamics. Poisson in his "Traite de Mecanique" (Paris 1833) gave an im pressive description of these problems, including impacts and friction.

As one of the oldest natural sciences, mechanics occupies a certain pioneering role in determining the development of exact sciences through its interaction with mathematics. As a matter of fact, there is hardly an area in mathematics that hasn't found an application of some form in mechanics. It is thus almost inevitable that theoretical methods in mechanics are highly developed and laid out on different levels of abstraction. With the spread of digital processors this goes as far as the implementation in commercial computer codes, where the user is merely con fronted on the surface with the processes that run in the background, i. e. mechan ics as such: in teaching and research, as well as in the context of industry, me chanics is much more, and must remain much more than the mere production of data with the help of a processor. Mechanics, as it is talked about here, tradition ally includes a wide spectrum, ranging from applied mechanics, analytical and technical mechanics to modeling. and experimental mechanics, as well as technical realization. It also includes the subdisciplines of rigid body mechanics, continuum mechanics, or fluid mechanics, to mention only a few. One of the fundamental and most important concepts used by nearly all natural sciences is the concept of linearization, which assumes the differentiability of mappings. As a matter of fact, all of classical mechanics is based on the avail ability of this quality.

The investigation of multiscale problems in multibody system contacts is an interesting and timely topic which has been the subject of intensive research. This IUTAM Symposium facilitated discussions between researchers active in the field. This proceedings volume summarizes contributions of many authors active in the field and gives insight in very different areas of this fascinating research. It reviews the state-of-the-art and identifies future hot topics.

This volume contains 44 papers presented at the Third Contact Mechanics International Symposium (CMIS 2001) held in Praia da Consola9ao, Peniche (portugal), June 17-21,2001. This Symposium was the direct continuation of the first two CMIS held in Lausanne (1992) and in Carry-Le-Rouet (1994). Other related meetings, in what concerns scientific topics and participants, took place in the nineties at La Grande Motte (1990), Vadstena (1996), Ferrara (1997), Munich (1998) and Grenoble (1999). The Symposium aimed at gathering researchers with interests in a wide range of topics in theoretical, computational and experimental contact mechanics. The call for papers mentioned topics in tribology, mathematical formulations and analysis, numerical methods in non-smooth mechanics, impact problems, instabilities and technological problems. The total number of participants was 102, from Universities and Research Institutes of 19 countries. The Scientific Committee reviewed 102 submitted abstracts, and the final program consisted of 6 main lectures, 43 oral communications and 36 poster presentations (see Appendix A). The papers in this book correspond to almost all the main lectures and oral communications, and they are assembled in 5 chapters: • Dynamics and Impact • Instabilities, Oscillations and Waves • Contact Models, Results and Applications • Mathematical Analysis • Numerical Methods. We thank all the authors for their valuable contributions to this volume. We are indebted to the members of the Scientific Committee for their help in refereeing the submitted abstracts and manuscripts. We also thank the Series editor, Prof. Graham Gladwell, for his assistance in the revision process.

A systematic treatment, based on Green's functions and integral equations, is given to the analytical and numerical methods and results for a great number of 3-D contact problems for elastic bodies. Semi-bounded elastic bodies (layer, cylinder, space with cylindrical or spherical cavity, 3-D wedge, special cases of which are half- and quarter-spaces, cone) and finite elastic bodies (circular plate, finite cylinder, spherical layer, spherical lens, sphere) are considered. Methods introduced in the book can also be applied in fracture mechanics, hydrodynamics, electrostatics, thermodynamics and diffusion theory, continuum mechanics, and mathematical physics, as well as by engineers and students in mathematics, mechanics, and physics.

During the last decades, the growth of micro-electronics has reduced the cost of computing power to a level acceptable to industry and has made possible sophisticated control strategies suitable for many applications. Vibration c- trol is applied to all kinds of engineering systems to obtain the desired dynamic behavior, improved accuracy and increased reliability during operation. In this context, one can think of applications related to the control of structures’ vib- tion isolation, control of vehicle dynamics, noise control, control of machines and mechanisms and control of ?uid-structure-interaction. One could continue with this list for a long time. Research in the ?eld of vibration control is extremely comprehensive. Pr- lems that are typical for vibration control of nonlinear mechanisms and str- tures arise in the ?elds of modeling systems in such a way that the model is suitable for control design, to choose appropriate actuator and sensor locations and to select the actuators and sensors. Theobjective of the Symposium was to present anddiscuss methodsthat contribute to thesolution of such problems and to demonstrate the state of the art inthe ?eld shown by typical examples. The intention was to evaluate the limits of performance that can beachievedby controlling the dynamics, and to point out gaps in present research and give links for areas offuture research.Mainly, it brought together leading experts from quite different areas presenting theirpoints of view.

This is a state-of-the-art treatise on the problems of both nonlinearity and uncertainty in the dynamics and control of engineering systems. The concept of dynamics and control implies the combination of dynamic analysis and control synthesis. It is essential to gain insight into the dynamics of a nonlinear system with uncertainty if any new control strategy is designed to utilize nonlinearity.

This book was developed while I was teaching graduate courses on analysis, design and optimization of structures, in the United States, Europe and Israel. Structural analysis is a main part of any design problem, and the analysis often must be repeated many times during the design process. Much work has been done on design-oriented analysis of structures recently and many studies have been published. The purpose of the book is to collect together selected topics of this literature and to present them in a unified approach. It meets the need for a general text covering the basic concepts and methods as well as recent developments in this area. This should prove useful to students, researchers, consultants and practicing engineers involved in analysis and design of structures. Previous books on structural analysis do not cover most of the material presented in the book. The book deals with the problem of multiple repeated analyses (reanalysis) of structures that is common to numerous analysis and design tasks. Reanalysis is needed in many areas such as structural optimization, analysis of damaged structures, nonlinear analysis, probabilistic analysis, controlled structures, smart structures and adaptive structures. It is related to a wide range of applications in such fields as Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.

This is the first book of robotics presenting solutions of uncoupled and fully-isotropic parallel robotic manipulators and a method for their structural synthesis. Part 1 presents the methodology proposed for structural synthesis. Part 2 presents the various topologies of parallel robots generated by this systematic approach. Many solutions are presented here for the first time. The book will contribute to a widespread implementation of these solutions in industrial products.

Composite structures and products have developed tremendously since the publication of the first edition of this work in 1986. This new edition of the now classic 1986 text has been written to educate the engineering reader in the various aspects of mechanics for using composite materials in the design and analysis of composite structures and products. Areas dealt with include manufacture, micromechanical properties, structural design, joints and bonding and a much needed introduction to composite design philosophy. Each chapter is concluded by numerous problems suitable for home assignments or examination. A solution guide is available on request from the authors.