This book presents a unique approach to the design and analysis of beneficial nonlinearity, which can take an important and critical role in engineering systems and thus cannot be simply ignored in structural design, dynamic response analysis, and parameter selection. A key issue in the area is thus systematically addressed about how to analyze and design potential nonlinearities introduced to or inherent in a system of under study, which is a must-do task in many practical applications involving vibration control, energy harvesting, sensor systems and robots, etc. This book, therefore, presents an up-to-date summary on the most recent development of a cutting-edge method for nonlinearity manipulation and employment developed in recent several years, named as the X-shaped structure or mechanism approach. The method is inspired from animal leg/limb skeletons and can provide passive low-cost high-efficiency adjustable and beneficial nonlinear stiffness (high static and ultra-low dynamic), nonlinear damping (dependent on resonant frequency and vibration excitation amplitude) and nonlinear inertia (low static and high dynamic) individually or simultaneously. The X-shaped structure or mechanism is a generic structure or mechanism representing a class of beneficial geometric nonlinearity with realizable and flexible linkage mechanism or structural design of different variants or forms (quadrilateral, diamond, polygon, K/Z/S/V-shape, or others) which all share similar geometric nonlinearity and thus similar nonlinear stiffness/damping properties, flexible in design, and easy to implement. This book systematically reviews the research background, motivation, essential bio-inspired ideas, advantages of this novel method, beneficial nonlinear properties in stiffness, damping and inertia, and potential applications, which have been developed ever since 2010. This book reveals important nonlinear properties and dynamic characteristics of nonlinear inertia that can be provided through the X-structure/mechanism and also presents advantageous features of X-structure/mechanism methods in multi-direction vibration control.

In May 2019, the Institut für Arbeitsschutz der Deutschen Gesetzlichen Unfallversicherung (IFA) was hosting the 14th International Conference on Hand-Arm-Vibration. The event is organised every four years under the auspices of international expert bodies at changing places. It is aimed at all stakeholders in the subject, whether experts from the occupational safety and health and research communities or management personnel in the areas of manufacture and design. Mechanized manual work is often associated with exposure to vibration that may impact adversely upon the health and well-being of the affected individuals. Besides impairments to comfort and performance, harm to the hand-arm system, possibly permanent, must be prevented as a matter of priority. In a world of work that is becoming more and more complex, combined exposures are also becoming increasingly relevant. What influence does hand-arm vibration have in conjunction with noise or whole-body vibration? What contribution can be made by medicine, diagnostics, epidemiology, measurement technology and prevention to the identification and containment of risks, and better still, to their elimination? What is the role of international regulatory activity in this context? The 14th International Conference on Hand-Arm Vibration aimed to address these and many other questions concerning hand-arm vibration, and to find answers relevant to the field.