The unique materials properties of GaN-based semiconductors have stimulated a great deal of interest in research and development regarding nitride materials growth and optoelectronic and nitride-based electronic devices. High electron mobility and saturation velocity, high sheet carrier concentration at heterojunction interfaces, high breakdown field, and low thermal impedance of GaN-based films grown over SiC or bulk AlN substrates make nitride-based electronic devices very promising. The chemical inertness of nitrides is another key property.This volume, written by experts on different aspects of nitride technology, addresses the entire spectrum of issues related to nitride materials and devices, and it will be useful for technologists, scientists, engineers, and graduate students who are working on wide bandgap materials and devices. The book can also be used as a supplementary text for graduate courses on wide bandgap semiconductor technology.

Betrayed. Sold. Tortured. Now she's fighting to rebuild her life.Detective Sapphire Hatcher was sold to human traffickers when she was sixteen. She was lucky. She was rescued, and now she has dedicated her life to saving others. When a criminal psychiatrist is brought in to work alongside her, she tries to ignore the way he makes her feel, but he won't let her. Gideon Barlow travels the country working with police departments on the most depraved of cases. When he meets Sapphire, the attraction is instantaneous, but if he can't help her realize that there is more to life than her job, she might end up losing not just her chance at happiness but her life as well.

The riveting conclusion to the Legacy of the Lost Mage trilogy pits powerful mages, long-lost kings, and ancient creatures against each other as a family--struggling to protect one child--is dragged right into the blazing center of a war that threatens to bring the continent to its knees.

This volume is part of the Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceeding (CESP) series. This series contains a collection of papers dealing with issues in both traditional ceramics (i.e., glass, whitewares, refractories, and porcelain enamel) and advanced ceramics. Topics covered in the area of advanced ceramic include bioceramics, nanomaterials, composites, solid oxide fuel cells, mechanical properties and structural design, advanced ceramic coatings, ceramic armor, porous ceramics, and more.

Fatigue failures occur in aerospace,marine,nuclear structures and automobile com ponents from initiation and propagation of cracks from holes,scratches or defects in the material. To design against these failures, crack propagation life and fracture strength need to be accurately predicted. It is reported in the literature, that these failures often initiate as surface cracks, corner cracks and cracks emanating from fastner holes. Such cracks are with elliptic or nearly elliptic in shapes. The deviation from elliptic shape is due to varying constraint effect along the crack front. Even in situations, when the cracks are through the thickness of the material, there would be thicknesswise variation of constraint effects leading to three dimensional nature of crack growth. Accurate predictions of the crack growth in these cases by numerical methods can be made only by solving three-dimensional boundary value problems. Empirical relationships have been developed [1] based on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics over years describing fatigue crack growth response. Some of these empirical relationships required modifications in the later stages, to meet the design applications. The Crack closure phenomenon discovered by Elber[2, 3] during the crack growth phase is mainly attributed to the local material yielding near the crack tip and the consequent residual plastic wake behind the crack tip. It helped considerably in understanding several aspects of fatigue crack growth and rewrite these relations.

Dynamic Response of Advanced Ceramics Discover fundamental concepts and recent advances in experimental, analytical, and computational research into the dynamic behavior of ceramics In Dynamic Response of Advanced Ceramics, an accomplished team of internationally renowned researchers delivers a comprehensive exploration of foundational and advanced concepts in experimental, analytical, and computational aspects of the dynamic behavior of advanced structural ceramics and transparent materials. The book discusses new techniques used for determination of dynamic hardness and dynamic fracture toughness, as well as edge-on-impact experiments for imaging evolving damage patterns at high impact velocities. The authors also include descriptions of the dynamic deformation behavior of icosahedral ceramics and the dynamic behavior of several transparent materials, like chemically strengthened glass and glass ceramics. The developments discussed within the book have applications in everything from high-speed machining to cutting, grinding, and blast protection. Readers will also benefit from a presentation of emerging trends and directions in research on this subject as well as current challenges in experimental and computational domains, including: An introduction to the history of ceramic materials and their dynamic behavior, including examples of material response to high-strain-rate loading An exploration of high-strain-rate experimental techniques, like 1D elastic stress-wave propagation techniques, shock waves, and impact testing Discussions of the static and dynamic responses of ceramics and the shock response of brittle solids An overview of deformation mechanisms during projectile impact on a confined ceramic, including damage evolution during the nonpenetration and penetration phases. Perfect for researchers, scientists, and engineers working on ballistic impact and shock response of brittle materials, Dynamic Response of Advanced Ceramics will also earn a place in the libraries of industry personnel studying impact-resistant solutions for a variety of applications.

This book contains the fully peer-reviewed papers presented at the Third Engineering Foundation Conference on Small Fatigue Cracks, held under the chairmanship of K.S. Ravichandran and Y. Murakami during December 6-11, 1998, at the Turtle Bay Hilton, Oahu, Hawaii. This book presents a state-of-the-art description of the mechanics, mechanisms and applications of small fatigue cracks by most of the world's leading experts in this field. Topics ranging from the mechanisms of crack initiation, small crack behavior in metallic, intermetallic, ceramic and composite materials, experimental measurement, mechanistic and theoretical models, to the role of small cracks in fretting fatigue and the application of small crack results to the aging aircraft and high-cycle fatigue problems, are covered.

High-temperature materials is a fast-moving research area with numerous practical applications. Materials that can withstand extremely high temperatures and extreme environments are generating considerable attention worldwide; however, designing materials that have low densities, elevated melting temperatures, oxidation resistance, creep resistance, and intrinsic toughness encompass some of the most challenging problems in materials science. The current search for high-temperature materials is largely based on traditional, trial-and-error experimental methods which are costly and time-consuming. An effective way to accelerate research in this field is to use recent advances in materials simulations and high performance computing and communications (HPCC) to guide experiments. This synergy between experiment and advanced materials modeling will significantly enhance the synthesis of novel high-temperature materials. This volume collects recent work from experimental and computational scientists on high-temperature materials and emphasizes the potential for collaboration. It features state-of-the-art materials modeling and recent experimental developments in high-temperature materials. Topics include fundamental phenomena and properties; measurements and modeling of interfacial phenomena, stresses, growth of defects, strain, and fracture; and electronic structure and molecular dynamics.