This book provides cutting edge insight into systems dynamics, as applied to engineering systems including control systems. The coverage is intended for both students and practicing engineers. Updated throughout in the second edition, it serves as a firm foundation to develop expertise in design, simulation, prototyping, control, instrumentation, experimentation, and performance analysis.
Providing a clear discussion of system dynamics, the book enables students and professionals to both understand and subsequently model mechanical, thermal, fluid, electrical, and multi-physics systems in a systematic, unified and integrated manner, which leads to a "unique" model. Concepts of through-and across-variables are introduced and applied, alongside tools of modeling and model-representation such as linear graphs and block diagrams. The book uses and illustrates popular software tools such as SIMULINK, throughout, and additionally makes use of innovative worked examples and case studies, alongside problems and exercises based on practical situations.
The book is a crucial companion to undergraduate and postgraduate mechanical engineering and other engineering students, alongside professionals in the field. Complete solutions to end-of-chapter problems are provided in a Solutions Manual that is available to instructors.
About the Author: Dr. Clarence W. de Silva, PEng, Fellow ASME, Fellow IEEE, Fellow Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow Royal Society of Canada, is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada since 1988. He has occupied the following chair professorships:
- Senior Canada Research Chair Professorship in mechatronics and industrial automation
- NSERC-BC Packers Research Chair in industrial automation
- Mobil Endowed Chair Professorship
He has served as a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University (1978-1987) and as a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge (1987-1988).
He has earned PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978) and the University of Cambridge, England (1998), the Higher Doctorate, ScD from the University of Cambridge (2020), and an honorary DEng degree from University of Waterloo (2008).
- Other Fellowships: Lilly Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University; NASA-ASEE Fellow; Senior Fulbright Fellow at Cambridge University; Fellow of the Advanced Systems Institute of British Columbia; Killam Fellow; Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Professorial Fellow at University of Melbourne; and Peter Wall Scholar at the University of British Columbia.
- Awards: Paynter Outstanding Investigator Award and Takahashi Education Award, ASME Dynamic Systems & Control Division; Killam Research Prize; Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, IEEE Canada; Lifetime Achievement Award, World Automation Congress; IEEE Third Millennium Medal; Meritorious Achievement Award, Association of Professional Engineers of BC; and Outstanding Contribution Award, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. Also, he has made 49 keynote addresses at international conferences.
- Editorial Duties: Served on 14 journals including IEEE Transactions on Control System Technology, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement & Control, Transactions of the ASME and IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics; editor-in-chief, International Journal of Control and Intelligent Systems; editor-in-chief, International Journal of Knowledge-Based Intelligent Engineering Systems; senior technical editor, Measurements and Control; and regional editor, North America, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence--IFAC International Journal.
- Publications: 25 technical books, 19 edited books, 51 book chapters, over 300 journal articles, and a similar number of conference papers.
- Recent Books: Sensor Systems (Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2017); Sensors and Actuators: Engineering System Instrumentation (2nd Ed., Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2016); Mechanics of Materials (Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2014), Mechatronics: A Foundation Course (Taylor & Francis/ CRC, 2010); Modeling and Control of Engineering Systems (Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2009); Vibration: Fundamentals and Practice, (2nd Ed., Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2007); Mechatronics; An Integrated Approach (Taylor & Francis/CRC, 2005); Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems Design: Theory, Tools, and Applications (with F. Karray, Addison Wesley, 2004); and Force and Position Control of Mechatronic Systems--Design and Applications in Medical Devices, Springer, (with T.H. Lee, W. Liang, and K. Tan, Springer, 2021).
