The Hong Merchants of Canton: Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade, 1684-1798, Cheong Weng Eang

The cases are drawn from such diverse fields as mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mining, civil/structural engineering, electrical power systems, and radiation damage; the last two topics are quite scarce in current publications. It includes theoretical content that deals with useful topics in basic theory, material properties, failure mechanisms, EFA methodology, and applications. It provides high-quality illustrations throughout, which greatly helps to promote the understanding of the failure characteristics described. This book offers an integrated approach that serves as a useful first reference in the above topics, for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as for practicing engineers.

The book provides a hands-on approach to EFA, which helps the user to develop an understanding of potential failure situations, to explore the consequences, and to better understand how to solve similar problems; it also helps users to develop their own techniques for most other engineering failure problems. The authors include a section on technical report writing, which will assist failure investigators in getting their findings across. They also present simple engineering calculations that may serve as illustrative examples, and typical problems and solutions are included at the end of each chapter.