This volume is a collection of the papers presented at the International Conference on Fractal Concepts and the Application of Chaos in Chemical Engineering Problems. The book provides a detailed description of the current research on the application of fractal concepts, nonlinear dynamics and disordered systems in chemical engineering, with emphasis on interdisciplinary connections with related fields, such as control theory of nonlinear systems, dynamic theory of fractals, transport theory and physical chemistry of heterogeneous materials.

This conference focused on the current research and future perspectives on the application of disordered systems theory, fractals and chaotic dynamical systems to chemical engineering problems. The contributions published here are organised around 4 main themes: Chaos (Analysis and Control) in Reactors and Reacting Systems; Transport in Disordered Media; Time-Series Analysis; and Multiphase Flow Characterization.

This book is written for all engineers, graduate students and beginners working in the application fields, and for experimental scientists in general. It is not presented as a purely theoretical treatise but shows mathematics at a workshop, so to speak, through important applications originating in a deep pure mathematical theory. Widely spread subjects which the author has encountered hitherto are briefly addressed in the book, as chaos and fractal science is a frontier of new research fields nowadays.

Fractals play an important role in modeling natural phenomena and engineering processes. And fractals have a close connection to the concepts of chaotic dynamics. This monograph presents definitions, concepts, notions and methodologies of both spatial and temporal fractals. It addresses students and researchers in chemistry and in chemical engineering. The authors present the concepts and methodologies in sufficient detail for uninitiated readers. They include many simple examples and graphical illustrations. They outline some examples in more detail: Perimeter fractal dimension of char particles, surface fractal dimension of charcoal; fractal analysis of pressure fluctuation in multiphase flow systems. Readers who master the concepts in this book, can confidently apply them to their fields of interest.

The application of fractals in the engineering sciences is evolving swiftly and the editors have turned to Springer for the third time to bring you the latest research emerging from the rapid growth in techniques available for the employment of the ideas of fractals and complexity to a variety of disciplines in and associated with the engineering field. The strong potential of this research can be seen in real industrial situations with recent progress being made in areas such as chemical engineering, internet traffic, physics and finance. Image processing continues to be a major field of application for fractal analysis and is well-represented here. It is important to note that the applications models are presented with a firm basis in theoretical argument, the qualitative observation of fractal phenomena no longer being sufficient. Consisting of papers written by a world-wide pool of experts, the multidisciplinary approach of this third volume will be of particular interest to industrial researchers and practitioners as well as to academics from many backgrounds. Fractals in Engineering: New Trends in Theory and Applications continues the publication of engineering-related research in fractal techniques begun in Fractals in Engineering and Fractals: Theory and Applications in Engineering (Springer London 1997 and 1999).