Soft computing has provided sophisticated methodologies for the development of intelligent decision support systems. Fast advances in soft computing technologies, such as fuzzy logic and systems, artificial neural networks and evolutionary computation, have made available powerful problem representation and modelling paradigms, and learning and optimisation mechanisms for addressing modern decision making issues. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of up-to-date conceptual frameworks in broadly perceived decision support systems and successful applications. Different from other existing books, this volume predominately focuses on applied decision support with soft computing. Areas covered include planning, management finance and administration in both the private and public sectors.

This is a comprehensive guide to fault injection techniques used to evaluate the dependability of a digital system. The description and the critical analysis of different fault injection techniques and tools are authored by key scientists in the field of system dependability and fault tolerance.

Proceedings of the 26th Symposium of the International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue are a widely referenced summary of advances in aeronautical design against fatigue. This is a bi-annual event and the proceedings have been published in book form for over 35 years.

The investigation of the behavior of ferromagnetic particles in an external magnetic field is important for use in a wide range of applications in magnetostatics problems, from biomedicine to engineering. To the best of the author's knowledge, the systematic analysis for this kind of investigation is not available in the current literature. Therefore, this book contributes a complete solution for investigating the behavior of two ferromagnetic spherical particles, immersed in a uniform magnetic field, by obtaining exact mathematical models on a boundary value problem. While there are a vast number of common numerical and analytical methods for solving boundary value problems in the literature, the rapidly growing complexity of these solutions causes increase usage of the computer tools in practical cases. We analytically solve the boundary value problem by using a special technique called a bispherical coordinates system and the numerical computations were obtained by a computer tool. In addition to these details, we will present step-by-step instructions with simple explanations throughout the book, in an effort to act as inspiration in the reader's own modeling for relevant applications in science and engineering. On the other hand, the resulting analytical expressions will constitute benchmark solutions for specified geometric arrangements, which are beneficial for determining the validity of other relevant numerical techniques. The generated results are analyzed quantitatively as well as qualitatively in various approaches. Moreover, the methodology of this book can be adopted for real-world applications in the fields of ferrohydrodynamics, applied electromagnetics, fluid dynamics, electrical engineering, and so forth. Higher-level university students, academics, engineers, scientists, and researchers involved in the aforementioned fields are the intended audience for this book.

Environmental Design is becoming an increasingly significant agenda for many manufacturing companies and yet there is no standard to their approaches, strategies or their levels of execution. Applying Design for Environment (DfE) methodologies to develop a more sustainable supply chain has formed procedures and techniques which allow designers to integrate these methods with environmental supply chain management. Design for Environment as a Tool for the Development of a Sustainable Supply Chain aims to define relevant target specifications for a product throughout its life cycle; from conception and design to the end of its operating life. Be considering this new approach to the supply chain, environmental responsiveness can work in tandem with sounds business management. The usual focus on suppliers, manufacturers and customers is expanded in Design for Environment as a Tool for the Development of a Sustainable Supply Chain to include stakeholders such as government bodies and recycling companies. The influence of these additional groups is analyzed alongside concepts such as: Product life cycle development aimed at environmental impact minimization; Supplier selection and management based on environmental criteria; and Marketing and communication choices which increase the value of environmentally sensitive products. By including several case studies alongside theoretical topics, Design for Environment as a Tool for the Development of a Sustainable Supply Chains acts as a foundation for professionals across the supply chain, from industrial designers to marketing and sales departments, who are involved in environmental issues.

This edited book offers further advances, new perspectives, and developments from world leaders in the field of through-life engineering services (TES). It builds up on the earlier book by the same authors entitled: "Through-life Engineering Services: Motivation, Theory and Practice." This compendium introduces and discusses further, the developments in workshop-based and 'in situ' maintenance and support of high-value engineering products, as well as the application of drone technology for autonomous and self-healing product support. The links between 'integrated planning' and planned obsolescence, risk and cost modelling are also examined. The role of data, information, and knowledge management relative to component and system degradation and failure is also presented. This is supported by consideration of the effects upon the maintenance and support decision by the presence of 'No Fault Found' error signals within system data. Further to this the role of diagnostics and prognostics is also discussed. In addition, this text presents the fundamental information required to deliver an effective TES solution/strategy and identification of core technologies. The book contains reference and discussion relative to automotive. rail, and several other industrial case studies to highlight the potential of TES to redefine the product creation and development process. Additionally the role of warranty and service data in the product creation and delivery system is also introduced. This book offers a valuable reference resource for academics, practitioners and students of TES and the associated supporting technologies and business models that underpin whole-life product creation and delivery systems through the harvesting and application of condition and use based data.

This volume is dedicated to Jacob Aboudi, a ?ne scientist who has made seminal c- tributions in applied mechanics. The papers presented here re?ect the appreciation of many of Jacob's colleagues. A publication list f- lowing this introduction provides an indi- tion of his distinguished academic career, c- rently in its ?fth decade, and the breadth of hisknowledge. His papersconsistentlydem- strate originality, innovation and diligence. This list uncovers the methodical work of a dedicated researcher whose achievements established him as a leading authority in the area of mathematical modeling of the beh- ior of heterogeneous materials, the area which became known as homogenization theory. Starting in 1981, Jacob established a micromechanical model known as the Method of Cells (MOC) which evolved into the Generalized Method of Cells (GMC) that predicts the macroscopic response of composite materials as a function of the pr- erties, volume fractions, shapes, and constitutive behavior of its constituents. The versatility of the model has been demonstrated to effectively incorporate various types of constituent material behavior (i. e. , both coupled and uncoupled mecha- cal, thermal, electrical and magnetic effects). As a result of its potential in providing an ef?cient tool for the emerging ?eld of multiscale analysis, the method gained increasing attention and became a subject for further research.

In today's global economy, supply chains are an essential ingredient to corporate survival and growth. Operations strategy in supply chains must assume an ever-expanding and strategic role of risks that modern enterprises face when they operate in an interdependent supply chain environment. These operational and strategic facets entail a brand new set of operational problems and risks that have not always been understood or managed very well. It falls to supply chain managers to identify and to educate corporate managers on what these critical operational problems and risks involve. This book provides business students and practitioners with the means to understand, to model and to analyze these outstanding issues and problems that are the essential elements in managing supply chains today. This book will consider these problems in depth and draw essential conclusions regarding their management in supply chains. As a textbook treatment, it will examine traditional operational problems, expressing them in a strategic context, understanding their complexity, and recognizing their interdependency with other firms within a supply-chain environment. Used throughout the book will be application examples that illustrate all the aspects of dealing with and solving these kinds of problems. The content of SUPPLY CHAIN GAMES: Operations Management and Risk Valuation is presented in three sections, each of which will emphasize important facets of supply chain management operations. (1) Supply chains and operations modeling and management section will provide static and time models and their gradual extension to a supply chain environment. The section will give special attention tothe new concerns and issues at this level of analysis. (2) Inter-temporal supply chain management section will address this aspect as differential games. The differential games will be presented as natural continuous-time extensions of static models so that the effect of various types of dynamics on supply chains can be assessed and insights can be developed. (3) Risk and supply chain management section will deal with risk and supply chains as well as providing numerous applications regarding the management of interdependent operations and quality in a supply chain environment.

This book provides a systematic framework for effectively creating value through engineering in global business networks, and contributes to an increasingly important branch of engineering operations. By updating the traditional disciplines of engineering and operations management and addressing challenges and opportunities in building global network capabilities, this study offers a contemporary guide for developing effective industrial policies to enhance the global competitiveness of engineering sectors, which will be extremely useful to engineering companies and policy-makers. Themes discussed include main trends and driving forces, state-of-the-art knowledge in relevant subject areas, new technologies and leading practice. This timely book will help researchers, managers and students to gain an overall understanding of the pioneering research occurring in this field and it will enable companies to benefit from global engineering networks.

This book bridges the gap between theoretical concepts and their implementations, especially for the high-performance structures/components related to advanced composite materials. This work focuses on the prediction of various structural responses such as deformations, natural frequencies etc. of advanced composites under complex environments and/or loading conditions. In addition, it discusses micro-mechanical material modeling of various advanced composite materials that involve different structures ranging from basic to advanced, such as beams, flat and curved panels, shells, skewed, corrugated, and other materials, as well as various solution techniques via analytical, semi-analytical, and numerical approaches. This book: Covers micro-mechanical material modeling of advanced composite materials Describes constitutive models of different composite materials and kinematic models of different structural configuration Discusses pertinent analytical, semi-analytical, and numerical techniques Focusses on structural responses relating to deformations, natural frequencies, and critical loads under complex environments Presents actual demonstrations of theoretical concepts as applied to real examples using Ansys APDL scripts This book is aimed at researchers, professionals, and graduate students in mechanical engineering, material science, material engineering, structural engineering, aerospace engineering, and composite materials.

Safety is a paradoxical system property. It remains immaterial, intangible and invisible until a failure, an accident or a catastrophy occurs and, too late, reveals its absence. And yet, a system cannot be relied upon unless its safety can be explained, demonstrated and certified. The practical and difficult questions which motivate this study concern the evidence and the arguments needed to justify the safety of a computer based system, or more generally its dependability. Dependability is a broad concept integrating properties such as safety, reliability, availability, maintainability and other related characteristics of the behaviour of a system in operation. How can we give the users the assurance that the system enjoys the required dependability? How should evidence be presented to certification bodies or regulatory authorities? What best practices should be applied? How should we decide whether there is enough evidence to justify the release of the system? To help answer these daunting questions, a method and a framework are proposed for the justification of the dependability of a computer-based system. The approach specifically aims at dealing with the difficulties raised by the validation of software. Hence, it should be of wide applicability despite being mainly based on the experience of assessing Nuclear Power Plant instrumentation and control systems important to safety. To be viable, a method must rest on a sound theoretical background.

Covers the entire process of risk management by providing methodologies for determining the sources of engineering project risk, and once threats have been identified, managing them through: identification and assessment (probability, relative importance, variables, risk breakdown structure, etc.); implementation of measures for their prevention, reduction or mitigation; evaluation of impacts and quantification of risks and establishment of control measures. It also considers sensitivity analysis to determine the influence of uncertain parameters values on different project results, such as completion time, total costs, etc. Case studies and examples across a wide spectrum of engineering projects discuss such diverse factors as: safety; environmental impacts; societal reactions; time and cost overruns; quality control; legal issues; financial considerations; and political risk, making this suitable for undergraduates and graduates in grasping the fundamentals of risk management.

Aviation networks play a critical role in the success of today's airlines and airports. This book provides insight on all aspects of modern network strategies and structures, ranging from market research to hub design, operations, organization, alliances, benchmarking, and antitrust issues. Considering both the airline and the airport perspectives, the book explains the economics of connectivity or productivity-driven hub structures through basic mathematics, which helps the reader to comprehend the structural strengths and weaknesses of aviation networks. More than 100 charts help clarify the topics at hand.

The recognized requirement for advancements in Concurrent Engineering for sustainable productivity enhancement (improved quality of life) can be viewed positively. The basic aim of productivity enhancement is changing, from primarily seeking collaborative enterprise engineered solutions through a more restricted short-term market view. Rather, it is looking forward to a more expansive truly concurrent engineering approach to development that must be adopted in order to synthesize all of the far-reaching requirements and implications relating to products and their intended operation, service provision and end-of-life. It is already evident in this new century that the desire for sustainable development is increasingly driving the market to reach for new and innovative solutions that more effectively utilize the resources we have inherited from previous generations; with the obvious responsibility to future generations.

There is a need to rethink the way in which we make things in order to revise the a ~cradle to gravea (TM) philosophy of the industrial revolution, which can be viewed as an extreme relative to naturea (TM)s principle of sustainable evolution. Human productivity and progress can be positively engineered and managed in harmony with the provision and needs of our natural environment. One century on from the industrial revolution, this is now the time of the sustainable revolution; requiring holistic technological, process and people integrated solutions to sustained socio-economic enhancement. It might surprise Albert Einstein that he rather well encapsulated the nature of this a ~evolutionary strugglea (TM) when he stated: "The world will not evolve past itscurrent state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation."

Collaborative Product and Service Life Cycle Management for a Sustainable World gathers together papers from the 15th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering (CE2008), to stimulate the new thinking that is so crucial to our sustained productivity enhancement and quality of life.

The unique focus of the book is the close symbiotic relationship between design and manufacture. It covers a large number of actual issues in the field by authors from the main research groups involved in developing methods, models and tools for the improvement of design and manufacturing processes in companies. It presents a selection of thirty-three papers ensuing from the fifth International Conference on Integrated Design and Manufacturing in Mechanical Engineering, held at the University of Bath, UK, in April 2004.

The contributions are divided in the following sections: two keynotes presenting the general synergies and relationships between the design and manufacturing processes through the concepts of production knowledge and integration; design strategies and methodologies, dealing with the critical element of knowledge in design and manufacturing processes and the methods with which designing can be undertaken collaboratively in an integrated manner; integrated design of manufacturing processes, which aim is to ensure a high quality product meeting all requirements, rapidly and at optimum cost; and design tools for particular applications in which texts optimising local decision have been grouped.

The book is of interest to academics, students and practitioners specialising in design and manufacturing issues in mechanical engineering, who will find it of the greatest interest to compare various points of view within the fields broached throughout the Conference. This volume is recommended as a reference textbook for all researchers in this field. It will give teachning staff confronted with training methodologies in integrated design and production a toolto assess the scope of the development prospects in an extremely wide ranging field.

This new Handbook provides a series of reference guides to cleaner production methods, technologies, and practices for key industry sectors.

Each volume covers, for each industry sector: * the manufacturing technologies * waste management * pollution * methods for estimating and reporting emissions * treatment and control technologies * worker and community health risk exposures * cost data for pollution management * cleaner production and prevention alternatives Best Practices in The Petroleum Industry provides an overview of refineries and gas plant operations and identifies the key Environmental Aspects, supported by case studies of major incidents that resulted in catastrophic releases of oil and refined products, and a critical assessment of the methodology and calculation procedures that the industry relies on in preparing emissions inventories. The authors offer alternative approaches to providing more accurate emissions estimates, and guidelines on cleaner production and pollution prevention practices for improving overall environmental performance.
Overview of the key Environmental Aspects of gas plant operations and refineriesCase studies of major incidents that resulted in catastrophic releases of oil and refined products, including the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 and the EXXON Valdez incidentProvides guidelines on cleaner production and pollution prevention practices for improving overall environmental performance"