The importance of solid base catalysts has come to be recognized for their environmentally benign qualities, and much significant progress has been made over the past two decades in catalytic materials and solid base-catalyzed reactions. The book is focused on the solid base. Because of the advantages over liquid bases, the use of solid base catalysts in organic synthesis is expanding. Solid bases are easier to dispose than liquid bases, separation and recovery of products, catalysts and solvents are less difficult, and they are non-corrosive. Furthermore, base-catalyzed reactions can be performed without using solvents and even in the gas phase, opening up more possibilities for discovering novel reaction systems. Using numerous examples, the present volume describes the remarkable role solid base catalysis can play, given the ever increasing worldwide importance of "green" chemistry. The reader will obtain an overall view of solid base catalysis and gain insight into the versatility of the reactions to which solid base catalysts can be utilized. The concept and significance of solid base catalysis are discussed, followed by descriptions of various methods for the characterization of solid bases, including spectroscopic methods and test reactions. The preparation and properties of base materials are presented in detail, with the two final chapters devoted to surveying the variety of reactions catalyzed by solid bases.

This book addresses a modern topic in reliability: multi-state and continuous-state system reliability, which has been intensively developed in recent years. It offers an up-to-date overview of the latest developments in reliability theory for multi-state systems, engineering applications to a variety of technical problems, and case studies that will be of interest to reliability engineers and industrial managers. It also covers corresponding theoretical issues, as well as case studies illustrating the applications of the corresponding theoretical advances. The book is divided into two parts: Modern Mathematical Methods for Multi-state System Reliability Analysis (Part 1), and Applications and Case Studies (Part 2), which examines real-world multi-state systems. It will greatly benefit scientists and researchers working in reliability, as well as practitioners and managers with an interest in reliability and performability analysis. It can also be used as a textbook or as a supporting text for postgraduate courses in Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, and Operations Research.

This volume contains case studies, theoretical papers and project development reports on one of the greatest challenges facing the new digital enterprises: the life cycle approach to management and production. Main issues discussed in the book include CAD/CAM/CIM/CAE, intelligent manufacturing, and control and robotics applications.

Intelligent Manufacturing is a new disciplinary field which applies computer science, artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering and systems science to industrial manufacturing processes. This book presents a new integration architecture for implementing real-time distributed intelligent manufacturing systems.

Offshore Risk Assessment is the first book to deal with quantified risk assessment (QRA) as applied specifically to offshore installations and operations. Risk assessment techniques have been used for some years in the offshore oil and gas industry, and their use is set to expand increasingly as the industry moves into new areas and faces new challenges in older regions. The book starts with a thorough discussion of risk analysis methodology. Subsequent chapters are devoted to analytical approaches to escalation, escape, evacuation and rescue analysis of safety and emergency systems. Separate chapters analyze the main hazards of offshore structures: Fire, explosion, collision and falling objects. Risk mitigation and control are then discussed, followed by an outline of an alternative approach to risk modelling that focuses especially on the risk of short-duration activities. Not only does the book describe the state of the art of QRA, it also identifies weaknesses and areas that need development. Readership: Besides being a comprehensive reference for academics and students of marine/offshore risk assessment and management, the book should also be owned by professionals in the industry, contractors, suppliers, consultants and regulatory authorities.

Process planning detennines how a product is to be manufactured and is therefore a key element in the manufacturing process. It plays a major part in detennining the cost of components and affects all factory activities, company competitiveness, production planning, production efficiency and product quality. It is a crucial link between design and manufacturing. In spite of the importance of process planning in the manufacturing cycle, there is no fonnal methodology which can be used, or can help to train personnel for this job. Process planning activities are predominantly labor intensive, depending on the experience and the skill and intuition of the planner, and therefore often precludes a thorough analysis and optimization of the process plan which nearly always results in higher than necessary production costs, delays, errors and non-standardization of processes. Process planning is regarded as an art and not a science. Research in the field of process planning has indicated that all experts have their own expertise and one expert's experience might be different from that of another. It is rare, therefore, for two planners to produce the same process. Each process will produce the part as specified, although different processes will result in different processing times and costs. The question is, who is an expert? By definition an expert is one 'having or manifesting the knowledge, skill and experience needed for success in a particular field or endeavor', or 'one who has acquired special skill in or knowledge and mastery of something'.

This book showcases over 60 cutting-edge research papers from the 5th International Conference on Research into Design - the largest in India in this area - written by eminent researchers from across the world on design process, technologies, methods and tools, and their impact on innovation, for supporting design across boundaries. The special features of the book are the variety of insights into the product and system innovation process, and the host of methods and tools from all major areas of design research for the enhancement of the innovation process. The main benefit of the book for researchers in various areas of design and innovation are access to the latest quality research in this area, with the largest collection of research from India. For practitioners and educators, it is exposure to an empirically validated suite of theories, models, methods and tools that can be taught and practiced for design-led innovation.

This monograph presents design methodologies for (robust) fractional control systems. It shows the reader how to take advantage of the superior flexibility of fractional control systems compared with integer-order systems in achieving more challenging control requirements. There is a high degree of current interest in fractional systems and fractional control arising from both academia and industry and readers from both milieux are catered to in the text. Different design approaches having in common a trade-off between robustness and performance of the control system are considered explicitly. The text generalizes methodologies, techniques and theoretical results that have been successfully applied in classical (integer) control to the fractional case. The first part of Advances in Robust Fractional Control is the more industrially oriented. It focuses on the design of fractional controllers for integer processes. In particular, it considers fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative controllers, because integer-order PID regulators are, undoubtedly, the controllers most frequently adopted in industry. The second part of the book deals with a more general approach to fractional control systems, extending techniques (such as H-infinity optimal control and optimal input-output inversion based control) originally devised for classical integer-order control. Advances in Robust Fractional Control will be a useful reference for the large number of academic researchers in fractional control, for their industrial counterparts and for graduate students who want to learn more about this subject.

This book presents a unique collection of contributions from some of the foremost scholars in the field of risk and reliability analysis. Combining the most advanced analysis techniques with practical applications, it is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date books available on risk-based engineering. All the fundamental concepts needed to conduct risk and reliability assessments are covered in detail, providing readers with a sound understanding of the field and making the book a powerful tool for students and researchers alike. This book was prepared in honor of Professor Armen Der Kiureghian, one of the fathers of modern risk and reliability analysis.

The assembly sector is one of the least automated in the manufacturing industry. Automation is essential if industrial companies are to be competitive in the future. In assembly, an integrated and flexible approach is needed because 75% of the applications are produced in small and medium batches. The methodologies developed in this book deal with the integration of the assembly process from the initial design of the product to its production. In such an integrated system, assembly planning is one of the most important features. A well-chosen assembly plan will reduce both the number of tool changes and the fixtures within the assembly cell. It will prevent the handling of unstable subassemblies, simplify the design of the robot grippers and reduce production costs. An automatic generator of assembly sequences can be an efficient aid to the designer. Whenever he or she modifies features of the product, the influence of these modifications can immediately be checked on the sequences. For small batch production, the automatic generation of assembly sequences is faster, more reliable and more cost-effective than manual generation. By using this latter method interesting sequences could be missed because of the combinatorial explosion of solutions. The main subjects treated in this book are as follows. 1. Presentation and classification of existing systems of automatic generation of assembly sequences. Automatic assembly planning is, indeed, a very recent research area and, in my experience, no systematic study has been carried out up to now.

Microprocessors increasingly control and monitor our most critical systems, including automobiles, airliners, medical systems, transportation grids, and defense systems. The relentless march of semiconductor process technology has given engineers exponentially increasing transistor budgets at constant recurring cost. This has encouraged increased functional integration onto a single die, as well as increased architectural sophistication of the functional units themselves. Additionally, design cycle times are decreasing, thus putting increased schedule pressure on engineers. Not surprisingly, this environment has led to a number of uncaught design flaws. Traditional simulation-based design verification has not kept up with the scale or pace of modern microprocessor system design. Formal verification methods offer the promise of improved bug-finding capability, as well as the ability to establish functional correctness of a detailed design relative to a high-level specification. However, widespread use of formal methods has had to await breakthroughs in automated reasoning, integration with engineering design languages and processes, scalability, and usability.

This book presents several breakthrough design and verification techniques that allow these powerful formal methods to be employed in the real world of high-assurance microprocessor system design.

This volume is intended to stimulate a change in the practice of decision support, advocating an interdisciplinary approach centred on both social and natural sciences, both theory and practice. It addresses the issue of analysis and management of uncertainty and risk in decision support corresponding to the aims of Integrated Assessment. A pluralistic method is necessary to account for legitimate plural interpretations of uncertainty and multiple risk perceptions. A wide range of methods and tools is presented to contribute to adequate and effective pluralistic uncertainty management and risk analysis in decision support endeavours. Special attention is given to the development of one such approach, the Pluralistic fRamework for Integrated uncertainty Management and risk Analysis (PRIMA), of which the practical value is explored in the context of the Environmental Outlooks produced by the Dutch Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM). Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners whose work involves decision support, uncertainty management, risk analysis, environmental planning, and Integrated Assessment.

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the principles underlying optimal constrained control and estimation. The contents progress from optimisation theory, fixed-horizon discrete optimal control, receding-horizon implementations and stability conditions to explicit solutions and numerical algorithms, moving horizon estimation, and connections between constrained estimation and control. Several case studies and further developments illustrate and expand the core principles.

Specific topics covered include:

a [ An overview of optimisation theory.

a [ Links to optimal control theory, including the discrete-minimum principle.

a [ Linear and nonlinear receding-horizon constrained control including stability.

a [ Constrained control solutions having a finite parameterisation for specific classes of problems.

a [ Numerical procedures for solving constrained optimisation problems.

a [ Output feedback optimal constrained control.

a [ Constrained state estimation.

a [ Duality between constrained estimation and control.

a [ Applications to finite alphabet control and estimation problems, cross-directional control, rudder-roll stabilisation of ships, and control over communication networks.

Constrained Control and Estimation is a self-contained treatment assuming that the reader has a basic background in systems theory, including linear control, stability and state-space methods. It is suitable for use in senior-level courses and as material for reference and self-study. A companion website is continually updated by the authors.

At first glance, a book on "Design by Composition for Rapid Prototyping" may seem out of place in a series on Robotics. However, this work has a couple of strong connections to the field of robotics and the robotics community, and I am delighted to introduce it to the series. The first connection is the motivation behind Binnard's work. Michael Binnard came to Stanford after having done his Masters thesis at the M.LT. Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he designed and built small walking robots, such as Boadicea (http: //www.ai.mit.eduJprojects/boadicea/).At M.LT. he observed first-hand how difficult it is to align, connect and support standard actuators, sensors, and processors in small mobile robots. Figure lea) below shows how complicated it is just to connect a simple motor to one link of a robot leg using conventional methods. Surely there had to be a better way Shape deposition manufacturing, an emerging rapid prototyping process, offered a possible solution. Actuators, sensors, processors and other components could be embedded directly into almost arbitrary three-dimensional shapes, without any of the fasteners and couplings that complicate the design in Figure lea). The process makes it possible to construct integrated robotic mechanisms, such as the example shown in Figure 1 (b) and the additional examples found in Chapters 7 and 8 of this monograph.

This book contains the most relevant papers presented in the International Conference on Materials Forming, ESAFORM 2005. It gathers selected plenary and keynote papers presented in the conference, offering an up-to-date synthesis of the academic and industrial research in the fields of physical and numerical modeling of materials forming processes.

This unique book explains how to fashion useful regression models from commonly available data to erect models essential for evidence-based road safety management and research. Composed from techniques and best practices presented over many years of lectures and workshops, The Art of Regression Modeling in Road Safety illustrates that fruitful modeling cannot be done without substantive knowledge about the modeled phenomenon. Class-tested in courses and workshops across North America, the book is ideal for professionals, researchers, university professors, and graduate students with an interest in, or responsibilities related to, road safety. This book also: * Presents for the first time a powerful analytical tool for road safety researchers and practitioners * Includes problems and solutions in each chapter as well as data and spreadsheets for running models and PowerPoint presentation slides * Features pedagogy well-suited for graduate courses and workshops including problems, solutions, and PowerPoint presentations * Equips readers to perform all analyses on a spreadsheet without requiring mastery of complex and costly software * Emphasizes understanding without esoteric mathematics * Makes assumptions visible and explains their role and consequences

The ELFNET Book on Failure Mechanisms, Testing Methods, and Quality Issues of Lead-Free Solder Interconnects is the work of the European network ELFNET which was founded by the European Commission in the 6th Framework Programme. It brings together contributions from the leading European experts in lead-free soldering. The limited validity of testing methods originating from tin-lead solder was a major point of concern in ELFNET members' discussions. As a result, the network's reliability group decided to bring together the material properties of lead-free solders, as well as the basics of material science, and to discuss their influence on the procedures for accelerated testing. This has led to a matrix of failure mechanisms and their activation and, as a result, to a comprehensive coverage of the scientific background and its applications in reliability testing of lead-free solder joints. The ELFNET Book on Failure Mechanisms, Testing Methods, and Quality Issues of Lead-Free Solder Interconnects is written for scientists, engineers and researchers involved with lead-free electronics.

Design and manufacturing is the essential element in any product development lifecycle. Industry vendors and users have been seeking a common language to be used for the entire product development lifecycle that can describe design, manufacturing and other data pertaining to the product. Many solutions were proposed, the most successful being the Stadndard for Exchange of Product model (STEP). STEP provides a mechanism that is capable of describing product data, independent from any particular system. The nature of this description makes it suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing, sharing and archiving product databases. ISO 10303-AP203 is the first and perhaps the most successful AP developed to exchange design data between different CAD systems. Going from geometric data (as in AP203) to features (as in AP224) represents an important step towards having the right type of data in a STEP-based CAD/CAM system. Of particular significance is the publication of STEP-NC, as an extension of STEP to NC, utilising feature-based concepts for CNC machining purposes. The aim of this book is to provide a snapshot of the recent research outcomes and implementation cases in the field of design and manufacturing where STEP is used as the primary data representation protocol. The 20 chapters are contributed by authors from most of the top research teams in the world. These research teams are based in national research institutes, industries as well as universities.

The management of production and service processes can be supported by microcomputer simulation models-effectively and inexpensively-if the techniques are presented in an understandable manner. Drs. Klafehn, Weinroth, and Boronico prove this and show how to do it-not only for the benefit of operations managers themselves, but for others with management responsibilities in a variety of businesses and industries. They will learn how important daily operations problems can be modeled on a microcomputer, gain understanding of overall simulation methodology, and learn the several forms of cost savings achievable through simulation. For teachers in business schools the book will also provide a link between general management and the management of engineering and R&D. The first chapter introduces the reader to the concepts and steps for undertaking a microcomputer simulation project. In addition, the benefits, drawbacks, and myths are reviewed in detail. Chapter two explores, in a conversational scenario, what is involved in taking a management operations problem involving a truck transfer depot from its point of inception to the formulation of a systems operation model, which in a later chapter is ultimately put into a computer simulation model and tested to, in a sense, come up with answers to the questions posed in the hypothetical conversation. Subsequent chapters in the book are oriented to a discussion of other operations management problems and the effort to seek insight and solutions through simulation modeling. A Just-in-Time manufacturing system is addressed, recognizing the push-pull concept as well as looking at the quality aspect. Attempting to determine the optimum levels for safety, stock, order points, and order quantity is investigated through computer simulation. These levels are predicated on balancing the costs associated with ordering and holding goods as well as the penalty costs of stocking out. Using a simulated environment enables the inclusion of the variability evidenced by the type of distribution. The remaining chapters also review alternative rules and what ifs as applied to machine configuration, facility location for a satellite EMS unit, and job shop operations. Each of the applications chapters provides a printout of the basic computer model, written in GPSS, that was then modified to investigate alternative scenarios.

This book offers a collection of original peer-reviewed contributions presented at the 6th International Congress on Design and Modeling of Mechanical Systems (CMSM'2015), held in Hammamet, Tunisia, from the 23rd to the 25th of March 2015. It reports on both recent research findings and innovative industrial applications in the fields of mechatronics and robotics, dynamics of mechanical systems, fluid structure interaction and vibroacoustics, modeling and analysis of materials and structures, and design and manufacturing of mechanical systems. Since its first edition in 2005, the CMSM Congress has been held every two years with the aim of bringing together specialists from universities and industry to present the state-of-the-art in research and applications, discuss the most recent findings and exchange and develop expertise in the field of design and modeling of mechanical systems. The CMSM Congress is jointly organized by three Tunisian research laboratories: the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the National Engineering School of Monastir; the Mechanical Laboratory of Sousse, part of the National Engineering School of Sousse; and the Mechanical, Modeling and Manufacturing Laboratory at the National Engineering School of Sfax.

Most successful organizations recognize Maintenance Parts and Procurement as a critical success factor to Asset Management Excellence and their fundamental supply chain value proposition. This book works as a guide to all the stakeholders that influence the success of their Maintenance Parts Operation and their enterprise's bottom line. Maintenance Parts Management Excellence: A Holistic Anatomy defines the Maintenance Parts Managements role in Asset Management Excellence and expands on the importance of the Parts Inventory Planner role in an organization. It discusses how to create a unique Maintenance Parts Management Strategy for an organization and offers insights on the multiple strategies needed to create and maintain a Maintenance Parts inventory policy. The book also provides an organized overall approach to creating Maintenance Parts Management Excellence in an enterprise. Executives with an organization responsible for the construction, management, and disposal of all assets classes (plant, equipment, IT assets), consultants responsible for assignments associated with optimizing life cycle decisions for clients, maintenance, and reliability professionals within an organization, will benefit from this professional plus book. Upper-level undergraduate engineering students, as well as graduate students of management who focus on operations management and engineering graduate students addressing issues of maintenance and reliability engineering, may also be interested in this book.

The motivation for this monograph can be traced to a seminar on Simple Games given by Professor S.H. Tijs of the Catholic University at Nijmegen way back in 1981 or 1982 at the Delhi campus of the Indian Statistical Institute. As an ap plied statistician and a consultant in quality control, I was naturally interested in Reliability Theory. I was aquainted with topics in reliability like coherent systems, importance of components etc., mainly through Barlow and Proschan's book. At the seminar given by Professor Tijs, I noticed the striking similarity between the concepts in reliability and simple games and this kindled my interest in simple games. When I started going deep into the literature of simple games, I noticed that a number of concepts as well as results which were well known in game theory were rediscovered much later by researchers in reliability. Though the conceptual equivalence of coherent structures and simple games has been noticed quite early, it is not that much well known. In fact, the theoretical developments have taken place practically independent of each other, with considerable duplication of research effort. The basic objective of this monograph is to unify some of the concepts and developments in reliability and simple games so as to avoid further duplication."

Software has become a decisive cost and time factor in regard to developing and establishing manufacturing systems and setting them into operation. In addition, software determines the availability, reliability as well as functionality of manufacturing units. Software Engineering for Manufacturing Systems considers the methods and procedures required to deal with problems in the software engineering of control technology for manufacturing systems. Significantly, the following topics are addressed: * definitions and requirements of software for control technology * system design, describing forms of control software * CASE tools for the generation of a code * configuration, adaption of standard software variants, and re-usability of software * and man-machine interface. It contains the selected proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering and Case Tools for Control Technology of Manufacturing Systems, sponsored by the IFIP and held in Germany, in March 1996.

The resilience of computing systems includes their dependability as well as their fault tolerance and security. It defines the ability of a computing system to perform properly in the presence of various kinds of disturbances and to recover from any service degradation. These properties are immensely important in a world where many aspects of our daily life depend on the correct, reliable and secure operation of often large-scale distributed computing systems. Wolter and her co-editors grouped the 20 chapters from leading researchers into seven parts: an introduction and motivating examples, modeling techniques, model-driven prediction, measurement and metrics, testing techniques, case studies, and conclusions. The core is formed by 12 technical papers, which are framed by motivating real-world examples and case studies, thus illustrating the necessity and the application of the presented methods. While the technical chapters are independent of each other and can be read in any order, the reader will benefit more from the case studies if he or she reads them together with the related techniques. The papers combine topics like modeling, benchmarking, testing, performance evaluation, and dependability, and aim at academic and industrial researchers in these areas as well as graduate students and lecturers in related fields. In this volume, they will find a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in a field of continuously growing practical importance.

This book presents an in-depth study and elucidation on the mechanisms of the micro-cutting process, with particular emphasis and a novel viewpoint on materials characterization and its influences on ultra-precision machining. Ultra-precision single point diamond turning is a key technology in the manufacture of mechanical, optical and opto-electronics components with a surface roughness of a few nanometers and form accuracy in the sub-micrometric range. In the context of subtractive manufacturing, ultra-precision diamond turning is based on the pillars of materials science, machine tools, modeling and simulation technologies, etc., making the study of such machining processes intrinsically interdisciplinary. However, in contrast to the substantial advances that have been achieved in machine design, laser metrology and control systems, relatively little research has been conducted on the material behavior and its effects on surface finish, such as the material anisotropy of crystalline materials. The feature of the significantly reduced depth of cut on the order of a few micrometers or less, which is much smaller than the average grain size of work-piece materials, unavoidably means that conventional metal cutting theories can only be of limited value in the investigation of the mechanisms at work in micro-cutting processes in ultra-precision diamond turning.