This book presents intuitive explanations of the principles of microgrids, including their structure and operation and their applications. It also discusses the latest research on microgrid control and protection technologies and the essentials of microgrids as well as enhanced communication systems. The book provides solutions to microgrid operation and planning issues using various methodologies including planning and modelling; AC and DC hybrid microgrids; energy storage systems in microgrids; and optimal microgrid operational planning. Written by specialists, it is filled in innovative solutions and research related to microgrid operation, making it a valuable resource for those interested in developing updated approaches in electric power analysis, design and operational strategies. Thanks to its in-depth explanations and clear, three-part structure, it is useful for electrical engineering students, researchers and technicians.

This critical volume provides practical insights on sulfuric acid and related plant design and on techniques to improve and enhance substantially the efficiency of an existing plant by means of small modifications. The book provides readers with a better understanding of the state-of-art in sulfuric acid manufacture as well as, importantly, in the manufacture of value-added products based on sulfur that are also associated with the manufacture of sulfuric acid. Overall, engineers and plant managers will be introduced to technologies for making their sulfuric acid enterprises more productive, remunerative, and environmentally friendly. "A Practical Guide to the Manufacture of Sulfuric Acid, Oleums, and Sulfonating Agents"covers sulfuric acid and derivative chemical plant details from the nuts-and-bolts level to a holistic perspective based on actual field experience. The book is indispensable to anyone involved in implementing a sulfuric acid or related chemical plant."

Experts from academia and government who are actively engaged in research in the area of risk communication present a compendium of cases that give information and allow the development of strategies to improve the communication of scientific information to the public. The cases span Western, Central and Eastern Europe, covering such areas as nuclear waste, heavy metal contamination, landfill siting, risk perception, global warming, international health for all, and more. The conclusions and recommendations presented here are being used to develop future activities to further explore this area of risk communication as an international study. Audience: Scientists, risk communicators, psychologists, toxicologists, health professionals, and anyone who has an interest in public communication on scientific uncertainty.

Industrial development is essential to improvement of the standard of living in all countries. People's health and the environment can be affected, directly or indirectly by routine waste discharges or by accidents. A series of recent major industrial accidents and the effect of pollution highlighted, once again, the need for better management of routine and accidental risks. Moreover, the existence of natural hazards complicate even more the situation in any given region. In the past effort to cope with these risks, if made at all, have been largely on a plant by plant basis; some plants are well equipped to manage environmental and health hazards, while others are not. Managing the hazards of modern technological systems has become a key activity in highly industrialised countries. Decision makers are often confronted with complex issues concerning economic and social development, industrialisation and associated infrastructure needs, population and land use planning. Such issues have to be addressed in such a way that ensures that public health will not be disrupted or substantially degraded. Due to the increasing complexity of technological systems and the higher geographical density of punctual hazard sources, new methodologies and a novel approach to these problems are challenging risk managers and regional planers. Risks from these new complex technological systems are inherently different form those addressed by the risk managers for decades ago.

This book introduces data-driven remaining useful life prognosis techniques, and shows how to utilize the condition monitoring data to predict the remaining useful life of stochastic degrading systems and to schedule maintenance and logistics plans. It is also the first book that describes the basic data-driven remaining useful life prognosis theory systematically and in detail. The emphasis of the book is on the stochastic models, methods and applications employed in remaining useful life prognosis. It includes a wealth of degradation monitoring experiment data, practical prognosis methods for remaining useful life in various cases, and a series of applications incorporated into prognostic information in decision-making, such as maintenance-related decisions and ordering spare parts. It also highlights the latest advances in data-driven remaining useful life prognosis techniques, especially in the contexts of adaptive prognosis for linear stochastic degrading systems, nonlinear degradation modeling based prognosis, residual storage life prognosis, and prognostic information-based decision-making.

This book presents comprehensive information on the relay auto-tuning method for unstable systems in process control industries, and introduces a new, refined Ziegler-Nichols method for designing controllers for unstable systems. The relay auto-tuning method is intended to assist graduate students in chemical, electrical, electronics and instrumentation engineering who are engaged in advanced process control. The book's main focus is on developing a controller tuning method for scalar and multivariable systems, particularly for unstable processes. It proposes a much simpler technique, avoiding the shortcomings of the popular relay-tuning method. The effects of higher-order harmonics are incorporated, owing to the shape of output waveforms. In turn, the book demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of the Ziegler-Nichols method through simulations on a number of linear and non-linear unstable systems, confirming that it delivers better performance and robust stability in the presence of uncertainty. The proposed method can also be easily implemented across industries with the help of various auto-tuners available on the market. Offering a professional and modern perspective on profitably and efficiently automating controller tuning, the book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers, and industry professionals alike.

"Integrated Risk Governance: Science Plan and Case Studies of Large-scale Disasters" is the first book in the IHDP-Integrated Risk Governance Project Series. It consists of two parts: Part I: Integrated Risk Governance Project Science Plan, which outlines the challenge, research programme, outcomes, and implementation strategy of the IRG Project; and Part II: Case Studies of Large-scale Disasters, which includes case analyses of experience, lessons learned and recommendations on various large-scale disasters around the world, such as the Tangshan and Wenchuan earthquakes and the great ice storm in China, European heat waves, and Hurricane Katrina in the USA. The community model of integrated natural disaster risk governance and paradigm of catastrophe risk governance in China are also presented. Prof. Peijun Shi works at Beijing Normal University, China; Prof. Carlo Jaeger works at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany; Prof.Qian Ye works at Beijing Normal University, China.

Classes of socio-technical hazards allow a characterization of the risk in technology innovation and clarify the mechanisms underpinning emergent technological risk. Emerging Technological Risk provides an interdisciplinary account of risk in socio-technical systems including hazards which highlight: * How technological risk crosses organizational boundaries, * How technological trajectories and evolution develop from resolving tensions emerging between social aspects of organisations and technologies and * How social behaviour shapes, and is shaped by, technology. Addressing an audience from a range of academic and professional backgrounds, Emerging Technological Risk is a key source for those who wish to benefit from a detail and methodical exposure to multiple perspectives on technological risk. By providing a synthesis of recent work on risk that captures the complex mechanisms that characterize the emergence of risk in technology innovation, Emerging Technological Risk bridges contributions from many disciplines in order to sustain a fruitful debate. Emerging Technological Risk is one of a series of books developed by the Dependability Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

This book focuses on technical safety, means of expanding the current procedures, and making the related risks more predictable. It identifies the 'hidden commonalities' of the various technical safety concepts and formulates a corresponding procedure, applicable across disciplines, in a single guideline. The future is now: we constantly face change through science, research and technologies, change through industrial development, and new innovations and complexities. Our society fundamentally depends on technical systems, infrastructures and interconnected smart components, in every corner of the human environment. And these systems bring with them the need for technical safety. The risks of extending what is technically feasible have to be identified and analyzed at an early stage so as to avoid and/or mitigate potential harm by means of appropriate countermeasures. Every technical field interprets technical safety in its own way. However, if a safety concept is to be comprehensively applied, it must be compatible with all technical fields - a challenge this book successfully addresses.

This book is a carefully developed integration of mathematical models that relate Six Sigma and reliability measures for the first time. Several case studies are used throughout the book to illustrate the application of the models discussed. The strength of Six Sigma is the way in which it structures the problem and the solution methodology to solve the problem. This is probably the only concept to attract the attention of almost all companies across the world irrespective of their business mission.

Computer software reliability has never been more important. Today, computers are employed in areas as diverse as air traffic control, nuclear reactors, aircraft, real-time military, industrial process control, security system control, biometric scan-systems, automotive, mechanical and safety control, and hospital patient monitoring systems. Many of these applications require critical functionality as software applications increase in size and complexity.

System Software Reliability is an introduction to software reliability engineering as well as a detailed survey of the state-of-the-art techniques, methodologies and tools used to assess the reliability of software and combined software-hardware systems. The most recent research results in the field are reported and future directions in the subject are signposted.

This comprehensive text will be of interest to:

• graduate students as an introduction to software reliability engineering and a textbook for graduate courses;
• software and reliability engineers as a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the field; and,
• researchers and lecturers in universities and research institutions as a one-volume reference.

This book is a report to the Executive Board of the Rijnmond Public Authority. The report presents the results of a pilot study of the risks to the employees in, and the population around six industrial installations. The installations were selected to illustrate various materials and technologies present in this area e.g. toxic, flammable, cryogenic and pressure storage. The study was performed in close cooperation between authorities, industry and consultants. The report consists of 5 parts: Part I is the report of the Steering Committee, which managed the whole project. It contains the background, the aims of the study, conclusions, general comments and recommendations. Appendices I and 2 give information about the parties involved in the study and the screening process applied to the collected safety data respectively. Part 2, the main report by Cremer and Warner Ltd., presents the way the risk analysis of the six industrial installations was performed. All the steps necessary to carry out such an analysis are presented and discussed. The final results are given in tables showing the average number of fatalities per year both for employees and the population. Appendices I to VII contain the calculation models used (dischar ge rates, dispersion, combustion, etc.). Appendices VII to X give a historical review of incidents, fai lure rate data and meteorological data respectively. Appendix XII gives the final results of the consequence analyses and appendix XIII presents the fault trees and derivation of failure rates."

This book presents the proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Product Management (EPPM 2017), highlighting the importance of engineering, project and product management in a region of the world that is in need of transformation and rebuilding. The aim of the conference was to bring together the greatest minds in engineering and management and offer them a platform to share their innovative, and potentially transformational, findings. The proceedings are comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and advanced in their approach with an appeal not only for academicians and university students but also for professionals in various engineering fields, especially construction, manufacturing and production.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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."

This volume investigates the interdisciplinary and cross-cutting challenges in the risk analysis of natural hazards. It brings together leading minds in engineering, science, philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Parts I and II of this volume explore risk assessment, first by providing an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions involved in the assessment of natural hazards, and then by exploring the particular impacts of climate change on natural hazard assessment. Part III discusses the theoretical frameworks for the evaluation of natural hazards. Finally, Parts IV and V address the risk management of natural hazards, providing first an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions underlying natural hazard management, and then exploring decision frameworks that can help decision makers integrate and respond to the complex relationships among natural events, the built environment, and human behavior.

In response to new developments in the field, practical teaching experience, and readers' suggestions, the authors of the warmly received Reliablity Evaluation of Engineering Systems have updated and extended the work-providing extended coverage of fault trees and a more complete examination of probability distribution, among other things-without disturbing the original's concept, structure, or style.

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 a bibliographical review of the use of Bayesian networks in reliability over the last decade. Bayesian network (BN) is considered to be one of the most powerful models in probabilistic knowledge representation and inference, and it is increasingly used in the field of reliability. After focusing on the engineering systems, the book subsequently discusses twelve important issues in the BN-based reliability methodologies, such as BN structure modeling, BN parameter modeling, BN inference, validation, and verification. As such, it is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the field of reliability engineering.