This volume contains selected papers from the Second Quadrennial International Conference on Structural Integrity (ICONS-2018). The papers cover important topics related to structural integrity of critical installations, such as power plants, aircrafts, spacecrafts, defense and civilian components. The focus is on assuring safety of operations with high levels of reliability and structural integrity. This volume will be of interest to plant operators working with safety critical equipment, engineering solution providers, software professionals working on engineering analysis, as well as academics working in the area.

This book introduces a number of recent developments on connectivity of communication networks, ranging from connectivity of large static networks and connectivity of highly dynamic networks to connectivity of small to medium sized networks. This book also introduces some applications of connectivity studies in network optimization, in network localization, and in estimating distances between nodes. The book starts with an overview of the fundamental concepts, models, tools, and methodologies used for connectivity studies. The rest of the chapters are divided into four parts: connectivity of large static networks, connectivity of highly dynamic networks, connectivity of small to medium sized networks, and applications of connectivity studies.

This book provides readers with a timely snapshot of the potential offered by and challenges posed by signal processing methods in the field of machine diagnostics and condition monitoring. It gathers contributions to the first Workshop on Signal Processing Applied to Rotating Machinery Diagnostics, held in Setif, Algeria, on April 9-10, 2017, and organized by the Applied Precision Mechanics Laboratory (LMPA) at the Institute of Precision Mechanics, University of Setif, Algeria and the Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Manufacturing (LA2MP) at the National School of Engineers of Sfax. The respective chapters highlight research conducted by the two laboratories on the following main topics: noise and vibration in machines; condition monitoring in non-stationary operations; vibro-acoustic diagnosis of machinery; signal processing and pattern recognition methods; monitoring and diagnostic systems; and dynamic modeling and fault detection.

This book discusses the application of quality and reliability engineering in Asian industries, and offers information for multinational companies (MNC) looking to transfer some of their operation and manufacturing capabilities to Asia and at the same time maintain high levels of reliability and quality. It is also provides small and medium enterprises (SME) in Asia with insights into producing high-quality and reliable products. It mainly comprises peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) Congress 2014 held in Singapore (August, 2014), which provides a platform for companies, especially those within Asia where rapid changes and growth in manufacturing are taking place, to present their quality and reliability practices. The book presents practical demonstrations of how quality and reliability methodologies can be modified for the unique Asian market, and as such is a valuable resource for students, academics, professionals and practitioners in the field of quality and reliability.

This book demonstrates the use of a wide range of strategic engineering concepts, theories and applied case studies to improve the safety, security and sustainability of complex and large-scale engineering and computer systems. It first details the concepts of system design, life cycle, impact assessment and security to show how these ideas can be brought to bear on the modeling, analysis and design of information systems with a focused view on cloud-computing systems and big data analytics. This informative book is a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and industry-based practitioners working in engineering, information and business systems as well as strategy.

This thesis develops a systematic, data-based dynamic modeling framework for industrial processes in keeping with the slowness principle. Using said framework as a point of departure, it then proposes novel strategies for dealing with control monitoring and quality prediction problems in industrial production contexts. The thesis reveals the slowly varying nature of industrial production processes under feedback control, and integrates it with process data analytics to offer powerful prior knowledge that gives rise to statistical methods tailored to industrial data. It addresses several issues of immediate interest in industrial practice, including process monitoring, control performance assessment and diagnosis, monitoring system design, and product quality prediction. In particular, it proposes a holistic and pragmatic design framework for industrial monitoring systems, which delivers effective elimination of false alarms, as well as intelligent self-running by fully utilizing the information underlying the data. One of the strengths of this thesis is its integration of insights from statistics, machine learning, control theory and engineering to provide a new scheme for industrial process modeling in the era of big data.

This book presents the latest key research into the performance and reliability aspects of dependable fault-tolerant systems and features commentary on the fields studied by Prof. Kishor S. Trivedi during his distinguished career. Analyzing system evaluation as a fundamental tenet in the design of modern systems, this book uses performance and dependability as common measures and covers novel ideas, methods, algorithms, techniques, and tools for the in-depth study of the performance and reliability aspects of dependable fault-tolerant systems. It identifies the current challenges that designers and practitioners must face in order to ensure the reliability, availability, and performance of systems, with special focus on their dynamic behaviors and dependencies, and provides system researchers, performance analysts, and practitioners with the tools to address these challenges in their work. With contributions from Prof. Trivedi's former PhD students and collaborators, many of whom are internationally recognized experts, to honor him on the occasion of his 70th birthday, this book serves as a valuable resource for all engineering disciplines, including electrical, computer, civil, mechanical, and industrial engineering as well as production and manufacturing.

Reliability of Microtechnology discusses the reliability of microtechnology products from the bottom up, beginning with devices and extending to systems. The book's focus includes but is not limited to reliability issues of interconnects, the methodology of reliability concepts and general failure mechanisms. Specific failure modes in solder and conductive adhesives are discussed at great length. Coverage of accelerated testing, component and system level reliability, and reliability design for manufacturability are also described in detail.

The book also includes exercises and detailed solutions at the end of each chapter.

This multi-contributed volume provides a practical, applications-focused introduction to nonlinear acoustical techniques for nondestructive evaluation. Compared to linear techniques, nonlinear acoustical/ultrasonic techniques are much more sensitive to micro-cracks and other types of small distributed damages. Most materials and structures exhibit nonlinear behavior due to the formation of dislocation and micro-cracks from fatigue or other types of repetitive loadings well before detectable macro-cracks are formed. Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) tools that have been developed based on nonlinear acoustical techniques are capable of providing early warnings about the possibility of structural failure before detectable macro-cracks are formed. This book presents the full range of nonlinear acoustical techniques used today for NDE. The expert chapters cover both theoretical and experimental aspects, but always with an eye towards applications. Unlike other titles currently available, which treat nonlinearity as a physics problem and focus on different analytical derivations, the present volume emphasizes NDE applications over detailed analytical derivations. The introductory chapter presents the fundamentals in a manner accessible to anyone with an undergraduate degree in Engineering or Physics and equips the reader with all of the necessary background to understand the remaining chapters. This self-contained volume will be a valuable reference to graduate students through practising researchers in Engineering, Materials Science, and Physics. Represents the first book on nonlinear acoustical techniques for NDE applications Emphasizes applications of nonlinear acoustical techniques Presents the fundamental physics and mathematics behind nonlinear acoustical phenomenon in a simple, easily understood manner Covers a variety of popular NDE techniques based on nonlinear acoustics in a single volume

This book presents state-of-the-art probabilistic methods for the reliability analysis and design of engineering products and processes. It seeks to facilitate practical application of probabilistic analysis and design by providing an authoritative, in-depth, and practical description of what probabilistic analysis and design is and how it can be implemented. The text is packed with many practical engineering examples (e.g., electric power transmission systems, aircraft power generating systems, and mechanical transmission systems) and exercise problems. It is an up-to-date, fully illustrated reference suitable for both undergraduate and graduate engineering students, researchers, and professional engineers who are interested in exploring the fundamentals, implementation, and applications of probabilistic analysis and design methods.

This book aims to address how nanotechnology risks are being addressed by scientists, particularly in the areas of human health and the environment and how these risks can be measured in financial terms for insurers and regulators. It provides a comprehensive overview of nanotechnology risk measurement and risk transfer methods, including a chapter outlining how Bayesian methods can be used. It also examines nanotechnology from a legal perspective, both current and potential future outcomes. The global market for nanotechnology products was valued at $22.9 billion in 2013 and increased to about $26 billion in 2014. This market is expected to reach about $64.2 billion by 2019, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% from 2014 to 2019. Despite the increasing value of nanotechnologies and their widespread use, there is a significant gap between the enthusiasm of scientists and nanotechnology entrepreneurs working in the nanotechnology space and the insurance/regulatory sector. Scientists are scarcely aware that insurers/regulators have concerns about the potential for human and environmental risk and insurers/regulators are not in a position to access the potential risk. This book aims to bridge this gap by defining the current challenges in nanotechnology across disciplines and providing a number of risk management and assessment methodologies. Featuring contributions from authors in areas such as regulation, law, ethics, management, insurance and manufacturing, this volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective that is of value to students, academics, researchers, policy makers, practitioners and society in general.

Failure Mechanisms in Semiconductor Devices Second Edition E. Ajith Amerasekera Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, USA Farid N. Najm University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Since the successful first edition of Failure Mechanisms in Semiconductor Devices, semiconductor technology has become increasingly important. The high complexity of today's integrated circuits has engendered a demand for greater component reliability. Reflecting the need for guaranteed performance in consumer applications, this thoroughly updated edition includes more detailed material on reliability modelling and prediction. The book analyses the main failure mechanisms in terms of cause, effects and prevention and explains the mathematics behind reliability analysis. The authors detail methodologies for the identification of failures and describe the approaches for building reliability into semiconductor devices. Their thorough yet accessible text covers the physics of failure mechanisms from the semiconductor die itself to the packaging and interconnections. Incorporating recent advances, this comprehensive survey of semiconductor reliability will be an asset to both engineers and graduate students in the field.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of quality and quality management. It also explores total quality management, covering its human, technological and analytical imperatives. It also examines quality systems and system standards, highlighting essential features and avoiding a reproduction of the ISO 9000 standard, as well as people-related issues in implementing a quality system. A holistic understanding of quality considerations, which now permeate every aspect of human life, should guide related policies, plans and practices. The book describes the all-pervasive characteristics of quality, putting together diverse definitions of "quality," outlining its different dimensions, and linking it with reliability and innovation. It goes on to assess the quality of measurements in terms of precision, accuracy and uncertainty and discusses managing quality with a focus on business performance. This is followed by a chapter on improving process quality, which is the summum bonum of quality management, and a chapter addressing the crucial problem of measuring customer satisfaction through appropriate models and tools. Further, it covers non-traditional subjects such as quality of life, quality of working life, quality assurance and improvement in education, with special reference to higher education, quality in research and development and characterizes the quality-related policies and practices in Indian industry. The last chapter provides a broad sketch of some recent advances in statistical methods for quality management. Along with the research community, the book's content is also useful for practitioners and industry watchers.

This book broadens readers' understanding of proactive condition monitoring of low- speed machines in heavy industries. It focuses on why low-speed machines are different than others and how maintenance of these machines should be implemented with particular attention. The authors explain the best available monitoring techniques for various equipment and the principle of how to get proactive information from each technique. They further put forward possible strategies for application of FEM for detection of faults and technical assessment of machinery. Implementation phases are described and industrial case studies of proactive condition monitoring are included. Proactive Condition Monitoring of Low-Speed Machines is an essential resource for engineers and technical managers across a range of industries as well as design engineers working in industrial product development.

This book addresses information technologies recently applied in the field of construction safety. Combining case studies, literature reviews and interviews to study the issue, it presents cutting-edge applications of various information technologies (ITs) in construction in different parts of the world, together with a wealth of figures, tables and examples. Though primarily intended for researchers and experts in the field, the book will also benefit graduate students.

Most of the world s redundant ships are scrapped on the beaches of the Indian sub-continent, largely by hand. As well as cargo residues and wastes, ships contain high levels of hazardous materials that are released into the surrounding ecology when scrapped. The scrapping process is labour-intensive and largely manual; injuries and death are commonplace.

Ship breaking was a relatively obscure industry until the late 1990s. In just 12 years, action by environmental NGOs has led to the ratification of an international treaty targeting the extensive harm to human and environmental health arising from this heavy, polluting industry; it has also produced important case law.

Attempts to regulate the industry via the "Basel Convention" have resulted in a strong polarization of opinion as to its applicability and various international guidelines have also failed because of their voluntary nature. The adoption of the "Hong Kong Convention" in 2009 was a serious attempt to introduce international controls to this industry."

This work illustrates research conducted over a ten-year timespan and addresses a fundamental issue in reliability theory. This still appears to be an empirically disorganized field and the book suggests employing a deductive base in order to evolve reliability as a science. The study is in line with the fundamental work by Gnedenko. Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko (1912 - 1995) was a Soviet mathematician who made significant contributions in various scientific areas. His name is especially associated with studies of dependability, for which he is often recognized as the 'father' of reliability theory. In the last few decades, this area has expanded in new directions such as safety, security, risk analysis and other fields, yet the book 'Mathematical Methods in Reliability Theory' written by Gnedenko with Alexander Soloviev and Yuri Belyaev still towers as a pillar of the reliability sector's configuration and identity. The present book proceeds in the direction opened by the cultural project of the Russian authors; in particular it identifies different trends in the hazard rate functions by means of deductive logic and demonstrations. Further, it arrives at multiple results by means of the entropy function, an original mathematical tool in the reliability domain. As such, it will greatly benefit all specialists in the field who are interested in unconventional solutions.

This book presents original studies describing the latest research and developments in the area of reliability and systems engineering. It helps the reader identifying gaps in the current knowledge and presents fruitful areas for further research in the field. Among others, this book covers reliability measures, reliability assessment of multi-state systems, optimization of multi-state systems, continuous multi-state systems, new computational techniques applied to multi-state systems and probabilistic and non-probabilistic safety assessment.

This book presents a systematic approach in performing reliability assessment of solder joints using Finite Element (FE) simulation. Essential requirements for FE modelling of an electronic package or a single reflowed solder joint subjected to reliability test conditions are elaborated. These cover assumptions considered for a simplified physical model, FE model geometry development, constitutive models for solder joints and aspects of FE model validation. Fundamentals of the mechanics of solder material are adequately reviewed in relation to FE formulations. Concept of damage is introduced along with deliberation of cohesive zone model and continuum damage model for simulation of solder/IMC interface and bulk solder joint failure, respectively. Applications of the deliberated methodology to selected problems in assessing reliability of solder joints are demonstrated. These industry-defined research-based problems include solder reflow cooling, temperature cycling and mechanical fatigue of a BGA package, JEDEC board-level drop test and mechanisms of solder joint fatigue. Emphasis is placed on accurate quantitative assessment of solder joint reliability through basic understanding of the mechanics of materials as interpreted from results of FE simulations. The FE simulation methodology is readily applicable to numerous other problems in mechanics of materials and structures.

Digital Hardware Testing presents realistic transistor-level fault models and testing methods for all types of circuits. The discussion details design-for-testability and built-in self-test methods, with coverage of boundary scan and emerging technologies such as partial scan, cross check, and circular self-test-path.

Safe and high-efficiency operation are two main issues in rail transportation. This book focuses on these two key issues, bringing together a wealth of research to offer theoretical and technical support for rail operations and maintenance. In addition, it presents a comprehensive active safety assurance system for rail transportation, which includes the quantitative state identification and prediction of train components; rail transportation safety and reliability assessment methods; and rail transportation risk assessment at the rail networks level, which achieves the quantitative and high-precision monitoring of complex systems in real-time. In addition, it extends active safety based theory to safety prognostic analysis in the traffic system. Lastly, representative case studies verify that the theory is suitable for the actual traffic system.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are characterized as a combination of physical (physical plant, process, network) and cyber (software, algorithm, computation) components whose operations are monitored, controlled, coordinated, and integrated by a computing and communicating core. The interaction between both physical and cyber components requires tools allowing analyzing and modeling both the discrete and continuous dynamics. Therefore, many CPS can be modeled as hybrid dynamic systems in order to take into account both discrete and continuous behaviors as well as the interactions between them. Guaranteeing the security and safety of CPS is a challenging task because of the inherent interconnected and heterogeneous combination of behaviors (cyber/physical, discrete/continuous) in these systems. This book presents recent and advanced approaches and tech-niques that address the complex problem of analyzing the diagnosability property of cyber physical systems and ensuring their security and safety against faults and attacks. The CPS are modeled as hybrid dynamic systems using different model-based and data-driven approaches in different application domains (electric transmission networks, wireless communication networks, intrusions in industrial control systems, intrusions in production systems, wind farms etc.). These approaches handle the problem of ensuring the security of CPS in presence of attacks and verifying their diagnosability in presence of different kinds of uncertainty (uncertainty related to the event occurrences, to their order of occurrence, to their value etc.).

This book presents a systemic view of nanophenomena in terms of disordered condensed media with characteristics arising at various hierarchical levels from nanoagents/nanoparticles through multiple technological interfaces to the creation of micro- or mesostructures with essential nanodimensional effects. These properties can be seen in various schemes for the functionalization of nanocarbon systems, namely, CNTs, GNRs, GNFs, carbon-based nanoaerogels, nanofoams, and so on, where nonregularities characterize surface nanointeractions and various nanointerconnects, resulting in both predictable and unpredictable effects. Beginning with nanosensing and finishing with other forms of functionalized nanomaterials, these effects will define the prospective qualities of future consumer nanoproducts and nanodevices. This book covers all aspects of nonregular nanosystems arising from the fundamental properties of disordered nanosized media, from electronic structure, surface nanophysics, and allotropic forms of carbon such as graphene and fullerenes including defect characterization, to spintronics and 3D device principles. Nonregular Nanosystems will be of interest to students and specialists in various fields of nanotechnology and nanoscience, experts on surface nanophysics and nanochemistry, as well as managers dealing with marketing of nanoproducts and consumer behavior research.

"Reliability of Large and Complex Systems," previously titled "Reliability of Large Systems," is an innovative guide to the current state and reliability of large and complex systems.

In addition to revised and updated content on the complexity and safety of large and complex mechanisms, this new edition looks at the reliability of nanosystems, a key research topic in nanotechnology science. The author discusses the importance of safety investigation of critical infrastructures that have aged or have been exposed to varying operational conditions. This reference provides an asymptotic approach to reliability; its methodology, whilst largely mathematical, is designed to help the reader understand and construct general models of large and systems in a wide range of engineering fields.
A complete and innovative guide to the reliability of large and complex systemsProvides the reader with a strong foundational knowledge of safety investigation into critical infrastructures; the main research area in the world of safety scienceExplains how to construct large, reliable and safe systems in variable operation conditions

This book disseminates the current trends among innovative and high-quality research regarding the implementation of conceptual frameworks, strategies, techniques, methodologies, informatics platforms and models for developing advanced industrial tools and techniques and their application in different fields. It presents a collection of theoretical, real-world and original research works in the field of applied industrial tools and techniques. The text goes beyond the state-of-the-art in the field of industrial and software engineering, listing successful applications and use cases of studies of new approaches, applications, methods, techniques for developing advanced industrial tools, methodologies and techniques and their application in different fields. The topics covered in this book are of interest to academics, researchers, students, stakeholders and consultants.