This publication elucidates the various problems associated with attaining stability, and provides the results for practical use by the design engineer. By presenting a simple and visual description of the physical phenomena, the authors show how to determine the critical loads of various structures, such as frames, arches, building structures, trusses and sandwiches. Special emphasis is given to the post-critical behaviour - essential for assessing the safety of structures - and furthermore to the summation theories that make the solution of complicated stability problems relatively simple. It is a guide for structural design engineers and researchers who need a good understanding of buckling phenomena. It should also be a useful text for undergraduate and MSc students on structural stability courses.

These proceedings showcase the best papers selected from more than 500 submissions, and introduce readers to the latest research topics and developmental trends in the theory and application of MMESE. The integrated research topic Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering (MMESE) was first established in China by Professor Shengzhao Long in 1981, with direct support from one of the greatest modern Chinese scientists, Xuesen Qian. In a letter to Long from October 22nd, 1993, Qian wrote: "You have created a very important modern science and technology in China!" MMESE studies the optimum combination of man-machine-environment systems. In this system, "man" refers to the people in the workplace (e.g. operators, decision-makers); "machine" is the general name for any object controlled by man (including tools, machinery, computers, systems and technologies), and "environment" describes the specific working conditions under which man and machine interact (e.g. temperature, noise, vibration, hazardous gases, etc.). The three main goals of optimizing man-machine-environment systems are to ensure safety, efficiency and economy. These proceedings present interdisciplinary studies on concepts and methods from physiology, psychology, system engineering, computer science, environmental science, management, education, and other related disciplines. They offer a valuable resource for all researchers and professionals whose work involves interdisciplinary areas touching on MMESE subjects.

The authoritative guide to the effective design and production of reliable technology products, revised and updated While most manufacturers have mastered the process of producing quality products, product reliability, software quality and software security has lagged behind. The revised second edition of Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality offers a comprehensive and detailed guide to implementing a hardware reliability and software quality process for technology products. The authors - noted experts in the field - provide useful tools, forms and spreadsheets for executing an effective product reliability and software quality development process and explore proven software quality and product reliability concepts. The authors discuss why so many companies fail after attempting to implement or improve their product reliability and software quality program. They outline the critical steps for implementing a successful program. Success hinges on establishing a reliability lab, hiring the right people and implementing a reliability and software quality process that does the right things well and works well together. Designed to be accessible, the book contains a decision matrix for small, medium and large companies. Throughout the book, the authors describe the hardware reliability and software quality process as well as the tools and techniques needed for putting it in place. The concepts, ideas and material presented are appropriate for any organization. This updated second edition: Contains new chapters on Software tools, Software quality process and software security. Expands the FMEA section to include software fault trees and software FMEAs. Includes two new reliability tools to accelerate design maturity and reduce the risk of premature wearout. Contains new material on preventative maintenance, predictive maintenance and Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) to better manage repair cost and unscheduled downtime. Presents updated information on reliability modeling and hiring reliability and software engineers. Includes a comprehensive review of the reliability process from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint including new material on uprating and counterfeit components. Discusses aspects of competition, key quality and reliability concepts and presents the tools for implementation. Written for engineers, managers and consultants lacking a background in product reliability and software quality theory and statistics, the updated second edition of Improving Product Reliability and Software Quality explores all phases of the product life cycle.

This book presents the comprehensive results of experimental and numerical investigations of glass facade breakage behavior under fire conditions. First of all, full-scale frame and point-supported glass facades, incorporating single, double and coated glazing, were tested under pool fire conductions. The results determined the effects of different glass frames, types of glass, and thermal shocks on breakage behavior. Small-scale tests, using the Material Testing System (MTS) 810, Netzsch Dilatometer and FE-SEM, were also performed at different temperatures to determine the basic mechanical properties of glazing. In addition, a three-dimensional dynamic model was developed to predict stress distribution, crack initiation and propagation, and has since been employed to identify the breakage mechanisms of different types of glass facade. The numerical results showed very good agreement with the experimental results and verified the model's ability to accurately predict breakage. Lastly, a theoretical model based on incident heat flux was developed to predict the breakage time and heat transfer in glazing, which served to reveal the nature of interactions between fire and glass.

Accident records show that sooner or later hindrances near a waterway will be hit by ships, be it navigation marks, bridge structures, reefs or shallows. With this background modelling and analysis of ship collisions to bridge structures have an increasing importance as the basis for rational decision making in connection with planning, design and construction of bridges over navigable waters.

The International Symposium on Ship Collision Analysis focuses on advances in accident analysis, collision prevention and protective measures.

The publication Ship Collision Analysis, Proceedings of the 1998 International Symposium, presents the papers of international experts in ship collision analysis and structural design. The contributions give the state of the art and point to future development trends with in the focus areas.

This book mainly introduces some basic phenomena and laws of highly ductile materials during elastoplastic deformation, and their engineering applications, such as the transfer and relief of stress concentration in the notch root, the mitigation of possible brittle fracture, the ductile deformation and damage, fatigue, energy absorption, plastic buckling, thermal stress problems, etc. It shows a number of revolutions in modern applications and design, which are beneficial to the safety of modern equipment, and improve applicability. In addition, the first three chapters of this book also briefly introduce the basic knowledge of elastoplastic deformation and analysis as a preliminary knowledge. This book can be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduate students and postgraduate in non-mechanics majors such as mechanical engineering, power, material or civil engineering, as well as scholars and engineers in related fields.

This book gives a practical guide for designers and users in Information and Communication Technology context. In particular, in the first Section, the definition of the fundamental terms according to the international standards are given. Then, some theoretical concepts and reliability models are presented in Chapters 2 and 3: the aim is to evaluate performance for components and systems and reliability growth. Chapter 4, by introducing the laboratory tests, puts in evidence the reliability concept from the experimental point of view. In ICT context, the failure rate for a given system can be evaluate by means of specific reliability prediction handbooks; this aspect is considered in Chapter 5, with practical applications. In Chapters 6, 7 and 8, the more complex aspects regarding both the Maintainability, Availability and Dependability are taken into account; in particular, some fundamental techniques such as FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) and FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) are presented with examples for reparable systems.

An integral part of any engineering or manufacturing process is a continuous process of assessing its safety and reliability. This work provides a guide to the practical application of safety and reliability principles wherever risk is a consideration. The theory and mathematics are kept to a minimum, whilst a practical working model of the technology is presented for everyone involved in general engineering disciplines. It reduces the high cost of using professional consultant practitioners, introduces an advanced methodology of common mode failure analysis and modelling, with potential savings on system capital costs, and provides an illustration of working principles by graded tutorial projects.

Reliability theory is a major concern for engineers and managers engaged in making high quality products and designing highly reliable systems. "Advanced Reliability Models and Maintenance Policies" is a survey of new research topics in reliability theory and optimization techniques in reliability engineering. The book introduces partition and redundant problems within reliability models, and provides optimization techniques. The book also indicates how to perform maintenance in a finite time span and at failure detection, and to apply recovery techniques for computer systems. New themes such as reliability complexity and service reliability in reliability theory are theoretically proposed, and optimization problems in management science using reliability techniques are presented. The book is an essential guide for graduate students and researchers in reliability theory, and a valuable reference for reliability engineers engaged both in maintenance work and in management and computer systems.

With the increased presence of nanomaterials in commercial products such as cosmetics and sunscreens, fillers in dental fillings, water filtration process, catalysis, photovoltaic cells, bio-detection, a growing public debate is emerging on toxicological and environmental effects of direct and indirect exposure to these materials. Nanomaterials: A Danger or a Promise? forms a balanced overview of the health and environmental issues of nanoscale materials. By considering both the benefits and risks associated with nanomaterials, Nanomaterials: A Danger or a Promise? compiles a complete and detailed image of the many aspects of the interface between nanomaterials and their real-life application. The full cycle of nanomaterials life will be presented and critically assessed to consider and answer questions such as: How are nanomaterials made? What they are used for? What is their environmental fate? Can we make them better? Including coverage of relevant aspects about the toxicity of manufactured nanomaterials, nanomaterials life cycle, exposure issues, Nanomaterials: A Danger or a Promise? provides a comprehensive overview of the actual knowledge in these fields but also presents perspectives for the future development of a safer nanoscience. This comprehensive resource is a key reference for students, researcher, manufacturers and industry professionals alike.

Availability of a system is a crucial factor for planning and optimization. The concept is more challenging for modern systems such as robots and autonomous systems consisting of a complex configuration of components. As complex systems have become global and essential in today's society, their reliable design and the determination of their availability have turned into a very important task for managers and engineers. Reliability Models of Complex Systems for Robots and Automation offers different models and approaches for reliability evaluation and optimization of a complex autonomous system. Comprehensive fault tree analysis on the critical components of industrial robots and its integration with the reliability block diagram approach is designed in order to investigate the robot system reliability. The cost and hazard decision tree are integrated for the first time in an approach to evaluate the reliability of a complex system. Considers a complex production system composing of several autonomous robots Develops binary state reliability evaluation model for a complex system Introduces new concepts of hazard decision tree Proposes fault tree and reliability block diagram for complex robotic systems Develops stochastic process based reliability evaluation and optimization models Today's competitive world with increasing customer demands for highly reliable products makes reliability engineering a more challenging task. Reliability analysis is one of the main tools to ensure agreed delivery deadlines which in turn maintains certainty in real tangible factors such as customer goodwill and company reputation.

Reliability is an essential concept in mathematics, computing, research, and all disciplines of engineering, and reliability as a characteristic is, in fact, a probability. Therefore, in this book, the author uses the statistical approach to reliability modelling along with the MINITAB software package to provide a comprehensive treatment of modelling, from the basics through advanced modelling techniques. The book begins by presenting a thorough grounding in the elements of modelling the lifetime of a single, non-repairable unit. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, the author includes a guide to all the fundamentals of probability theory, defines the various measures associated with reliability, then describes and discusses the more common lifetime models: the exponential, Weibull, normal, lognormal and gamma distributions. She concludes the groundwork by looking at ways of choosing and fitting the most appropriate model to a given data set, paying particular attention to two critical points: the effect of censored data and estimating lifetimes in the tail of the distribution. The focus then shifts to topics somewhat more difficult: the difference in the analysis of lifetimes for repairable versus non-repairable systems and whether repair truly "renews" the system methods for dealing with system with reliability characteristic specified for more than one component or subsystem the effect of different types of maintenance strategies the analysis of life test data The final chapter provides snapshot introductions to a range of advanced models and presents two case studies that illustrate various ideas from throughout the book.

This unique volume presents chapters written on the areas of life-testing and reliability by many well-known researchers who have contributed significantly to these two areas over the years. Chapters cover a wide range of topics such as inference under censoring and truncation, reliability growth models, designs to improve quality, prediction techniques, Bayesian analysis of reliability, multivariate methods, accelerated testing, and more. The book is written in an easy-to-follow style, first presenting the necessary theoretical details and then illustrating the methods with a numerical examples wherever possible. Many tables and graphs that are essential for the use of some of the new methodologies are presented throughout the volume. Numerous examples provide the reader with a clear understanding of the methods presented as well as with insight into the applications of these results.

In today's competitive world, customer demands for highly reliable products, makes reliability engineering a more challenging task. Reliability analysis is one of the main tools to ensure agreed upon delivery deadlines, which in turn maintains certainty in tangible factors such as goodwill and company reputation. This unique book considers a complex production system composing of several autonomous robots performing manufacturing jobs. The reliability of the complex system is analyzed under different conditions, with different objectives. Various reliability models are developed with each focusing on the specifications of a unique problem, and provides the evaluation of a complex system.

This book describes the challenges that critical infrastructure systems face, and presents state of the art solutions to address them. How can we design intelligent systems or intelligent agents that can make appropriate real-time decisions in the management of such large-scale, complex systems? What are the primary challenges for critical infrastructure systems? The book also provides readers with the relevant information to recognize how important infrastructures are, and their role in connection with a society's economy, security and prosperity. It goes on to describe state-of-the-art solutions to address these points, including new methodologies and instrumentation tools (e.g. embedded software and intelligent algorithms) for transforming and optimizing target infrastructures. The book is the most comprehensive resource to date for professionals in both the private and public sectors, while also offering an essential guide for students and researchers in the areas of modeling and analysis of critical infrastructure systems, monitoring, control, risk/impact evaluation, fault diagnosis, fault-tolerant control, and infrastructure dependencies/interdependencies. The importance of the research presented in the book is reflected in the fact that currently, for the first time in human history, more people live in cities than in rural areas, and that, by 2050, roughly 70% of the world's total population is expected to live in cities.

Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of space application oriented fault tolerance techniques Experienced expert author working on fault tolerance for Chinese space program for almost three decades Initiatively provides a systematic texts for the cutting-edge fault tolerance techniques in spacecraft control computer, with emphasis on practical engineering knowledge Presents fundamental and advanced theories and technologies in a logical and easy-to-understand manner Beneficial to readers inside and outside the area of space applications

Under certain conditions liquids can change to the vapour phase; this is cavitation, and it imposes serious limitations on pumps and pipelines if damage is to be avoided.
Improved understanding of pump cavitation in recent years has enabled a limited amount to be permitted to obtain the maximum possible amount of suction, but in these circumstances it is very important to have some knowleddge of the relationship between the intake operating conditions and the cavitation field, and between the amount of cavitation and the extent of any material damage which can be expected.
The Avoidance of Cavitation Damage is concerned with the extensive field referred to by the term cavitation, which involves industrial activities and is of immense economic significance. At its simplest, it is about damage limitation and damage avoidance in pumps and their installations, and it is the first book made available in the English language which has this specific aim. It deals with conventional rotodynamic and self-priming side-channel pumps, as well as both reciprocating and rotary positive-displacement pumps.
The Avoidance of Cavitation Damage can be wholeheartedly recommended to all practising engineers concerned with the design or use of pumps - indeed, it should become a standard reference work for all concerned with pumps and their use.

The origin of this book is the compelling evidence that a high proportion of machinery-related deaths and injuries are attributable to genuine and serious risks originating within machine design and construction. This trend continues despite significant legal obligations, notably the European regulatory regime giving effect to the Machinery Directive (among others), and a substantial body of specialist knowledge originating in the disciplines of human factors and safety engineering. Grounded in empirical research with machinery manufacturers, this book aims to elucidate the factors and processes shaping firms' performance for machinery safety, and considers their compatibility with legal obligations. Through a unique blending of rich empirical data coupled with safety, human factors, socio-legal and learning scholarship, the book provides both a nuanced account of firms' performance for machinery safety, and makes conceptual and theoretical contributions to understanding and explaining their performance. Specifically, the book elucidates the role of knowledge and motivational factors - and how these are constituted - in shaping firms' performance. It reveals the multiple state and non-state influences that create plural responses among manufacturing firms, which typically operate in supply chains and networks, and often globally. These insights provide the foundations to enhance regulatory design, and the book's conclusion recommends some innovative directions for regulatory interventions to sustain the safe design and construction of machinery.

This succinct text explains how to assess and handle technical risk, schedule risk, and cost risk efficiently and effectively-enabling engineering professionals to anticipate failures regardless of system complexity-highlighting opportunities to turn failure into success. Introduces the term "risk engineering" for controlling technical risk through identification, analysis, design, and process management What Every Engineer Should Know About Risk Engineering and Management reveals strategies for identifying the limitations and breaking points of engineering designs predicts the likelihood of designs going wrong and considers the consequences bases acceptable risk on the extent to which material strength, engineering design, manufacturing process, and operational environments can be controlled shows how to find the initiators and major contributors to cost risk and avoid wasting scarce resources illustrates how to identify critical paths to deliver products within a specified period of time presents a framework for integrated risk management aided by computer simulation emphasizes failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) includes fault and event tree analysis describes Taguchi's robust design defines life cycle cost management (LCCM) and more What Every Engineer Should Know About Risk Engineering and Management is a vital, forward-looking reference for mechanical, civil, electrical and electronics, materials, chemical, mineral, cost, quality, reliability, industrial, developmental, safety, forensic, and consulting engineers; architects; project managers; and a superb text for upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and continuing-education students in these disciplines.

Textbook for a methods course or reference for an experimenter who is mainly interested in data analyses rather than in the mathematical development of the procedures. Provides the most useful statistical techniques, not only for the normal distribution, but for other important distributions, such a

The Reliability Data Handbook is exceptional in both its approach and coverage, giving a uniquely comprehensive account of the subject. Component failure rate data are a vital part of any reliability or safety study and highly relevant to the engineering community across many disciplines. The Reliability Data Handbook focuses on the complete process of data collection, analysis and quality control. The subject of reliability data is covered in geat depth, reflecting the author's considerable experience and expertise in this field. Rarely is reliability data 'clean'. There are problems in its collection due to poor recording of the exact cause of failure. The time to failure of many items in the data collection scheme may not be known due to censoring and truncation issues. For new equipment or very reliable equipment there may be no data available at all. All of these practical facets of data used in real--world reliability studies are contained in this book. Analysis methods are not presented in a clinical way -- they are put into context, considering the difficulties that can arise when performing assessments of actual systems. A unique feature is that the text is always fully illustrated with worked examples, many from the author's own experience in industry. CONTENTS INCLUDE Introduction -- objectives and scope Component, equipment and system reliability, reliability models for non--repairable and repairable equipment Failure patterns, failure rate calculations Discreet and continuous distributions, scatter diagrams and histograms The Weibull distribution and Weibull analysis The Duane reliability growth model Reliability forecasting, basic models, data requirements Reliability statistics, sources of generic data, tables of equipment and component failure rates Data collection and quality control Reliability testing, inspection and maintenance decision analysis.

1) Enables engineers to meet international standards such as ISO 55 000. 2) Includes statistics essential to basic understanding of reliability engineering theory 3) Covers both high and low budget plants, alongside describing how to retrofit older plants and how to set up new plants 4) Includes a chapter on root cause analysis

The origin of this book is the compelling evidence that a high proportion of machinery-related deaths and injuries are attributable to genuine and serious risks originating within machine design and construction. This trend continues despite significant legal obligations, notably the European regulatory regime giving effect to the Machinery Directive (among others), and a substantial body of specialist knowledge originating in the disciplines of human factors and safety engineering. Grounded in empirical research with machinery manufacturers, this book aims to elucidate the factors and processes shaping firms' performance for machinery safety, and considers their compatibility with legal obligations. Through a unique blending of rich empirical data coupled with safety, human factors, socio-legal and learning scholarship, the book provides both a nuanced account of firms' performance for machinery safety, and makes conceptual and theoretical contributions to understanding and explaining their performance. Specifically, the book elucidates the role of knowledge and motivational factors - and how these are constituted - in shaping firms' performance. It reveals the multiple state and non-state influences that create plural responses among manufacturing firms, which typically operate in supply chains and networks, and often globally. These insights provide the foundations to enhance regulatory design, and the book's conclusion recommends some innovative directions for regulatory interventions to sustain the safe design and construction of machinery.

Today, digital technologies represent an absolute must when it comes to creating new products and factories. However, day-to-day product development and manufacturing engineering operations have still only unlocked roughly fifty percent of the "digital potential". The question is why? This book provides compelling answers and remedies to that question. Its goal is to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of today's set-up for digital engineering working solutions, and to outline important trends and developments for the future. The book concentrates on explaining the critical basics of the individual technologies, before going into deeper analysis of the virtual solution interdependencies and guidelines on how to best align them for productive deployment in industrial and collaborative networks. Moreover, it addresses the changes needed in both, technical and management skills, in order to avoid fundamental breakdowns in running information technologies for virtual product creation in the future.

The book is written for anyone who wants to design experiments, carry them out, and analyze the results. The authors provide a clear-cut, practical approach to designing experiments in any discipline and explain the general principles upon which such design is based. The reader then can apply these theories to any specific problem in his own work. No advanced mathematics is needed to utilize Design of Experiments - the necessary statistical concepts and briefly reviewed in the first two chapters. Subsequent chapters explain why and how the design of experiments in an intrinsic part of the scientific method, what problems will be encountered by the researcher in setting up his experiment and how to deal with them, and how to accurately analyze the result in terms of the sample taken and the method used. Each chapter includes problems encountered in specific fields so that the reader can test himself on his comprehension of the material. The diversity of the applications that these problems encompass also allows the reader to grasp the basic principles that unite the statistical approach to experiment design. Researchers and students in engineering, agriculture, pharmacy, veterinary science, chemistry, biology, the social; sciences, statistics, mathematics, or any other field that requires the design, solution, and analysis of problems will find this book absolutely indispensable.