Aims to give to the reader the tools necessary to apply semi-Markov processes in real-life problems.

The book is self-contained and, starting from a low level of probability concepts, gradually brings the reader to a deep knowledge of semi-Markov processes.

Presents homogeneous and non-homogeneous semi-Markov processes, as well as Markov and semi-Markov rewards processes.

The concepts are fundamental for many applications, but they are not as thoroughly presented in other books on the subject as they are here.

Die Magnetpulverprufung ist ein zerstoerungsfreies Verfahren zur Prufung von metallischen und nichtmetallischen Werkstoffen auf Oberflachenfehler. Das Buch behandelt die physikalischen und die verfahrensspezifischen Grundlagen, die Magnetisierung und Entmagnetisierung, Prufmittel, die Prufsystem- und Verfahrenskontrollen, die Gerate-, Pruf- und Auswertetechniken der Magnetpulverprufung, die Unganzen im Fertigungsprozess und bei der Betriebsbeanspruchung sowie die Durchfuhrung von Magnetpulverprufungen. Weitere Themen sind die Klassifizierung und Beurteilung von Anzeigen, die Grenzen des Prufverfahrens sowie den einschlagigen Arbeits- und Umweltschutz. Das Buch vermittelt dem Werkstoffprufer das erforderliche Rustzeug fur seine praktische Tatigkeit einschliesslich der dabei zu beachtenden wichtigsten Normen und Regelwerke. Es eignet sich ebenso zur Ausbildung in der Werkstoffprufung sowohl in Hochschulen, Firmen oder Werkstoffinstituten. Der Autor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karlheinz Schiebold ist ein ausgewiesener Spezialist auf dem Gebiet der zerstoerungsfreien Materialprufung mit langjahriger Erfahrung in Prufpraxis und Ausbildung.

This text presents notions and ideas at the foundations of a statistical treatment of risks. The focus is on statistical applications within the field of engineering risk and safety analysis. Coverage includes Bayesian methods. Such knowledge facilitates the understanding of the influence of random phenomena and gives a deeper understanding of the role of probability in risk analysis. The text is written for students who have studied elementary undergraduate courses in engineering mathematics, perhaps including a minor course in statistics. This book differs from typical textbooks in its verbal approach to many explanations and examples.

The general theme of the CE2009 Conference is the recognised requirement for advancements in Concurrent Engineering (CE) with a global perspective for competitive enterprise, economy and ecology. CE appeared in the '80s as the concept of parallel performing engineering design activities and the integration of all related processes. This concept is based on the general assumption that different components of the product life cycle should be considered together and relatively early. The main goal of CE is to make processes more efficient and more resistant to errors.

Since then the whole CE approach has evolved into different forms with different names and has become omnipresent. The industrial presence of CE differs from well established corporation implementations to SME applications. The last twenty years have brought many changes to the organization of product design and manufacturing: engineers have developed narrower specializations; engineers have developed a global presence; engineers work in firms which are final producers or suppliers; sometimes firms create alliances; engineers cooperate and collaborate; and they use different methods and tools to support their engineering activities. As a result the CE approach supports engineers in many ways.

The role of information systems in CE has always been treated as very important. First methodologies and tools were concentrated on offering the possibility to contact people and processes, to make the right information and knowledge available at the right time. The presence of computer tools in CE is treated as standard.

If one looks now at what is going on and at how many different issues are important in design, manufacturing, supply, distribution, etc., one will understand why the context of CE is so rich and so complicated, why there are so many CE specializations and why the main topic of the CE2009 Conference is of great relevance. The plurality of CE specializations mentioned above was reflected in the following CE2009 Conference tracks: Systems Engineering, PLM, Advanced Manufacture, Product Design, Mass Customization, Lean Thinking, Design for Sustainability, Customer Value, Environmental Impact, Knowledge Engineering, SCM, Concurrent System Architecturing, Collaborative Engineering, Web Technologies, Standards, Digital Manufacture, Service Solutions, Purchasing/Procurement, Emotion Engineering. Apart from the above tracks the conference also has seven special sessions in RFID, Collaborative Product Development, Multi-disciplinary Design and Optimization, Design Knowledge Utilization, Competitive Supply Chain Performance, Value Engineering, and Competitive Design.

The proceedings contain 94 papers, demonstrating the multitude of different perspectives contained in this volume. There are papers which are theoretic and conceptual, as well as papers which have very strong industrial roots. There are also very detailed, highly specialized paper, which are closely linked to specific industrial case studies. The reader will also find papers which are based on real processes, but which operate on abstract models and which offer a bridge between industrial reality and academic research.

CE does not develop equally in each area; the direction of development depends on many factors. The content of this volume reflects the variety of issues in today's CE methods and phenomena; consequently, readers will be able to build their own view of the present problems and methods involved in CE.

Scheduled transportation networks give rise to very complex and large-scale networkoptimization problems requiring innovative solution techniques and ideas from mathematical optimization and theoretical computer science. Examples of scheduled transportation include bus, ferry, airline, and railway networks, with the latter being a prime application domain that provides a fair amount of the most complex and largest instances of such optimization problems. Scheduled transport optimization deals with planning and scheduling problems over several time horizons, and substantial progress has been made for strategic planning and scheduling problems in all transportation domains.

This state-of-the-art survey presents the outcome of an open call for contributions asking for either research papers or state-of-the-art survey articles. We received 24 submissions that underwent two rounds of the standard peer-review process, out of which 18 were finally accepted for publication.

The volume is organized in four parts: Robustness and Recoverability, Robust Timetabling and Route Planning, Robust Planning Under Scarce Resources, and Online Planning: Delay and Disruption Management.

The Halden Man-Machine Laboratory (HAMMLAB) has been at the heart of human factors research at the OECD Halden Reactor Project (HRP). The HRP is sponsored by a group of national organizations, representing nuclear power plant regulators, utilities, and research institutions. The HRP is hosted by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Halden, Norway. HAMMLAB comprises three full-scale nuclear power plant control room research simulators. The simulator studies performed in HAMMLAB have traditionally been experimental in nature. In a simulator it is possible to study events as they unfold in real time, in a highly realistic operational environment under partially controlled conditions. This means that a wide range of human factors issues, which would be impossible or highly impracticable to study in real-life settings, can thus be addressed in HAMMLAB. Simulator-based Human Factors Studies Across 25 Years celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of HAMMLAB by reviewing the human factors studies performed in HAMMLAB across this time-span. A range of human factors issues have been addressed, including: * human-system interfaces; * alarm systems; * computerized procedures; * human-automation interaction; * staffing, teamwork and human reliability. The aim of HAMMLAB studies has always been the same: to generate knowledge for solving current and future challenges in nuclear power plant operation to contribute to safety. The outcomes of HAMMLAB studies have been used to support design and assessment of nuclear power plant control rooms.

Risse in Bauteilen begrenzen die Nutzungs- und die Lebensdauer von Bauteilen. Der Autor vermittelt, wie diese Grenzen zu erkennen sind, und wie das Rissverhalten zu bewerten ist. Bei der Dimensionierung von Bauteilen und beim Nachweis ihrer Haltbarkeit auf der Grundlage der Festigkeitslehre wird das Vorhandensein rissartiger Schadigungen ublicherweise nicht durch geminderte zulassigen Spannungen berucksichtigt. Im praktischen Betrieb werden rissgeschadigte Bauteile durch zerstoerungsfreie Prufungen uberwacht. Aus eigener praktischer Tatigkeit bei der Untersuchung von Schadensfallen sowie zu deren Vermeidung stellt der Autor Erfahrungen zusammen, die den Leser zur Beurteilung von Schadensfallen befahigen und ihm ermoeglichen, kompetent Auskunft geben oder Massnahmen veranlassen zu koennen.

This book offers unique insight on structural safety and reliability by combining computational methods that address multiphysics problems, involving multiple equations describing different physical phenomena and multiscale problems, involving discrete sub-problems that togetherdescribe important aspects of a system at multiple scales. The book examines a range of engineering domains and problems using dynamic analysis, nonlinear methods, error estimation, finite element analysis and other computational techniques.

This book also:

. Introduces novel numerical methods

. Illustrates new practical applications

. Examines recent engineering applications

. Presents up-to-date theoretical results

. Offers perspective relevant to a wide audience, including teaching faculty/graduate students, researchers and practicing engineers."

Optimal Reliability Design, first published in 2000, provides a detailed introduction to systems reliability and reliability optimization. Techniques for maximizing system reliability are described, focusing on component reliability enhancement and redundancy arrangement. The authors present several case studies and show how optimization techniques are applied in practice. They also pay particular attention to finding methods that give the optimal trade-off between reliability and cost. The book begins with a review of key background material, and a discussion of a range of optimization models. The authors go on to cover optimization tools, such as heuristics, discrete optimization, nonlinear programming, mixed integer programming, optimal arrangement, and metaheuristic algorithms. They also describe the computational implementation of these tools. Many numerical examples are included, and the book contains over 180 homework exercises. It is suitable as a textbook for graduate-level courses in reliability engineering and operations research. It will also be a valuable reference for practising engineers.

Reconfiguration, an approach for fault-tolerant control, involves changing the control structure in response to the fault. This monograph extends this idea to actuator faults and studies in detail the so-called virtual actuator approach. "Control Reconfiguration of Dynamical Systems" also introduces structural analysis as a tool for reconfiguration. Because a fault changes the structure of the system, the reconfiguration solution is sought on a structural level. Novel algorithms are presented to test for reconfigurability and to find a reconfiguration solution. A MATLAB toolbox is supplied, which contains the main algorithms and examples. The book addresses advanced engineering students, developers and researchers that have a specific interest in control reconfiguration.

This book includes an introduction to some important reliability concepts and a review of terminology. The work is divided into three sections: modelling, evaluation and assurance.

Takes into account the human element as well as the classical aspects of mechanical, electrical and chemical designs that contribute to risk. Features a significant amount of data essential for risk analysis not normally available. Contains numerous examples of authentic applications and case studies.

This book discusses relevant topics in field of corrosion, from sensing strategies to modeling of control processes, corrosion prevention, detection of corrosion initiation, prediction of corrosion growth and evolution, to maintenance practices and return on investment.Written by leading international experts, it combines mathematical and scientific rigor with multiple case studies, examples, colorful images, case studies and numerous references exploring the essentials of corrosion in depth. It appeals to a wide readership, including corrosion engineers, managers, students and industrial and government staff, and can serve as a reference text for courses in materials, mechanical and aerospace engineering, as well as anyone working on corrosion processes.

Circuit designers, packaging engineers, printed board fabricators, and procurement personnel will find this book's microelectronic package design-for-reliability guidelines and approaches essential for achieving their life-cycle, cost-effectiveness, and on-time delivery goals.
Its uniquely organized, time-phased approach to design, development, qualification, manufacture, and in-service management shows you step-by-step how to:
* Define realistic system requirements in terms of mission profile, operating life, performance expectations, size, weight, and cost
* Define the system usage environment so that all operating, shipping, and storage conditions, including electrical, thermal, radiation, and mechanical loads, are assessed using realistic data
* Identify potential failure modes, sites, mechanisms, and architecture-stress interactions--PLUS appropriate measures you can take to reduce, eliminate, or accommodate expected failures
* Characterize materials and processes by the key controllable factors, such as types and levels of defects, variations in material properties and dimensions, and the manufacturing and assembly processes involved
* Use experiment, step-stress, and accelerated methods to ensure optimum design before production begins

Detailed design guidelines for substrate...wire and wire, tape automated, and flip-chip bonding...element attachment and case, lead, lead and lid seals--incorporating dimensional and geometric configurations of package elements, manufacturing and assembly conditions, materials selection, and loading conditions--round out this guide's comprehensive coverage. Detailed guidelines for substrate...wire and wire, tape automated, and flip-chip bonding...element attachment and case, lead, lead and lid seals--incorporating dimensional and geometric configurations of package elements, manufacturing and assembly conditions, materials selection, and loading conditions--round out this guide's comprehensive coverage.
of related interest...
PHYSICAL ARCHITECTURE OF VLSI SYSTEMS --Allan D. Kraus, Robert Hannemann and Michael Pecht
For the professional engineer involved in the design and manufacture of products containing electronic components, here is a comprehensive handbook to the theory and methods surrounding the assembly of microelectronic and electronic components. The book focuses on computers and consumer electronic products with internal subsystems that reflect mechanical design constraints, cost limitations, and aesthetic and ergonomic concerns. Taking a total system approach to packaging, the book systematically examines: basic chip and computer architecture; design and layout; interassembly and interconnections; cooling scheme; materials selection, including ceramics, glasses, and metals; stress, vibration, and acoustics; and manufacturing and assembly technology. 1994 (0-471-53299-1) pp.
SOLDERING PROCESSES AND EQUIPMENT --Michael G. Pecht
This comprehensive, fundamentals first handbook outlines the soldering methods and techniques used in the manufacture of microelectronic chips and electronic circuit boards. In a clear, easy-to-access format, the book discusses: soldering processes and classification; the material dynamics of heat soldering when assembling differing materials; wave and reflow soldering; controlling contamination during manufacturing cleanings; techniques for assuring reliability and quality control during manufacturing; rework, repair, and manual assembly; the modern assembly / repair station; and more. The book also provides clear guidelines on assembly techniques as well as an appendix of various solder equipment manufacturers.
1993 (0-471-59167-X) 312 pp.

Electromigration is a mass transport effect in metals under high current densities, which causes the metal atoms to migrate away from a high current density point and leads to the failure of integrated circuits. It is therefore an important reliability issue. This study reviews the topic for both the silicon and GaAs technologies. It surveys the status of electromigration physics in microelectronics, and summarizes various rate controlling details, including an investigation of temperature dependence.

This open access book contains the research report of the Collaborative Research Center "Micro Cold Forming" (SFB 747) of the University of Bremen, Germany. The topical research focus lies on new methods and processes for a mastered mass production of micro parts which are smaller than 1mm (by forming in batch size higher than one million). The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners in production engineering, but the book may also be of interest to graduate students alike.

Comprehensive in scope, it describes the process of system safety--from the creation and management of a safety program on a system under development to the analysis that must be performed as this system is designed and produced to assure acceptable risk in its operation. Unique in its coverage, it is the only work on this subject that combines full descriptions of the management and analysis processes and procedures in one handy volume. Designed for both system safety managers and engineers, it incorporates the safety procedures used by the Department of Defense and NASA and explains basic statistical methods and network analysis methods which provide an understanding of the engineering analysis methods that follow.

This book is addressed to professionals active in the design and operation of power plants and those involved in supporting research and development activities in high temperature materials. Following an introduction, typical operating conditions of pressure vessels, pipe-line elements and turbine blades and vanes are described. This includes both steadystate and transient loading. Advanced problems are also covered, such as structural problems, associated with power plant materials, deformation and fracture at high temperatures. Distinctions are made between the processes of crack initiation and crack growth in conducting lifetime assessments. Failure prevention methods, thermal shock problems, details of damage analysis and the possibilities of life extension are also covered.

Reliability-centred Maintenance is a process used to determine - systematically and scientifically - what must be done to ensure that physical assets continue to do what their users want them to do. Widely recognised by maintenance professionals as the most cost-effective way to develop world-class maintenance strategies, RCM leads to rapid, sustained and substantial improvements in plant availability and reliability, product quality, safety and environmental integrity. The author and his associates have helped users to apply RCM and its more modern derivative, RCM2, on more than 600 sites in 32 countries. These sites include all types of manufacturing (especially automobile, steel, paper, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food manufacturing, utilities (water, gas and electricity), armed forces, building services, mining telecommunications and transport. This book summarises this experience in the form of an authoritative and completely practical description of what RCM2 is and how it should be applied. The second edition has been comprehensively revised to incorporate the most recent developments in this field. It includes more than 100 pages of new material on condition monitoring, the analysis of functions and failures, human error, the management of risk, failure-finding and the measurement of maintenance performance. This book will be of immense value to maintenance managers, and to anyone else concerned with the reliability, productivity, safety and environmental integrity of physical assets. Its straightforward, plant-based approach makes the book especially well suited to use in centres of higher education. John Moubray, BSc (Mech Eng), spent his early career developing and implementing maintenance management systems, first as a plant engineer then as a consultant. In the early 1980s, he began to focus on the industrial application of RCM under the guidance of the late F Stanley Nowlan. In 1986, he set up Aladon Ltd, a consulting and training company based in Lutterworth, UK. He is currently managing director of Aladon, which specialises exclusively in the development of reliability-centre management processes and their application to physical assets.

Each year there are improvements in safety-critical system technology. These arise both from developments in the contributing technologies, such as safety engineering, software engineering, human factors and risk assessment, and from the adoption or adaptation of appropriate techniques from other domains, such as security. For these improvements to be of real benefit, they need to be applied during the appropriate stage in the life cycle of the system, whether it be development, assessment, or operation. For this to occur, they must be communicated and explained. Each year the Safety-critical Systems Symposium offers a distinguished forum for the presentation of papers on such developments, and also for papers from industry on the lessons learned from the use of technologies and methods. The results of many collaborative research projects, with components from both industry and academia, are reported in a universally understandable form. In 1995 the Symposium was held in Brighton, a venue calculated to stimulate not just the presenters of papers, but all the delegates. Yet, this book of Proceedings is intended not only for the delegates but also for readers not able to attend the event itself. We welcome both categories of reader. Delegates have the benefit of attending the presentations and the opportunity to participate in the discussions; those who take up this book after the event can peruse it attheir leisure and, perhaps, on account of it will resolve to attend subsequent symposia.

This book presents the proceedings of the First European Dependable Computing Conference (EDCC-1), held in Berlin, Germany, in October 1994. EDCC is the merger of two former European events on dependable computing.
The volume comprises 34 refereed full papers selected from 106 submissions. The contributions address all current aspects of dependable computing and reflect the state of the art in dependable systems research and advanced applications; among the topics covered are hardware and software reliability, safety-critical and secure systems, fault-tolerance and detection, verification and validation, formal methods, hardware and software testing, and parallel and distributed systems.

Performance evaluation, reliability, and performability are key factors in the development and improvement of computer systems and computer networks. This volume contains the 25 accepted and invited papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Modelling Techniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation. The papers focus on new techniques and the extension of existing techniques for performance and reliability analysis. Tools to support performance and reliability modelling and measurement in all kinds of applications and environments are presented, and the practicability and generality of the approaches are emphasized. The volume summarizes the state of the art and points out future demands and challenges, and will interest both scientists and practitioners.

The safe operation of computer systems continues to be a key issue in many applications where people, environment, investment, or goodwill can be at risk. Such applications include medical, railways, power generation and distribution, road transportation, aerospace, process industries, mining, military and many others. This book represents the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, held in Poznan, Poland, 27-29 October 1993. The conference reviews the state of the art, experiences and new trends in the areas of computer safety, reliability and security. It forms a platform for technology transfer between academia, industry and research institutions. In an expanding world-wide market for safe, secure and reliable computer systems SAFECOMP'93 provides an opportunity for technical developers, users, and legislators to exchange and review the experience, to consider the best technologies now available and to identify the skills and technologies required for the future. The papers were carefully selected by the International Program Com mittee of the Conference. The authors of the papers come from 16 different countries. The subjects covered include formal methods and models, safety assessment and analysis, verification and validation, testing, reliability issues and dependable software tech nology, computer languages for safety related systems, reactive systems technology, security and safety related applications. As to its wide international coverage, unique way of combining partici pants from academia, research and industry and topical coverage, SAFECOMP is outstanding among the other related events in the field."

This proceedings volume contains 38 papers presented at the 4th Working Conference on "Rel iability* and Optimization of Structural Systems", held at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, September 11- 13, 1991. The Working Conference was organised by the IFIP (Interna tional Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 7.5 of Technical Committee 7 and was the fourth in a series, following similar conferences held at the University of Aalborg, Den mark, May 1987, at the Imperial College, London, UK, September 1988 and at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA, March 1990. The Working Conference was attended by 54 participants from 16 countries. The objectives of Working Group 7.5 are: * to promote modern structural systems optimization and reliability theory, * to advance international cooperation in the field of structural system optimization and reliability theory, * to stimulate research, development and application of structural system optimization and reli ability theory, * to further the dissemination and exchange of information on reliability and optimization of structural systems * to encourage education in structural system optimization and reliability theory. At present the members of the Working Group are: A. H.-S. Ang, U.S.A. M. Grimmelt, FRG G. A ugwti, Italy N. C. Lind, Canada M. J. Baker, UK H. O. Mad&en, Denmark P. Bjerager, Norway R. E. Melcher~, Australia C. A. Cornell, U.S.A. F. Mo~e~, U.S.A.

The aim of this volume is to present to researchers and engineers working on problems concerned with the mechanics of solids and structures, the current state of the development and application to procedures for assessing the reliability of a system. Particular attention is paid to their use in the analysis of complex engineering systems. The topics covered reflect the need to integrate, within the overall methodology, statistical methods for dealing with uncertain parameters and random excitation with the development of a suitable safety indexes and design codes. The basic principles of reliability theory, together with current standard methodology, including a consideration of the operational, economic and legal aspects of reliability assurance, is reviewed, together with an introduction to new developments, such as the application of expert systems technology. Damage accumulation predictions, with applications in seismic engineering are also covered.