This book presents a number of approaches to Fine-Kinney-based multi-criteria occupational risk-assessment. For each proposed approach, it provides case studies demonstrating their applicability, as well as Python coding, which will enable readers to implement them into their own risk assessment process. The book begins by giving a review of Fine-Kinney occupational risk-assessment methods and their extension by fuzzy sets. It then progresses in a logical fashion, dedicating a chapter to each approach, including the fuzzy best and worst method, interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy VIKOR and interval type-2 fuzzy QUALIFLEX. This book will be of interest to professionals and researchers working in the field of occupational risk management, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students studying applications of fuzzy systems.

The book focuses on the transient modelling, stability analysis and control of power electronic systems, since these systems face severe safe operation problems the during transient period. It discusses both theoretical analysis and practical applications, highlighting the transient characteristics of converters with different control strategies, and proposes transient modelling and model reduction methods. Furthermore, it classifies the transient stability problems of the system to help the readers gain an understanding of the basic theoretical methods for analysing the power electronic system, at the same time providing sufficient detail to enable engineers to design such systems. Comprehensively describing theoretical analyses, ranging from system modelling and stability analysis to transient control, the book is a valuable resource for researchers, engineers and graduate students in fields of transient modelling, stability analysis and control of power electronic systems.

This open access book provides an introduction to uncertainty quantification in engineering. Starting with preliminaries on Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo methods, followed by material on imprecise probabilities, it then focuses on reliability theory and simulation methods for complex systems. The final two chapters discuss various aspects of aerospace engineering, considering stochastic model updating from an imprecise Bayesian perspective, and uncertainty quantification for aerospace flight modelling. Written by experts in the subject, and based on lectures given at the Second Training School of the European Research and Training Network UTOPIAE (Uncertainty Treatment and Optimization in Aerospace Engineering), which took place at Durham University (United Kingdom) from 2 to 6 July 2018, the book offers an essential resource for students as well as scientists and practitioners.

This book proposes new control and protection schemes to improve the overall stability and security of future wide-area power systems. It focuses on the high penetration levels of renewable energy sources and distributed generation, particularly with the trend towards smart grids. The control methods discussed can improve the overall stability in normal and abnormal operation conditions, while the protection methods presented can be used to ensure the secure operation of systems under most severe contingencies. Presenting stability, security, and protection methods for power systems in one concise volume, this book takes the reader on a journey from concepts and fundamentals to the latest and future trends in each topic covered, making it an informative and intriguing read for researchers, graduate students, and practitioners alike.

This book presents the proceedings of the International Conference on Health, Safety, Fire, Environment, and Allied Sciences. It highlights latest developments in the field of science and technology aimed at improving health and safety in the workplace. The volume comprises content from leading scientists, engineers, and policy makers discussing issues relating to industrial safety, fire hazards and their management in industry, forests and other settings. Also dealt with are issues of occupational health in engineering, process and agricultural industry and protection against incidents of arson and terror attacks. The contents of this volume will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers alike.

This book focuses on how to keep blast furnaces running stably and smoothly with low consumption and long operating life spans. Assessing and adjusting blast furnace performance are key to operation. The book describes in detail cases of both successful and failed blast furnace operation. It also demonstrates various phenomena and "symptoms" in the smelting process that have rarely been studied before, e.g. abnormal gas distribution, bending loss of tuyere, slag crust fall-off, blast furnace thickening, and hearth accumulation. As such, it will help readers understand internal phenomena in blast furnaces, providing a basis for developing intelligent control and management systems.

Resilience has become an important topic on the safety research agenda and in organizational practice. Most empirical work on resilience has been descriptive, identifying characteristics of work and organizing activity which allow organizations to cope with unexpected situations. Fewer studies have developed testable models and theories that can be used to support interventions aiming to increase resilience and improve safety. In addition, the absent integration of different system levels from individuals, teams, organizations, regulatory bodies, and policy level in theory and practice imply that mechanisms through which resilience is linked across complex systems are not yet well understood. Scientific efforts have been made to develop constructs and models that present relationships; however, these cannot be characterized as sufficient for theory building. There is a need for taking a broader look at resilience practices as a foundation for developing a theoretical framework that can help improve safety in complex systems. This book does not advocate for one definition or one field of research when talking about resilience; it does not assume that the use of resilience concepts is necessarily positive for safety. We encourage a broad approach, seeking inspiration across different scientific and practical domains for the purpose of further developing resilience at a theoretical and an operational level of relevance for different high-risk industries. The aim of the book is twofold: 1. To explore different approaches for operationalization of resilience across scientific disciplines and system levels. 2. To create a theoretical foundation for a resilience framework across scientific disciplines and system levels. By presenting chapters from leading international authors representing different research disciplines and practical fields we develop suggestions and inspiration for the research community and practitioners in high-risk industries. This book is Open Access under a CC-BY licence.

The legislative requirement for cannabis to undergo laboratory testing has followed legalization of medical and recreational use in every U.S. state to date. Cannabis safety testing is a new investment opportunity within the emerging cannabis market that is separate from cultivation, processing, and distribution, allowing individuals and organizations who may have been reluctant to enter previously a new entry route to the cannabis space. However, many of the costs, timelines, operational requirements, and compliance issues are overlooked by people who have not been exposed to regulated laboratory testing. Cannabis Laboratory Fundamentals provides an in-depth review of the key issues that impact cannabis testing laboratories and provides recommendations and solutions to avoid common - but expensive - mistakes. The text goes beyond methodology to include sections on economics, regulation, and operational challenges, making it useful for both new and experienced cannabis laboratory operators, as well as all those who want to understand the opportunities and risks of this industry.

This book discusses condition based monitoring of rotating machines using intelligent adaptive systems. The book employs computational intelligence and fuzzy control principles to deliver a module that can adaptively monitor and optimize machine health and performance. This book covers design and performance of such systems and provides case studies and data models for fault detection and diagnosis. The contents cover everything from optimal sensor positioning to fault diagnosis. The principles laid out in this book can be applied across rotating machinery such as turbines, compressors, and aircraft engines. The adaptive fault diagnostics systems presented can be used in multiple time and safety critical applications in domains such as aerospace, automotive, deep earth and deep water exploration, and energy.

This book comprises select peer-reviewed contributions from the 6th International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering (CPIE - 2019). The volume focuses on latest research in the field of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and its allied areas. Articles on variety of topics such as Human Factors Engineering, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Operations Research, Quality Engineering, Measurement and Control, Reliability and Maintenance Engineering, Green Supply Chain Management, Modelling and Simulation, Sustainability, Technology Management, Agile and Flexible Manufacturing, Technology Management and Computer Aided Manufacturing are discussed in this book. Given the range of topics covered, the book will be useful for students, researchers, and professionals interested in different areas of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

This book introduces human factors engineering (HFE) principles, guidelines, and design methods for medical device design. It starts with an overview of physical, perceptual, and cognitive abilities and limitations, and their implications for design. This analysis produces a set of human factors principles that can be applied across many design challenges, which are then applied to guidelines for designing input controls, visual displays, auditory displays (alerts, alarms, warnings), and human-computer interaction. Specific challenges and solutions for various medical device domains, such as robotic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, artificial organs, wearables, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, and reprocessing, are discussed. Human factors research and design methods are provided and integrated into a human factors design lifecycle, and a discussion of regulatory requirements and procedures is provided, including guidance on what human factors activities should be conducted when and how they should be documented.This hands-on professional reference is an essential introduction and resource for students and practitioners in HFE, biomedical engineering, industrial design, graphic design, user-experience design, quality engineering, product management, and regulatory affairs. Teaches readers to design medical devices that are safer, more effective, and less error prone; Explains the role and responsibilities of regulatory agencies in medical device design; Introduces analysis and research methods such as UFMEA, task analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing.

This book provides, as simply as possible, sound foundations for an in-depth understanding of reliability engineering with regard to qualitative analysis, modelling, and probabilistic calculations of safety and production systems. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience within the field of reliability engineering, it addresses and discusses a variety of topics, including: * Background and overview of safety and dependability studies; * Explanation and critical analysis of definitions related to core concepts; * Risk identification through qualitative approaches (preliminary hazard analysis, HAZOP, FMECA, etc.); * Modelling of industrial systems through static (fault tree, reliability block diagram), sequential (cause-consequence diagrams, event trees, LOPA, bowtie), and dynamic (Markov graphs, Petri nets) approaches; * Probabilistic calculations through state-of-the-art analytical or Monte Carlo simulation techniques; * Analysis, modelling, and calculations of common cause failure and uncertainties; * Linkages and combinations between the various modelling and calculation approaches; * Reliability data collection and standardization. The book features illustrations, explanations, examples, and exercises to help readers gain a detailed understanding of the topic and implement it into their own work. Further, it analyses the production availability of production systems and the functional safety of safety systems (SIL calculations), showcasing specific applications of the general theory discussed. Given its scope, this book is a valuable resource for engineers, software designers, standard developers, professors, and students.

This current book comprises state-of-the-art research results in the field of mechatronics and reliable systems engineering, gathering papers from almost all continents. Since the chapters represent contributions of research scholars who work in both governmental financed institutions and in the business environment, one could infer that they certainly reflect a clear picture of the developments in these cutting-edge sciences. Moreover, the contributions are not limited to mechatronics, as nowadays it has grown to embed all smart technical sciences. Medical applications based on nano-technologies - seemingly the most promising of all newly developed branches - could not be left out of this work. It is our belief that the book is useful to both students, who want to learn from the best scholars (as most of the authors hold a Ph.D. degree and are well-known professors), and to researchers in all areas of smart engineering, who will definitely find here hot topics meant to inspire them in their line of work.

This book presents the latest research in the fields of reliability theory and its applications, providing a comprehensive overview of reliability engineering and discussing various tools, techniques, strategies and methods within these areas. Reliability analysis is one of the most multidimensional topics in the field of systems reliability engineering, and while its rapid development creates opportunities for industrialists and academics, it is also means that it is hard to keep up to date with the research taking place. By gathering findings from institutions around the globe, the book offers insights into the international developments in the field. As well as discussing the current areas of research, it also identifies knowledge gaps in reliability theory and its applications and highlights fruitful avenues for future research. Covering topics from life cycle sustainability to performance analysis of cloud computing, this book is ideal for upper undergraduate and postgraduate researchers studying reliability engineering.

This proceedings book discusses state-of-the-art research on uncertainty quantification in mechanical engineering, including statistical data concerning the entries and parameters of a system to produce statistical data on the outputs of the system. It is based on papers presented at Uncertainties 2020, a workshop organized on behalf of the Scientific Committee on Uncertainty in Mechanics (Mecanique et Incertain) of the AFM (French Society of Mechanical Sciences), the Scientific Committee on Stochastic Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification of the ABCM (Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences) and the SBMAC (Brazilian Society of Applied Mathematics).

This book presents recent results on fault diagnosis and condition monitoring of airborne electromechanical actuators, illustrating both algorithmic and hardware design solutions to enhance the reliability of onboard more electric aircraft. The book begins with an introduction to the current trends in the development of electrically powered actuation systems for aerospace applications. Practical examples are proposed to help present approaches to reliability, availability, maintainability and safety analysis of airborne equipment. The terminology and main strategies for fault diagnosis and condition monitoring are then reviewed. The core of the book focuses on the presentation of relevant case studies of fault diagnosis and monitoring design for airborne electromechanical actuators, using different techniques. The last part of the book is devoted to a summary of lessons learned and practical suggestions for the design of fault diagnosis solutions of complex airborne systems. The book is written with the idea of providing practical guidelines on the development of fault diagnosis and monitoring algorithms for airborne electromechanical actuators. It will be of interest to practitioners in aerospace, mechanical, electronic, reliability and systems engineering, as well as researchers and postgraduates interested in dynamical systems, automatic control and safety-critical systems. Advances in Industrial Control reports and encourages the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.

This book talks about the dynamics of the surface water-groundwater contaminant interactions under different environmental conditions across the world. The contents of the book highlight trends of monitoring, prediction, awareness, learning, policy, and mitigation success. The book provides a description of the background processes and factors controlling resilience, risk, and response of water systems, contributing to the development of more efficient, sustainable technologies and management options. It integrates methodologies and techniques such as data science and engineering, remote sensing, modelling, analytics, synthesis and indices, disruptive innovations and their utilization in water management, policy making, and mitigation strategies. The book is intended to be a comprehensive reference for students, professionals, and researchers working on various aspects of science and technology development. It will also prove a useful resource for policy makers and implementation specialists.

This book addresses the shelf life of foods, a key factor in determining how food is distributed and consequently where and when different food products are available for consumption. Shelf life is determined by several factors, including microbiological, chemical, physical, and organoleptic deterioration. Often these factors are interrelated and interdependent. The editors of this volume focus specifically on the microbial factors related to shelf life of perishable foods and food commodities. This allows for more detailed coverage of foodborne bacterial pathogens and spoilage microorganisms of concern. The initial part of the book covers the why and how of shelf life determination as well as the specific microbial pathogens and spoilage microorganisms of concern for perishable foods. Contributors address topics such as the techniques utilized for determination of shelf life, the frequency of shelf life testing for different products, the interpretation of data to make shelf life determinations, and management of shelf life of food products from the perspective of the food producer, distributor, retailer, and regulator. Three key areas impacting shelf life are addressed in detail: sanitation, processing, and packaging. The sanitation chapter explains the necessary components of cleaning and sanitizing to assure a hygienic processing environment and why that is critical to shelf life control. Traditional processing procedures are reviewed and advanced processing technologies are explored. Materials used in food packaging and the utilization of traditional and activated food packaging by product type are covered in detail. The latter two chapters of the book delve into newer techniques of analysis and explore the microbiome of food products. Implications of microbial ecology and microbial quantification in food products are discussed in chapters on genomics and in the changing dogma of meat shelf life. The primary audience for this work includes food industry quality and food safety technicians, managers, directors, and executives responsible for shelf life. Academicians and governmental researchers involved in research and teaching about food safety and quality will also find the material relevant and useful.

This book comprises the proceedings of the Conference and Exhibition on Non Destructive Evaluation, (NDE 2019). The contents of the book encompass a vast spectrum from Conventional to Advanced NDE including novel methods, instrumentation, sensors, procedures and data analytics as applied to all industry segments for quality control, periodic maintenance, life estimation, structural integrity and related areas. This book will be a useful reference for students, researchers and practitioners.

This book presents the selected peer-reviewed proceedings of the International Conference on Thermal Engineering and Management Advances (ICTEMA 2020). The contents discuss latest research in the areas of thermal engineering, manufacturing engineering, and production management. Some of the topics covered include multiphase fluid flow, turbulent flows, reactive flows, atmospheric flows, combustion and propulsion, computational methods for thermo-fluid arena, micro and nanofluidics, renewable energy and environment sustainability, non-conventional energy resources, energy principles and management, machine dynamics and manufacturing, casting and forming, green manufacturing, production planning and management, quality control and management, and traditional and non-traditional manufacturing. The contents of this book will be useful for students, researchers as well as professionals working in the area of mechanical engineering and allied fields.

These proceedings present the latest information on software reliability, industrial safety, cyber security, physical protection, testing and verification for nuclear power plants. The papers were selected from more than 80 submissions and presented at the First International Symposium on Software Reliability, Industrial Safety, Cyber Security and Physical Protection for Nuclear Power Plants, held in Yinchuan, China on May 30 - June 1, 2016. The primary aim of this symposium was to provide a platform to facilitate the discussion for comprehension, application and management of digital instrumentation, control systems and technologies in nuclear power plants. The book reflects not only the state of the art and latest trends in nuclear instrumentation and control system technologies, but also China's increasing influence in this area. It is a valuable resource for both practitioners and academics working in the field of nuclear instrumentation, control systems and other safety-critical systems, as well as nuclear power plant managers, public officials and regulatory authorities.

Probabilistic risk analysis aims to quantify the risk caused by high technology installations in situations where classical statistical analysis is difficult or impossible. This book discusses the fundamental notion of uncertainty, its relationship with probability, and the limits to the quantification of uncertainty. Drawing on extensive experience in the theory and applications of risk analysis, the authors focus on the conceptual and mathematical foundations underlying the quantification, interpretation and management of risk. They cover standard topics as well as important new subjects such as the use of expert judgment and uncertainty propagation.

This book contains the proceedings of the Additive Manufacturing in Product Development Conference. The content focus on how to support real-world value chains by developing additive manufactured series products.

This book discusses recent developments in dynamic reliability in multi-state systems (MSS), addressing such important issues as reliability and availability analysis of aging MSS, the impact of initial conditions on MSS reliability and availability, changing importance of components over time in MSS with aging components, and the determination of age-replacement policies. It also describes modifications of traditional methods, such as Markov processes with rewards, as well as a modern mathematical method based on the extended universal generating function technique, the Lz-transform, presenting various successful applications and demonstrating their use in real-world problems. This book provides theoretical insights, information on practical applications, and real-world case studies that are of interest to engineers and industrial managers as well as researchers. It also serves as a textbook or supporting text for graduate and postgraduate courses in industrial, electrical, and mechanical engineering.

Optimal Reliability Design is a detailed introduction to systems reliability and reliability optimization. State-of-the-art 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. Chapters cover optimization tools such as heuristics, discrete optimization, nonlinear programming, mixed integer programming, optimal arrangement, and metaheuristic algorithms, and their computational implementation. Many numerical examples are included, as well as over 180 homework exercises. The book is suitable as a text for graduate-level courses in reliability engineering and operations research and as a valuable reference for practicing engineers.