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Adaptive decision support for suggesting a machine tool maintenance strategy: from reactive to preventative
Get PDFPurpose -- To produce a decision support aid for machine tool owners to utilise while deciding upon a maintenance strategy. Furthermore, the decision support tool is adaptive and capable of suggesting different strategies by monitoring for any change in machine tool manufacturing accuracy.
Design/methodology/approach -- A maintenance cost estimation model is utilised within the research and development of this decision support system. An empirical-based methodology is pursued and validated through case study analysis.
Findings -- A case study is provided where a schedule of preventative maintenance actions is produced to reduce the need for the future occurrences of reactive maintenance actions based on historical machine tool accuracy information. In the case-study, a 28% reduction in predicted accuracy-related expenditure is presented, equating to a saving of £14k per machine over a five year period.
Research limitations/implications -- The emphasis on improving machine tool accuracy and reducing production costs is increasing. The presented research is pioneering in the development of a software-based tool to help reduce the requirement on domain-specific expert knowledge.
Originality/value -- The paper presents an adaptive decision support system to assist with maintenance strategy selection. This is the first of its kind and is able to suggest a preventative strategy for those undertaking only reactive maintenance. This is of value for both manufacturers and researchers alike. Manufacturers will benefit from reducing maintenance costs, and researchers will benefit from the development and application of a novel decision support technique
Mental health staff perceptions and practice regarding self-harm, suicidality and help-seeking in LGBTQ youth: Findings from a cross-sectional survey in the UK
Get PDFYoung people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) experience higher levels of suicidality compared to heterosexual or cisgender peers, and face significant barriers accessing mental health services including prejudice from staff. In a cross-sectional survey, mental health staff who reported receiving LGBT awareness training were significantly more likely to report in relation to working with LGBT youth that they routinely discussed issues of sexuality and gender (χ2=8.782, df=2, p < 0.05); to feel that their organisation supported them to work with this group (χ2=14.401, df=2, p < 0.001); and report that they had access to adequate skills training that supported their work with suicidality and self-harm with this group (χ2=21.911, df=2, p <0.001). There is a need to enhance the mental health workforce in LGBTQ awareness, and these findings indicate that awareness training could impact positively on practice
Magic and Broken Knowledge; reflections on the practice of Bizarre Magick
Get PDFThis paper examines wider issues of disenchantment in conventional magic performance practice, ultimately exploring the spectatorship of bizarre magick which offers an alternative model of practice where the shift from enchantment to disenchantment is much less clear cut than in traditional conjuring. How bizarre sought to blur the distinction between real and performed magic is considered with reference to the notion of the magician or mystery entertainer as a facilitator allowing the audience to have the experience of self-enchantment within the performance itself. This discussion is approached with direct reference to the author’s own performance practice and research into bizarre magick and mystery entertainment
The influence of pulse shape on the performance of a mixed flow turbine for turbocharger applications
No full textEngine downsizing allows automotive manufactures to achieve improved efficiency and reduce emissions. Turbocharging can increase the power density of the engine, and therefore plays a vital role in downsizing. Due to the nature of the reciprocating engine, a turbocharger turbine operates in a highly unsteady environment. This paper presents a computational investigation looking at the impact of pulse shape on the performance of a mixed flow turbine for turbocharger applications. While the impact of pulse frequency and amplitude on turbine unsteady performance has received significant attention in the past, little work has been done on the impact of the pulse shape. In the current study, four inlet pulse shapes have been investigated and shown to have a significant impact on turbine instantaneous performance, where efficiency and mass flow hysteresis varied significantly between test cases. This result shows for in-depth analyses of turbine flow physics and loss mechanisms, accurately modelling the inlet pulse shape is vital. The square pulse showed the most distinct impact with normalized cycle average efficiency decreasing by 1.37% and a 2.23% reduction in normalized stage MFP when compared to the sinusoidal wave. The variation in normalized cycle averaged stage efficiency was found to be less than 0.25% for the remaining three wave forms and the variation in normalized cycle averaged MFP less than 0.5%. This finding suggests that a simple sinusoidal wave form can be used for the majority of cycle-averaged performance comparisons
Analysing Railway Safety with Systems Thinking
Get PDFRailway system is a socio-technical system because the operation of such system also
heavily relies on the management of human activities and operating procedures in the organisation, as well as the execution of technical subsystems. Safety of these systems therefore is more than just about engineering their technical subsystems. The latest approach from systems engineering considers that an accident is due to inadequate controlled interactions in the system and is usually a dynamic event chain started from the activation of a hazard and culminated in a complex process of sequential and concurrent events until the system is eventually out of control. Meanwhile the analysis of these systems’s safety becomes much harder when simply applying the traditional techniques of safety assessment. It is because, first of all, a social-technical system consists of a lot of complex and
non-linear interactions, traditional techniques show their limits when analysing complex systems. And secondly, the safety of a social-technical system requires a system perspective, which should take all the behaviours (desired and undesired but predicted) of a system as a whole in the context of its environment. To capture the information needed, the models for these analyses (i.e., fault tree and FMEA table) will become too complex to have a systemic view of each individual causal factor. In this paper, we proposed an approach based on system thinking and system dynamics to analyse the safety of a social-technical system. The case study of a tram accident is simple enough for the purpose of demonstrating its feasibility and benefits. The comparison with fault tree analysis was conducted, but it was not for the evaluation of our approach. The real evaluation comes from the extensive
applications in real world
Torsional fretting and torsional sliding wear behaviors of CuNiAl against 42CrMo4 under dry condition
Get PDFMany wear failures are caused by a combination of fretting wear and sliding wear. In this study, the torsional fretting and torsional sliding wear properties of CuNiAl against 42CrMo4 were comparatively investigated under dry condition using a flat on flat contact tester. Experimental results showed that the sliding friction coefficients declined more dramatically than the fretting friction coefficients when the normal load increased. The fretting wear rate was lower than the sliding wear rate, which was partly due to the solid lubrication effect of the wear debris and strain hardening of the worn surfaces. The dominant wear mechanisms for the fretting tests were oxidation, cracks and delamination, while for the sliding tests were abrasion combined with plastic deformation
A Study of Fatal Pedestrian Crashes at Rural Low Volume Road Intersections in Southwest China
Get PDFObjective: Although intersections correspond to a small proportion of the entire roadway system, they account for a disproportionally high number of fatal pedestrian crashes, especially in rural roads situated in low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines pedestrian safety at rural intersections and suggests applicable accident prevention treatments by providing an in-depth analysis of 28 fatal pedestrian crashes from eight low volume roads in Southwest China.
Methods: The Driving Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) is a method to support a systematic classification of accident causation information and to facilitate aggregation of that information into patterns of contributing factors. This is the first time DREAM was used to analyze pedestrian-vehicle crashes and provide suggestions for road improvements in China.
Results: The key issues adversely affecting pedestrian safety can be organized in four distinctive thematic categories, namely deficient intersection safety infrastructure, lack of pedestrian safety education, inadequate driver training and insufficient traffic law enforcement. Given that resources for traffic safety investments in rural areas are limited, it is determined that the potential countermeasures should focus on low-cost, easily implementable and long-lasting measures increasing the visibility and predictability of pedestrian movement and reducing speeding and irresponsible driving for drivers and risk-taking behaviors for pedestrians.
Conclusions: Accident prevention treatments are suggested based on their suitability for rural areas in Southwest China. These countermeasures include introducing better access management and traffic calming treatments, providing more opportunities for pedestrian education and enhancing the quality of driver training and traffic law enforcement
Failing by Design: Self-Tracking and the Failed Individual
No full textSelf-tracking most notably emerged over the last century (Crawford et al. 2015). To self-track is to record life activities, encoding them into a series of quantified variables–or what has been called “health” and “lifestyle” data (Whooley et al. 2014, 153). Commonly, this is practiced with wearable de- vices, such as wristbands (FitBit), necklaces (Misfit), pendants, and badges (Narrative Clip), which are tethered to smartphones and personal computers. Through these devices, a meal is measured by its calorific quantity, a heartbeat measured by its rate, and sitting at a desk is rendered the calculable accumulation of inactivity. Yet, this perspective on health and lifestyle is not particularly new. Defining food as energy, knowing the importance of a regular heart rate and the value of exercise are staple points of advice in general medical practice. However, these are no longer exclusively “medical␣ perceptions
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