Aston University

• Material and joint tests performed on 6082-T6 aluminium after thermal exposure. • Three lap joint configurations tested, showing distinct failure modes. • Stress–strain and fracture behaviour characterised via coupon testing. • Numerical models developed, validated, and used for parametric analysis. • Accuracy of design standards assessed and a modified bearing factor proposed. Structural aluminium alloys are commonly heat-treated to enhance their strength for load-bearing applications, but exposure to fire can degrade or completely eliminate these benefits. Even if a component withstands the fire, it may no longer meet design load requirements, making post-fire performance assessment essential. This study presents 16 material coupons tests and 12 experimental tests on 6082-T6 aluminium lap joints exposed to elevated temperatures (200°C, 300°C, and 400°C) prior to testing. Three joint configurations with varying bolt spacing were investigated, resulting in different failure modes: net section fracture, end bearing, and mixed failure. One unheated specimen per configuration served as a benchmark sample. Additionally, tensile tests on flat and flat grooved coupons were conducted to characterise the stress-strain and fracture behaviour after thermal exposure. The findings of the lap joint tests include load-displacement behaviour, as well as evaluations of failure loads and failure modes, and are reported in detail. Subsequently, numerical models were developed and validated against the experimental results. A parametric study was also carried out to investigate the influence of the bolt hole end and edge distance on the joint performance. The experimental and numerical results were used to evaluate the accuracy of existing design standards for predicting the resistance of aluminium alloy connections, including AS/NZS 1664.1, EN 1999-1-1 (Eurocode 9), and the provisions available in the literature. Based on the experimental and numerical data, a modified design equation for the bearing resistance factor is proposed to improve the prediction accuracy, and enable post-fire design that accounts for temperature-induced degradation.

Purpose This study aims to explore how culturally and politically embedded management controls influence innovation transitions of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in a developing economy. Design/methodology/approach The study relies on the cultural political economy perspective of management controls. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with senior executives from three knowledge-based PPPs operating in telecommunications, power and energy and high-tech research industries in Sri Lanka. Findings The authors demonstrate how cultural political economy factors (e.g. semiotic and cultural; political and institutional; economic and structural) have influenced Western-led, formal management controls across various PPP models (e.g. labour, leadership, innovation, operational, market, neoliberal and bureaucratic controls), both enabling and obstructing the shift towards the state’s professed “knowledge-based economy” discourse. Management controls within telecommunications-based PPPs tend to be receptive to political interference, often supported by powerful, party-based trade unions and primarily focus on innovation to cater to the local market. In contrast to traditional norms, both energy- and high-tech PPPs leverage management controls to resist political interference, promoting a strong, market-oriented approach to knowledge-driven innovation. Practical implications PPPs with solid professional and managerial backgrounds are more likely to initiate innovation transitions through bottom-up approaches, whereas PPPs with considerable state and political influence tend to be predominantly driven by both top-down and bottom-up approaches. Nevertheless, evidence indicates a dialectical relationship between top-down and bottom-up approaches in all PPPs. Originality/value Cultural political economy redefines the complex interplay among the state’s knowledge-based economy discourse, the innovation transition in PPPs, management controls and development priorities as a co-evolving, politically negotiated process rather than a linear policy implementation. The findings suggest that the success or failure of implementing a knowledge-based economy state project through PPPs depends not only on political policy priorities but also on the interaction of political power, professional leadership and management controls in practice.

Abstract This chapter tackles the mutually reinforcing interactions between food science, mass production, and global markets in the nineteenth century. Justus von Liebig was a seminal figure, developing the universities of Gießen and Munich into cradles of modern nutritional science. Modern laboratories and experimental stations facilitated chemical interventions in food production. New artificial products such as meat extract and margarine went to market. Technological devices for food production and control, such as the saccharimeter and lactoscope, were developed. The German laboratory model was copied in innovation centres around the world. Mass emigration, especially to the United States, facilitated the spread of knowledge and technology. Immigrant entrepreneurs invested heavily in modern production. The chapter conceptualizes migrants as agents of intercultural transfer. They brokered between different economies, taste regimes, and technical standards, developing new branded products that transformed consumer habits.

Abstract In the 1890s, the German chemical engineer George Stade set up the West India Rum Refinery and Experimental Station in Barbados. The machinery was delivered from Germany and included the first modern column still on Barbados, allowing for distilling on an industrial scale and based on scientific methods. The company quickly became the largest producer on the island, a position it holds up until today. The chapter constitutes the first analysis of this case of technology transfer from Germany into the British Empire. It thereby supports new histories of transimperial entanglements before 1914, as well as respatializations of German history in global terms. The chapter argues on an empirical basis that histories of technology have, so far, been under-represented within these respatializations.

This work investigates the fluorescence properties of Ce³⁺-doped silica fiber and borosilicate glass when excited with a 405nm source. The Ce-doped glass was fabricated via a melt-quench process, while the fiber was produced using MCVD with solution doping. Both media exhibit visible fluorescence, with fiber emission peaking in the green region, and glass showing dual peaks in the blue and broader visible range. These results highlight the potential of Ce³⁺-doped materials as compact, efficient broadband light sources. Applications include biomedical imaging techniques such as Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and other visible photonic systems.