Computer integrated materials processing (CIMP) (new design analysis and simulation capabilities for injection moulded parts)

An understanding of light and its interaction with matter is essential to produce images. As the modeling of light sources, light transport and light reflection improves, it becomes possible to render images with increasing realism. The central motivation behind this thesis is to improve realism in computer graphics images by more accurate local shading models and to assist the user to obtain the desired lighting effects with these more complex models. The first part of the thesis addresses the problem of rendering surfaces illuminated by extended (linear and area) light sources. To compute the light reflected by a surface element in a given direction, one needs to determine the unoccluded regions (shadowing) of each light source and then to compute the light reflection (shading) from each of these regions. Traditionally, point light sources are distributed on the lights to approximate both the shadowing and the shading. Instead, an efficient analytical solution is developed for the shading. Shadowing from extended light sources is a fairly expensive process. To give some insights on the complexity of computing shadows, some properties of shadows and algorithms are presented. To reduce the cost of computing shadows from linear light sources, two acceleration schemes, extended from ray tracing, are introduced and evaluated. The second part of this thesis addresses the problem of achieving a desired shading effect by building up systems of constraints. This approach is called inverse shading. It allows a user to obtain a desired lighting effect by interacting directly with the scene model. An interactive modeling system has been built to study the introduction of rendering issues into the modeling process itself. Two rendering aspects are considered: shading and shadows. By specifying a highlight position and size, the unique direction of a directional light source as well as the surface glossiness are determined. Interactively moving this highlight on the surface redefines the light direction while changing its size redefines the surface glossiness. By manipulating shadow volumes (the volume within which a particular light cannot be completely seen), the light source definition and position can be modified. By assigning colours to various points in a 3D scene, information about the colour of a surface as well as other surface characteristics can be deduced. This relatively new concept of defining the causes by manipulating the effects is expected to have a major impact on the design of future computer graphics modeling systems. It begins a new family of tools for the design of more intuitive user interfaces.

Suspension system is the most important part in any vehicle. It directly affects the human safety as well as performance. The lower control arm is a wishbone-shaped metal strut that attaches to the wheel assembly. Structural optimization techniques under static load conditions have been widely used in automobile industry for lightweight vehicle to increase its performance level. This study deals with finite element analysis of the lower control arm of MacPherson suspension system and its re-design under static loadings. The existing design of lower control arm from one of the light commercial vehicle is selected for the study. The finite element analysis is carried out to determine the deformation and stress distribution in the existing design. The main aim of this project is to redesign the lower control arm of MacPherson suspension system under the current boundary conditions and increase the safety factor from 1.3 to 2. The baseline model of the lower control arm is created by using solid modeling software, viz. CATIA. The present study is used to reduce the weight as well as cost of the lower control arm under permissible limits. Keywords: Lower control arm, CATIA, ANSYS Cite this Article Vasiuddin Ansari, Ankit Chaudhary, AtharAli Sayyed et al. Design and Analysis of a Lower Control Arm in Car by Finite Element Analysis Approach. Journal of Instrumentation Technology & Innovations. 2018; 8(2): 17–24p.

We propose an interactive visualization approach to finding a mathematical model for a real world process, commonly known in the field of control theory as system identification. The use of interactive visualization techniques provides the modeller with instant visual feedback which facilitates the model validation process. When working interactively with such large data sets, as are common in system identification, methods to handle this data efficiently are required. We are developing approaches based on data streaming to meet this need.

The disc brakes are exposed to large thermal stresses and heat during routine braking. The extraordinary thermal stresses, tremendous heat occurred in the disc during hard braking. The aim of the project or research work is to design and analysis of disc. The modelling or design of the disc is done using solid works software. The Thermal analysis is to be done on the Non-vented disc brakes using ANSYS software with different materials. The thermal analysis is done to analyze the thermal properties e.g. Thermal deformation. Comparison can be done for temperature distribution between different materials. In this analysis, different materials to check which material are best. Solid works is a 3d modelling software widely used in the design process. The ANSYS software is general-purpose finite element analysis (FEA) software package. Finite Element Analysis is a numerical solution method of deconstructing the complex system into very small pieces called elements. Keywords – Rotor brake, solid works, structure and thermal analysis, ANSYS.

This dissertation explores the potential of a virtual reality serious game to help people understand the complexity of a nature-based attraction, and leverage this to cultivate a connectedness to the ecosystem, working towards increasing pro-environmental behaviour. Specifically, this research examines what design considerations are necessary in working towards these goals. To this end, the opportunities in the tourism space for serious games and virtual reality were investigated through a site visit and subsequent pilot application. The opportunities were used to create a set of objectives for a virtual reality serious game artefact. Through several iterations the artefact was developed and modified, and was used to analyse the design considerations relevant to building a videogame around a nature-based tourism attraction. Further to this, design considerations around influencing a player’s connectedness to the attraction were investigated. Iterations One and Two were developed as part of Associate Professor Alexandra Coghlan’s project on VR games and reef conservation through tourism. The final iteration formed part of this dissertation. Utilising a Design Science methodology, the artefact was developed through a series of iterative activities. The Design, Play, Experience (DPE) Framework, a serious game specific extension of the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) Framework, is used to guide the development and evaluation process. While design considerations for creating serious games exists in literature, theory has neglected those specific to nature-based attractions and those around creating a connection between real-world attractions and players. Through the iterative process, a virtual reality serious game is created around the Great Barrier Reef, the chosen nature-based tourism attraction context for the work. Involvement in the project during the Pilot, Iteration One and Iteration Two was as a paid employee for Associate Professor Alexandra Coghlan. Through the first two iterations of design science, the work identifies a series of design considerations for creating virtual reality serious games about nature-based tourism attractions for visitors. From a gameplay perspective, designers can look to engage players with non-typical elements of the attraction, while using both completely player-controlled and completely simulated events and actions from the attraction to show the attraction’s complexity. Towards teaching visitors about the attraction, designers shouldn’t focus on accuracy but interpretation when representing the environment and allow the player to conduct detrimental activities so they can see the consequences of those actions. Designers can utilize virtual reality to showcase unique perspectives, both from a literal vantage point in the attraction, and to help embody the player as the attraction. Finally, designers can create a visual language that separates the videogame components and the simulated real-world components to ensure visitors know how to interpret various elements. Through the final iteration of design science, the work identifies several more design considerations pertaining specifically to creating a sense of connectedness between the visitor and the tourism attraction. Designers should highlight knowledge about the attraction that pertains to its struggles or threats not necessarily to for visitors to remember, but to create emotional moments. Designers should find ways to evoke different emotions from a typical visit to the attraction or find ways to evoke similar emotions towards different elements of the attraction. Designers can consider the emotional journey the visitor goes on while playing the videogame and make clear connections to the real-world attraction through various stages of their journey. Designers can highlight actions that mimic pro-environmental behaviour in the videogame to help visitors continue those actions in the real-world. The findings seek to better enable videogame creators and designers to create systems around complex ecosystems, towards encouraging pro-environmental behaviour in players. The significance of this dissertation is that it gives videogame designers new lenses to look at their designs through, to better capture the complexity of an ecosystem into a simplified, interactive and educational videogame, while ensuring their videogame brings people closer emotionally to the attraction.

Exploded views and cutaway views have been demonstrated to be powerful visualization techniques to explore the complex internal structures in 3D volume data. Current approaches for creating them are mainly based on algorithms with very limited user controls. This paper proposes a novel set of whole-hand multitouch gestures for interactive creation and manipulation of these views on 3D volume data. Moreover, users can also interactively perform bimanual ‘V’-shape cut and volume exploding, remove unwanted volume partitions to effectively create cutaway views, and create threshold-based volume segmentation and exploded views. Our proposed interaction design was also tried out by eight participants in a preliminary pilot study.

BACKGROUND: In the context of the progressive movement towards patientcentred care, patient-specific decision support is an important focus of interest. Many diagnostic and treatment patient decision aids (PDAs) are now available to help patients make informed choice decisions. An increasing number of these are software-based, with some available online. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a potentially useful technique on which to base a software-assisted PDA, especially when the decision is complex - as is the case in choosing the best treatment for non-small cell lung cancer – but it has so far been relatively little exploited in this area. The use of any from a number of existing MCDA-based software applications in the development and delivery of a MCDA-based interactive PDA can be an effective way of achieving “best-practice” or normative standards of decision making, such as 1) a well-constructed set of decision criteria or 2) logically consistent patient preferences. However, it also involves the use of resources such as the time and cognitive effort involved in decision-making. The comparative evaluation of alternative MCDA-based software applications in developing and delivering a PDA therefore involves trade-offs between decision effectiveness and decision resource criteria moving from the normative to the prescriptive. MCDA is an ideal tool for this meta-evaluation task as well as for the adoption decision itself. AIM: To analyse, as proof of concept, the use of MCDA for the development, implementation and evaluation of interactive PDAs in routine clinical practice. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the use with clinicians in the Spanish NHS of two alternative MCDA software applications which implement dissimilar MCDA techniques in the development of a PDA in routine clinical practice; 2. To assess the use with clinicians in the Spanish NHS of the same two alternative MCDA software applications in the implementation of a PDA in an environment replicating actual clinical consultations; 3. To build a meta-multi-criteria decision model based on the Decision Resources Decision Effectiveness Analysis (DRDEA) framework and assess the use of this model by clinicians in the Spanish NHS to make the choice between the two MCDA applications as the basis for a PDA. METHODS: 1) Two dissimilar MCDA software applications served as a basis for the development of a lung cancer clinical management PDA in close collaboration with two different groups of three clinicians from two different Spanish NHS hospitals (H1 and H2): 1) Expert Choice, which implements the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) MCDA approach; 2) Annalisa in Elicia (ALEL), which implements the Simple Attribute Weighting (SAW) MCDA approach. The process of codevelopment of the PDA in hospitals H1 and H2 was documented; 2) Expert Choice was used to implement (i.e. deliver) the lung cancer clinical management PDA in three hypothetical consultations in hospital H1. In each consultation, one of the three clinicians involved in the development of the tool, with support by this researcher, guided a proxy patient (a non-clinical member of hospital staff) through the PDA. The same process was repeated with the MCDA software ALEL in hospital H2. The process of delivery of the PDA in hospitals H1 and H2 was documented; 3) This researcher built a meta-multi-criteria decision model based on the DRDEA framework to help clinicians choose between different MCDA software applications as the basis of a PDA. The MCDA approach used for this meta-model was Multi- Attribute Value Theory (MAVT). The model was implemented, using the software HiView 3, with three clinicians from hospital H3 for the choice between Expert Choice and ALEL as the basis of a lung cancer clinical management PDA. RESULTS: The thesis makes a three-fold contribution to research in patient-centred decision support. First, it presents two new MCDA software-based approaches to clinical decision support, based on joint work with clinicians in the Spanish NHS, for developing an interactive PDA for the clinical management of non-small cell lung cancer. Second, it describes the use of these decision support tools in the delivery of 5 an interactive PDA for the clinical management of non-small cell lung cancer in a hospital environment via simulated consultations between actual clinicians, with support from this researcher, and proxy lung cancer patients. Third, it presents and applies a new MCDA-based methodology for evaluating the use of alternative MCDA software applications in the development and delivery of interactive PDAs.

This thesis proposes a new genre of outdoor games for children, namely Head Up Games. The concept was inspired by the observation that existing pervasive outdoor games for children were mostly played head down, as the predominantly screen-based interaction of existing games required constant attention of the children. First, the vision of Head Up Games is described and illustrated with several design cases (Chapter 2). In contrast to the head down games, Head Up Games aim to encourage and support rich social interaction and physical activity, play behaviors that are similar to play behaviors seen in traditional outdoor games (such as tag and hide-and-seek). The design process of Head Up Games poses several challenges. In User Centered Design it is commonly accepted to start the development of a new product using low-fi mock-ups, e.g., paper prototypes, and evaluate these with end-users. In the case of Head Up Games this proved to be difficult, as the emerging game experience is significantly altered when using paper prototypes. Therefore, a study was carried out that used high-fi prototypes, i.e. working, interactive, prototypes, from a very early stage in the design process (Chapter 3). This way, the effect of interactions on the game experience can be addressed earlier and better in the design process. Furthemore, having access to technology early in the design process, allows designers to better explore the design space. However, designers often do not possess adequate skills to quickly prototype interactive products, particularly products that need to be evaluated in an outdoor context. Such a development is often costly and time-consuming. Therefore, the RaPIDO platform was developed (Chapter 4). The platform not only includes the appropriate hardware for creating outdoor games, but is also bundled with software libraries, to allow designers not specifically trained in software engineering to adopt the platform easily. RaPIDO was evaluated using a case study methodology with two Industrial Design master students. The evaluation not only focused on the usability of the platform, but, more importantly, how the use of the platform affected the design process. The main conclusion of the study was that the designers indeed were able to rapidly create mobile games, and that the hardware offered was suitable for creating outdoor games. Furthermore, issues were identified with regard to writing the game software, e.g., managing the complexity of the software. Finally, for evaluating Head Up Games with children two methods were applied: the Outdoor Play Observation Scheme (OPOS) was used to quantify the intended play behavior. Furthermore, GroupSorter was developed to provide a framework to interview a group of children simultaneously, resulting in qualitative comments. Both OPOS and GroupSorter were applied for evaluating three Head Up Games, which are described in Chapter 5.

Energy Conservation Strategy Research for Residential Building Refurbishment in Urban area of China

The lack of informed knowledge about listening subskills and their relationships has hindered the development of the diagnostic English language track assessment (DELTA) in three participating Hong Kong universities. This study investigates English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' listening proficiency development in understanding different spoken genres in the Hong Kong Chinese tertiary contexts. It aims to: i) identify the subskills and/or cognitive processes that underlie student performance on the DELTA listening component; ii) examine the difficulty levels of the DELTA listening subskills, and, consequentially, their hierarchical order; iii) investigate the impact of text type on difficulty level and the hierarchical order of the subskills; and iv) infer principles underlying the development of listening proficiency in the Hong Kong tertiary education contexts. A multi-method approach was employed for data collection and analysis. The primary quantitative data were derived from the DELTA listening component items answered by 2830 Chinese ELF learners who studied in their first or second year in the DELTA participating universities in the 2013-14 academic year. The item pool included 207 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) from 33 texts of three text types – conversation, interview and lecture. Each MCQ is intended to measure a particular listening subskill, including: 1) identifying specific information (SSK1); 2) understanding main idea and supporting ideas (SSK2); 3) understanding information and making an inference (SSK3); 4) interpreting a word or phrase as used by the speaker (SSK4); 5) inferring the attitude or intention of the speaker (SSK5); and 6) inferring the speaker's reasoning (SSK6). By adopting inter-related Rasch analyses using Winsteps and Facets, all test items were calibrated and analysed to determine their difficulty measures and their respective difficulties across the three text types. Qualitative Stimulated Recall Protocol (SRP) discussions were then conducted with 62 examinees of varying estimated listening abilities one month later, in a simulated test situation, where the test-taking process was video-recorded and the participants were asked to recall and to verbalise their thought processes and strategies they used to answer each question. The SRP results reveal an array of both cognitive processes and test-taking strategies in the listening comprehension and test-answering process. Firstly, various combinations of cognitive processes were utilised by both the high and low ability examinees to answer questions targeting the same listening sub-skill; however, the dominant cognitive process that was reported to have been used to answer each question corresponded with the particular listening subskill intended by DELTA item writers. Secondly, an array of test-taking strategies best identified as elimination, and guessing, were reported as used by examinees during the test. While this finding might not be surprising given the exam-oriented atmosphere prevailing in Hong Kong secondary school education, it alerted the researcher to scrutinise the validity of the DELTA listening component. The most striking observation from the listening test analysis is that, the DELTA listening subskills are measurably separable from each other, and a hierarchical pattern is established. In terms of their interaction with text type, the results showed that SSK1 and SSK6 were, respectively, the easiest and the most difficult subskills, whereas the hierarchical orders of the other four subskills varied across the three text types. More generally, these findings provide empirical evidence for the proposition that EFL listening comprehension is composed of multiple listening subskills, which operate interactively and interdependently in the listening process. The results regarding the difficulty level and the hierarchy of listening subskills corroborate the findings of prior research that low-level processing, such as identifying specific information, poses less challenge than high-level processing, such as summarising and inferencing. Because of the complexity in the interaction between text type and listening subskills, it is difficult to identify an overarching hierarchical order of the six listening subskills across the three text types. A general pattern, however, is that the difficulty increased from SSK1, SSK2 to SSK6 irrespective of the text type, and this corresponds to the general subskill hierarchy. The study will benefit teachers and students with diagnostic profiling and bridge the gap in diagnostic test design with targeted items of appropriate difficulty for predicting learners' listening development. It will extend second language acquisition theory with a hierarchical trajectory of listening proficiency growth. Limitations and future research recommendations are discussed.

Bellows is a component in piping systems which absorbs mechanical deformation with flexibility. Its geometry is an axial symmetric shell which consists of two toroidal shells and one annular plate or conical shell. In order to analyze bellows, this study presents the finite element analysis using a conical frustum shell element. A finite element analysis is developed to analyze various bellows. The validity of the developed program is verified by the experimental results for axial and lateral stiffness. The formula for calculating the natural frequency of bellows is made by the simple beam theory. The formula for fatigue life is also derived by experiments. The shape optimal design problem is formulated using multiple objective optimization. The multiple objective functions are transformed to a scalar function by weighting factors. The stiffness, strength and specified stiffness are considered as the multiple objective function. The formulation has inequality constraints imposed on the fatigue limit, the natural frequencies, and the manufacturing conditions. Geometric parameters of bellows are the design variables. The recursive quadratic programming algorithm is selected to solve the problem. The results are compared to existing bellows, and the characteristics of bellows is investigated through optimal design process. The optimized shape of bellows is expected to give quite a good guideline to practical design.

The present Thesis is organized in 10 chapters. In particular Chapter 1 gives a general overview of the modern solutions and technologies available in the field of waterway crossings, introducing briefly the revolutionary concept of Submerged Floating Tunnel. Chapter 2 provides a deeper insight into the main characteristics of this innovative structural solution for waterway crossings: first its structural features are described and the relevant loading conditions discussed, subsequently the main advantages of the SFT with respect to the traditional crossing solutions, such as the Cable Supported Bridges and the Underground and Immersed Tunnel are described. Chapter 3 traces the history of the SFT, starting from its first proposal made in 1969 for the Messina Strait crossing, describing all the feasibility studies and preliminary designs developed all over the world in the following years. This Chapter is concluded by a description of the Sino-Italian cooperation programmes, involving among the other partners the University of Naples “Federico II”, which led to a feasibility study relative to the crossing of the Jintang Strait (P.R. of China) with a SFT and to the complete design of the first SFT full-scale prototype, planned to be realized in the forthcoming years in the Qiandao Lake (P.R. of China). A potential SFT crossing in the Pulau Seribu Archipelago (Indonesia), preliminary studied in the last years by the research team headed by Prof. Mazzolani, is also briefly illustrated. Chapter 4 explains in the detail of the various aspects faced in the design of the Archimedes Bridge prototype. The features of the selected location and the structural scheme are illustrated. The structural analyses aimed at investigating the prototype behaviour under the environmental loads are discussed. The conception and the design of the constructional details are presented. Finally, the fabrication and erection procedures are briefly described. Chapter 5 provides a description of the structural models which can be used to analyse the SFT structural behaviour: the beam on elastic foundation, which 2 Outline of the Thesis can be used in the preliminary phase of the design, and a SFT Finite Element Model. Chapters 6 and 7 are devoted to the study of the response of the SFT to the main environmental loads to which is subjected: the hydrodynamic actions due to the presence of waves and currents and the earthquakes. Numerical analyses are carried out with the Finite Element analyses aimed at the understanding of the SFT structural behaviour and at the definition of the optimal structural configurations. In Chapter 8 potential SFT solutions developed for the Messina Strait and Gibraltar Strait crossings are illustrated and a technical-economical comparison with the Suspension Bridges designed for the same locations is made. Chapter 8 describes a simple procedure for a quick comparison of the SFT and CSIB solutions with the Cable Supported Bridges one, providing useful curves highlighting the conditions under which the former ones are more competitive than the latter ones. Finally, in Chapter 9 the future steps and challenges to be faced in the development of Submerged Floating Tunnel are presented. An alternative typology of floating tunnel is introduced too: the Cable Supported Immersed Inversed Bridge (CSIB), which is conceived as a combination of the submerged floating bridge concept with the cable system configurations and features several advantages also with respect to the “traditional” SFT solution.

In this paper, we describe a new graphics environment for essentially real-time interactive visualization of computational fluid mechanics. Within this environment, the researcher may interactively examine fluid data on a framebuffer with animated flow visualization diagnostics which mimic those in the experimental laboratory. This provides an effective and interactive way to analyze the underlying physical mechanisms, and to compare results with laboratory experiment.The system is implemented on a data parallel supercomputer attached to a framebuffer. Since most fluid visualization techniques are highly parallel in nature, this allows rapid animation of fluid motion. The fluid diagnostic tools include display of moving color contours for scalar fields, smoke/dye injection of passive particles to identify coherent flow structures, and bubble wire tracers for velocity profiles.We demonstrate our interactive graphics fluid flow system by analyzing data generated from a numerical simulation of laminar and turbulent flow over a backwards-facing step. Input parameters are menu-driven, and images are updated at nine frames updates per second.

In order to study a new type of pipeline inspection robot, the overall structure of the pipeline climbing robot is designed for the actual environmental conditions and testing requirements. 3D modeling of the robot was carried out using Pro / E's 3D solid modeling function. This model is introduced into ADAMS, and its climbing process is simulated and analyzed. The speed of robot climbing and the output torque of each joint motor are determined when the motion is stable and reliable. The results show that the minimum turning torque required to ensure the stability of robot motion is400 N · mm. The minimum friction is 5N. Therefore, when the robot does not deviate from the direction, the trajectory of the robot is stable and reliable.

According to the recent development of the Computational Mechanics, the future development and competitive ability of finite element analysis software seems to be related with the implementation of complicated physical, mechanical and geometric models of solids and fluids. These are coupled models, problems that include physical and geometric nonlinearities, the models or boundary-value problems with small physical or geometric parameters. Thin-walled solids, deformation with large strains and shape distortions, problems coupling solids and fluids supply well- known examples. The modeling of composite materials is another and quite important example nowadays. It begins with solving so- called cell problems and leads to modeling deforming and damaging of composite structural elements as well as to technological problems simulation. The latter type of problems is the problem of a resin with short fibers flow into a mold of complex shape. Another example concerns the process of a resin with long fibers polymerization in a mold followed by the problem of laminate warping. Porous ground and fractured rock are not composites in the commonly used meaning of the term. However, Compositional Mechanics methods are used for their analysis. It is reasonable to mention rather complicated problem of fluid filtration in a porous media experiencing large strains. It seems that a multi scale approach is the most general technique of composite mechanics. It results in so-called local problems in the representative volume element. This paper shows finite-element implementations of local problems developed by the author. Mechanical models and computational algorithms were implemented as home-made computer code. The code has been thoroughly tested and can be used together with FIDESES finite element analysis software as third party package. I may be noted that the developed numerical simulations were elaborated during long term cooperation with the Technical University of Berlin, Dr. Mirtsch GmbH and famous French tire maker Michelin. Further development of the package can be associated with the use of a multi scale approach aiming composite structural elements deformation and progressive damaging modeling, resin with short fibers flow simulation as well as numerical simulation of laminate production process.