An investigation into the information exchange between a consultant and client company: a case study

This report deals with collaborations of engineering consultants and clients in the automobile industry.

In these relationships three main challenges have been identified which have to be addressed by the consultancies. Therefore, the research takes the viewpoint of the consulting side. The challenges are

(i) the appropriate project goal definition;

(ii) achieving client satisfaction; and

(iii) dealing with international clients.

An investigation of such a relationship carried out on a case study shows that improvements can be achieved through communication support. The ways to do that are proposed.

Stabilising terminal cost and terminal controller for ℓasso- MPC: Enhanced optimality and region of attraction

In recent literature, ℓ1-regularised MPC, or ℓasso-MPC, has been recommended for control tasks involving complex requirements on the control signals, for instance, the simultaneous solution of regulation and sharp control allocation for redundantly-actuated systems. This is due to the implicit thresholding ability of LASSO regression. In this paper, a stabilising terminal cost featuring a mixed ℓ1/ℓ2 2 penalty is presented. Then, a candidate terminal controller is computed, with the aim of enlarging the region of attraction. © 2013 EUCA.

Investigation into IGBT dV/dt during turn-off and its temperature dependence

In many power converter applications, particularly those with high variable loads, such as traction and wind power, condition monitoring of the power semiconductor devices in the converter is considered desirable. Monitoring the device junction temperature in such converters is an essential part of this process. In this paper, a method for measuring the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) junction temperature using the collector voltage dV/dt at turn-OFF is outlined. A theoretical closed-form expression for the dV/dt at turn-OFF is derived, closely agreeing with experimental measurements. The role of dV/dt in dynamic avalanche in high-voltage IGBTs is also discussed. Finally, the implications of the temperature dependence of the dV/dt are discussed, including implementation of such a temperature measurement technique. © 2006 IEEE.

Cellular contractility and substrate elasticity: A numerical investigation of the actin cytoskeleton and cell adhesion

Numerous experimental studies have established that cells can sense the stiffness of underlying substrates and have quantified the effect of substrate stiffness on stress fibre formation, focal adhesion area, cell traction, and cell shape. In order to capture such behaviour, the current study couples a mixed mode thermodynamic and mechanical framework that predicts focal adhesion formation and growth with a material model that predicts stress fibre formation, contractility, and dissociation in a fully 3D implementation. Simulations reveal that SF contractility plays a critical role in the substrate-dependent response of cells. Compliant substrates do not provide sufficient tension for stress fibre persistence, causing dissociation of stress fibres and lower focal adhesion formation. In contrast, cells on stiffer substrates are predicted to contain large amounts of dominant stress fibres. Different levels of cellular contractility representative of different cell phenotypes are found to alter the range of substrate stiffness that cause the most significant changes in stress fibre and focal adhesion formation. Furthermore, stress fibre and focal adhesion formation evolve as a cell spreads on a substrate and leading to the formation of bands of fibres leading from the cell periphery over the nucleus. Inhibiting the formation of FAs during cell spreading is found to limit stress fibre formation. The predictions of this mutually dependent material-interface framework are strongly supported by experimental observations of cells adhered to elastic substrates and offer insight into the inter-dependent biomechanical processes regulating stress fibre and focal adhesion formation. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A discrete dislocation analysis of fatigue crack growth

Cyclic loading of a plane strain mode I crack under small scale yielding is analyzed using discrete dislocation dynamics. The dislocations are all of edge character, and are modeled as line singularities in an elastic solid. At each stage of loading, superposition is used to represent the solution in terms of solutions for edge dislocations in a half-space and a non-singular complementary solution that enforces the boundary conditions, which is obtained from a linear elastic, finite element solution. The lattice resistance to dislocation motion, dislocation nucleation, dislocation interaction with obstacles and dislocation annihilation are incorporated into the formulation through a set of constitutive rules. An irreversible relation between the opening traction and the displacement jump across a cohesive surface ahead of the initial crack tip is also specified, which permits crack growth to emerge naturally. It is found that crack growth can occur under cyclic loading conditions even when the peak stress intensity factor is smaller than the stress intensity required for crack growth under monotonic loading conditions; however below a certain threshold value of ΔKI no crack growth was seen.

New chiral ether derivatives of 2-arylidene-p-menthane-3-ones as components of induced ferroelectric systems

New 2-arylidene-p-menthane-3-ones containing the ether bridging group in the arylidene fragment have been synthesized and studied as chiral dopants in ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures. The ferroelectric properties of these compositions were compared with those for compositions including chiral dopants that do not contain any bridging group. The influence of bridging group and terminal alkyl substituent length in the dopant molecule on the ferroelectric parameters of systems studied is discussed. © 2001 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group,.

Improving co-development through process alignment

There has been a recent surge of enthusiasm icithin tlie automotive industry to build closer supplier relationships idthin the area of product development. One concept deemed central to these relationships is the alignment of development processes between the collaborating organizations, an area that is expanded upon idthin this paper. We suggest that synchronization can be achieved through the four key steps of process standardization, knowledge sliaring, alignment of existing practices, and continuous elimination oftcaste idthin the joint development cycles. A methodology for implementing these stages is presented along idth the underlying prindples on which it is based - the importance of joint teamworking and multi-company involvement idthin the alignment process is higlilighted. © MCB University Press.

Frontier experiences from industry-academia consortia

Technology roadmapping has been applied successfully in many industrial organizations. Designed to facilitate and communicate technology strategy and planning, roadmaps (or, as in Europe, route maps) can take a variety of specific forms, depending on the type (opportunities, capabilities, products, technologies, etc.) and particular company context. While roadmaps are generally manifest in a number of "program elements or levels" superimposed upon a timeline, experienced mappers often claim that it is "roadmapping" rather than "the roadmap" that generates the value. This special report focuses primarily on product and technology roadmaps. Following an introduction to the evolution, purpose and applications of corporate/industry roadmapping, four industry-developed articles examine roadmapping in Lucent Technologies, Rockwell Automation, the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry, and UK-based Domino Printing Sciences.