Measuring the traction profile on sportsfields: Equipment development and testing

Traction is recognised as an important component of the overall playability and safety of a sportsfield. It relates to the "grip", or footing, provided through an athlete's shoe when in contact with the surface, and is normally measured by the torque generated when a weighted studded disc apparatus is dropped onto the turf and twisted manually. This paper describes the development of an automated traction tester, which mechanises the dropping and twisting of the weighted studded disc. By standardising these operational stages, more repeatable and reliable results can be expected than from the original hand-operated design where positioning of the disc and speed of rotation are controlled manually and so can vary from one measurement to the next. As well as measuring the maximum torque reached during rotation of the studded disc, the automated traction tester generates a profile of torque showing changes over time and calculates the angle through which the studded disc moved before reaching maximum torque. These aspects are now covered by a utility patent (PAT/AU/2004270767). Use of the automated traction tester is illustrated by comparative data for a range of warm-season turfgrasses, by comparisons of traction under different surface conditions generated by wear on Cynodon dactylon cultivars, and by the effects of environment, management and playing patterns on traction across a multi-use sports stadium.

Methodological issues with older users as research participants

Researching with older participants presents many unique methodological challenges. One of the reasons for this is the greater variability in abilities among older than among younger people. Thus, the standard practice in user research of assuming homogeneity in a certain demographic group may not work with older adults. Designing experiments for users with diverse capabilities is challenging and calls for re-examination of existing experimental design methods. In this paper we will share our experience in researching with people with diverse capabilities and present its implications and possible way to address them.

Stillness: A meditation in new media art

While technology is often seen as a noisy, impatient and pervasive aspect of our lives, this practice-led research project investigated the counter proposition–that we might be able to evoke sensations of stillness through technology-mediated artworks. Investigations into stillness were informed by Buddhism, phenomenology, and experiences of meditation and the practice of archery. By combining visual art, performance, installation, video and interaction design, a series of experimental, interdisciplinary artworks were produced and exhibited to evoke a sense of stillness and to impel audiences to consider the form and nature of stillness in relation to time, space and motion.

Deformation and stability regression models for soil nail walls

Lateral displacement and global stability are the two main stability criteria for soil nail walls. Conventional design methods do not adequately address the deformation behaviour of soil nail walls, owing to the complexity involved in handling a large number of influencing factors. Consequently, limited methods of deformation estimates based on empirical relationships and in situ performance monitoring are available in the literature. It is therefore desirable that numerical techniques and statistical methods are used in order to gain a better insight into the deformation behaviour of soil nail walls. In the present study numerical experiments are conducted using a 2 4 factorial design method. Based on analysis of the maximum lateral deformation and factor-of-safety observations from the numerical experiments, regression models for maximum lateral deformation and factor-of-safety prediction are developed and checked for adequacy. Selection of suitable design factors for the 2 4 factorial design of numerical experiments enabled the use of the proposed regression models over a practical range of soil nail wall heights and in situ soil variability. It is evident from the model adequacy analyses and illustrative example that the proposed regression models provided a reasonably good estimate of the lateral deformation and global factor of safety of the soil nail walls.

System Reliability Analysis of Flexible Pavements

The uncertainty in material properties and traffic characterization in the design of flexible pavements has led to significant efforts in recent years to incorporate reliability methods and probabilistic design procedures for the design, rehabilitation, and maintenance of pavements. In the mechanistic-empirical (ME) design of pavements, despite the fact that there are multiple failure modes, the design criteria applied in the majority of analytical pavement design methods guard only against fatigue cracking and subgrade rutting, which are usually considered as independent failure events. This study carries out the reliability analysis for a flexible pavement section for these failure criteria based on the first-order reliability method (FORM) and the second-order reliability method (SORM) techniques and the crude Monte Carlo simulation. Through a sensitivity analysis, the most critical parameter affecting the design reliability for both fatigue and rutting failure criteria was identified as the surface layer thickness. However, reliability analysis in pavement design is most useful if it can be efficiently and accurately applied to components of pavement design and the combination of these components in an overall system analysis. The study shows that for the pavement section considered, there is a high degree of dependence between the two failure modes, and demonstrates that the probability of simultaneous occurrence of failures can be almost as high as the probability of component failures. Thus, the need to consider the system reliability in the pavement analysis is highlighted, and the study indicates that the improvement of pavement performance should be tackled in the light of reducing this undesirable event of simultaneous failure and not merely the consideration of the more critical failure mode. Furthermore, this probability of simultaneous occurrence of failures is seen to increase considerably with small increments in the mean traffic loads, which also results in wider system reliability bounds. The study also advocates the use of narrow bounds to the probability of failure, which provides a better estimate of the probability of failure, as validated from the results obtained from Monte Carlo simulation (MCS).

Investigation of boundary layer development in a multistage LP turbine

This paper describes an investigation of the behavior of suction surface boundary layers in a modern multistage Low Pressure turbine. An array of eighteen surface-mounted hot-film anemometers was mounted on a stator blade of the third stage of a 4-stage machine. Data were obtained at Reynolds numbers between 0.9 × 105 and 1.8 × 105 and 1.8 × 105. At the majority of the test conditions, wakes from upstream rotors periodically initiated transition at about 40% surface length. In between these events, laminar separation occurred at about 75% surface length. It is inferred that the effect of the wakes on the performance of the bladerow is limited and that steady flow design methods should provide an adequate assessment of LP turbine performance during design.

Investigation of boundary layer development in a multistage LP turbine

This paper describes an investigation of the behavior of suction surface boundary layers in a modern multistage Low-Pressure turbine. An array of 18 surface-mounted hot-film anemometers was mounted on a stator blade of the third stage of a four-stage machine. Data were obtained at Reynolds numbers between 0.9 × 105 and 1.8 × 105. At the majority of the test conditions, wakes from upstream rotors periodically initiated transition at about 40 percent surface length. In between these events, laminar separation occurred at about 75 percent surface length. Because the wake-affected part of the flow appeared to be only intermittently turbulent, laminar separation also occurred at about 75 percent surface length while this flow was instantaneously laminar. At all but the lowest Reynolds numbers, the time-mean boundary layer appeared to have re-attached by the trailing edge even though it was not fully turbulent. It is inferred that the effect of the wakes on the performance of the blade row is limited and that steady flow design methods should provide an adequate assessment of LP turbine performance during design.

A framework for designing product service systems

In this competitive globalizing scenario, manufacturers are adopting a strategy of bundling products and services into an integrated solution to create sustainable competitive advantage. Servitizing manufacturers are increasingly transforming their processes and practices to build product-service systems (PSS). During this transformation they require substantial support to face stringent challenges. Research in the PSS domain is heading towards the development of a design theory and methodology that facilitates the systematic creation of viable PSS conceptual designs. In this paper, various proposed design methods are reviewed and research gaps are summarized. Primarily, it has been observed that the importance of the capabilities of the stakeholders involved in designing PSS has not been noted in the proposed methods. Regarding this capability view point, a framework for designing PSS has been proposed. This framework highlights the important features required in designing PSS such as co-creation, responsibilities and competences. Every step in the framework has been explained with a case study involving laser systems used for manufacturing cutting operation.

CIMS环境下CAPP系统的设计

本文结合国家CIMS重点应用工厂——沈阳鼓风机厂实施 CIMS 的实际,对 CIMS 环境下的CAPP 系统的结构、采用的设计方法、涉及的关键技术,以及所需的基础工作进行了讨论.

基于数字化生产模型的事件建模系统设计

文章主要对基于数字化生产模型的事件建模系统进行了介绍。首先引入了支撑事件建模系统的MES基础运行平台,介绍了平台的功能以及系统结构;接着描述了事件的相关概念,并对事件建模系统的设计方法进行了介绍,最后给出了系统的具体应用实例。

地质导向钻井关键技术及方法

On the basis of analyzing the principle and realization of geo-steering drilling system, the key technologies and methods in it are systematically studied in this paper. In order to recognize lithology, distinguish stratum and track reservoirs, the techniques of MWD and data process about natural gamma, resistivity, inductive density and porosity are researched. The methods for pre-processing and standardizing MWD data and for converting geological data in directional and horizontal drilling are discussed, consequently the methods of data conversion between MD and TVD and those of formation description and adjacent well contrast are proposed. Researching the method of identifying sub-layer yields the techniques of single well explanation, multi-well evaluation and oil reservoir description. Using the extremum and variance clustering analysis realizes logging phase analysis and stratum subdivision and explanation, which provides a theoretical method and lays a technical basis for tracing oil reservoirs and achieving geo-steering drilling. Researching the technique for exploring the reservoir top with a holdup section provides a planning method of wellpath control scheme to trace oil and gas reservoir dynamically, which solves the problem of how to control well trajectory on condition that the layer’s TVD is uncertain. The control scheme and planning method of well path for meeting the demands of target hitting, soft landing and continuous steering respectively provide the technological guarantee to land safely and drill successfully for horizontal, extended-reach and multi-target wells. The integrative design and control technologies are researched based on geology, reservoir and drilling considering reservoir disclosing ratio as a primary index, and the methods for planning and control optimum wellpath under multi-target restriction, thus which lets the target wellpath lie the favorite position in oil reservoir during the process of geo-steering drilling. The BHA (bottomhole assembly) mechanical model is discussed using the finite element method, and the BHA design methods are given on the basis of mechanical analyses according to the shape of well trajectory and the characteristics of BHA’s structure and deformation. The methods for predicting the deflection rate of bent housing motors and designing their assemblies are proposed based on the principle of minimum potential energy, which can clearly show the relation between the BHA’s structure parameters and deflection rate, especially the key factors’ effect to the deflection rate. Moreover, the interaction model between bit and formation is discussed through the process of equivalent formation and equivalent bit considering the formation anisotropy and bit anisotropy on the basis of analyzing the influence factors of well trajectory. Accordingly, the inherence relationship among well trajectory, formation, bit and drilling direction is revealed, which lays the theory basis and technique for predicting and controlling well trajectory.

地震采集观测系统的共聚焦分析

Focal beam analysis is a method for assessment of acquisition geometries that is directly linked to pre-stack migration. About dealing with the complex subsurface structures, the conventional survey design methods which do not take into account the subsurface are no longer valid. Based on the Fourier finite-difference (FFD) large-step wave field extrapolation and Born-Kirchhoff (BK) small-step wavefield interpolation, the thesis presents a rapid resolution analysis of 3D seismic survey design by focal beams in complicated media. Subsequently, The SEG/EAEG salt model is used to illustrate the method. Based on the focal beam resolution definition, each kind of influence factor is discussed. The focal beam analysis usually is carried out in a single frequency, but the actual seismic waves always contain a frequency bandwidth. In this thesis, theoretical relationship between focal beam analysis and frequency is derived. Since the effects of focal beam analysis are linear with frequency simply, the multi-frequency focal beam analysis using interpolation is developed. At the same time, the resolution of different frequency bandwidth is interconvertible in accordance with Signal uncertainty principle. The resolution of all frequency bands can be calculated by using only a few focal beam analysis for a seismic survey. In the last section of this thesis, I propose a new approach to predicting acquisition footprint, based on the assumption of Common-Middle-Point stack without constructing a special velocity model. The approach is a simplistic analytical method in which the acquisition footprint pattern is a weighted, linear summation of limited-offset fold-of-stack plots. Because the value of acquisition can be got by quantificational and rapidly calculating, we can exactly do a comparative analysis among different plans of seismic survey by this method.

Optimization and parameter study for chiral separation by capillary electrophoresis

Orthogonal design and uniform design were used for the optimization of separation of enantiomers using 2,6-di-O-methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (DM-beta-CD) as a chiral selector by capillary zone electrophoresis, The concentration of DM-beta-CD, buffer pH, running voltage, and capillary temperature were selected as variable parameters, their different effects on peak resolution were studied by the design methods. It was concluded that orthogonal design offers a rapid and efficient means for testing the importance of individual parameters and for determining the optimum operating conditions. However, for a large number of both factors and levels, uniform design is more efficient, The effect of addition of methanol and citric acid buffer on the separation of enantiomers was also examined.

动漫行业创业者胜任特征研究

Venture has become an important force for the sustainable economic growth of China, However, research on entrepreneurs is far failed to meet the actual needs, Animation and Comic Industry is an important component of the state-led Cultural and Creative Industries. Entrepreneurship is the rapid growth of population, but the empirical research on the Animation and Comic Industry entrepreneurs’ Competent Characteristic Model is rarely heard. As a manager of a national incubator which major in Cultural and Creative Industry, study these entrepreneurs competent characteristics is my responsibility. As an exploration, the study uses Competent Characteristic Model of classical design methods and behavior events interview method, and selects entrepreneurs which of animation and comic industry business start-up period as the objects. Through coding analysis of 31 entrepreneurs’ interview information, completed the amendment to the dictionary coding, and ultimately construct the animation and comic industry entrepreneurs need to have the threshold competence model and differentiating competence model. Differentiating competence model includes six competencies: tolerance and optimism, cooperation, creative innovation, pool talents, vision, decision-making and tempo control. Threshold competence model includes twenty features, divided into three dimensions: personal characteristics, knowledge quality, capacity of the quality. Knowledge and capacity of the quality are closely related to the core work of entrepreneurs, Personal characteristics concern the deep-seated motivation of the entrepreneurs. The study also analyses and discusses the characteristics of the entrepreneurs on the demographic variables.

Practice-based personas: integrated user and practice models

Practices are routinised behaviours with social and material components and complex relationships over space and time. Practice-based design goes beyond interaction design to consider how these components and their relationships impact on the formation and enactment of a practice, where technology is just one part of the practice. Though situated user-centred design methods such as participatory design are employed for the design of practice, demand exists for additional methods and tools in this area. This paper introduces practice-based personas as an extension of the persona approach popular in interaction design, and demonstrates how a set of practice-based personas was developed for a given domain – academic practice. The three practice-based personas developed here are linked to a catalogue of forty practices, offering designers both a user perspective and a practice perspective when designing for the domain.