Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering

Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering, the studies related to risk analysis methodology, design, and operational management, physical phenomena, and emergency preparedness and nuclear security, have been progressed. Especially, ‘risk analysis methodology’ and ‘design and operational management’ are the main categories of the field, in which more than half of published articles on Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology are related to these categories.     

Robustness of asymptotic accelerated life test plans to small‐sample settings

Much of the statistical literature on optimal test planning for accelerated life testing utilize asymptotic methods to derive optimal test plans. While sufficient effort is made to assess the robustness of these test plans to the choice of design parameters and distribution assumptions, there is very little literature on the performance of asymptotic test plans relative to small samples (on the order of 10‐15 samples). An alternative concern is that the asymptotic test plans may not necessarily be the true “optimal” test plan for a given sample size. The purpose of this research is to present exact or “near‐exact” methods for developing test plans and compare the performance of these test plans with corresponding asymptotic test plans in small‐sample settings. The optimal location of design points and sample allocation is determined using each method for lognormal and Weibull lifetime distributions with both complete and Type 1 right‐censored data under two selected acceleration factor models. The investigations reveal that asymptotic test plans tend to corroborate quite well with exact test plans and thus are suitably robust to small‐sample settings in terms of optimal variance.     

Challenges and new methods for designing reliability experiments

Abstract

Engineers use reliability experiments to determine the factors that drive product reliability, build robust products, and predict reliability under use conditions. This article uses recent testing of a howitzer to illustrate the challenges in designing reliability experiments for complex, repairable systems. We review research in complex system reliability models, failure-time experiments, and experimental design principles. We highlight the need for reliability experiments that account for various intended uses and environments. We leverage lessons learned from current research and propose methods for designing an experiment for a complex, repairable system.     

Order-of-addition experiments: A review and some new thoughts

Abstract

The study of order-of-addition (OofA) experiments is prevalent in many scientific and industrial areas. The statistical design of experiments (DOE) will considerably improve the efficiency of OofA experiments. Designing and modeling the OofA experiments have increasingly received a great deal of attention. In this article, we review the latest work on the design and model of OofA experiments, and introduce some new thoughts. We believe that this article will motivate fruitful applications in real OofA experiments as well as future developments in the methodology.     

A framework for improving the efficiency of operational testing through Bayesian adaptive design

When developing a product, it is important to consider product performance from a user perspective. This type of evaluation can be done through operational testing—assessing the ability of representative users to satisfactorily accomplish tasks with the product in operationally representative environments. This process can be expensive and time-consuming, but is critical to understanding whether the product can adequately do the job for which it was designed. We show how an existing design of experiments (DOEs) process for operational testing can be leveraged to construct a Bayesian adaptive design. This design, nested within the larger design created by the DOE process, allows interim analyses to stop testing early for success or futility. Representative simulations are presented to demonstrate how these interim analyses can be used in an operational test setting, and reductions in necessary test events are shown. The application of Bayesian-adaptive design methods will allow future operational testing to be conducted in less time and at less expense, on average, without compromising the ability of the existing process to verify the product meets the user's needs.     

Sonic food words influence the experience of beverage healthfulness

The consumption of healthful foods is relevant for the well-being of society. However, understanding healthfulness may be difficult because, in some cultures (i.e., the U.S.), individuals assume that unhealthy equals tasty, an association that does not hold in other contexts (i.e., France). Auditory cues could serve to inform consumers about the expected experience with food and thus could signal the sensory experience of a healthy product. This research contributes to the literature on the use of sound symbolism for analysis of the influence of onomatopoeias as packaging information that influences the expected healthfulness of a bottled drink. The study is a 4 × 4 mixed-model experiment. Grouping was done according to onomatopoeia variables as follows: “Fizz,” “Glup,” “Ahhh,” and control. Beverage color, a within-subject variable, was grouped as green, yellow, red, and control. Results show that the healthful concept is defined in two dimensions: fulfilling and light. Onomatopoeias motivated the experience of a less fulfilling beverage, which had the strongest effect on “Fizz” condition. For the light dimension, “Ahhh” diminishes the perception of light, thus creating the idea that the drink is high in calories. This study reaches out to food industries on the need to find the most consistent and pleasurable sound associated with their products. This will enable food industries to provide information to consumers as well as ascertain how much they enjoy the product.     

The effects of porosity,asphalt content and fiberglass incorporation on the tensile strength and resilient modulus of asphalt concrete blends

Asphalt concrete is the prevailing material used for road surface construction. Its adequate characteristics in providing stability, durability and driving safety are controlled by complex interactions between its components. Thus, it is important to estimate the sensitivity of asphalt concrete mechanical properties as a function of its volumetrics. For this study, different combinations between asphalt content (3.5, 5 and 7.5%) and porosity values (above 4%) were used in order to disassociate these properties. The influence of mixing in fiberglass (0.5%) was also analyzed. It was found that porosity is significantly more relevant than the asphalt content in the prediction of tensile strength and resilient modulus of fiber-free asphalt concretes. In fiber-reinforced mixtures, the mechanical properties are improved by increasing the asphalt content, which suggests a better bonding between fibers and aggregates. For both cases, decreasing porosity is beneficial. By grouping both sets of results, it was possible to create a unique theoretical curve for both the tensile strength (q_t) and the resilient modulus (RM). The RM/q_t ratio was 5800 for the fiber-free group, and 3900 for the fiber-reinforced group - suggesting a better fatigue life indicator for asphalt concretes when fibers are added.