The mechatronics workbench

TCS is a UK Government scheme in which 2-year innovation projects are implemented by teams comprising senior staff from a company and from a higher education institution or research organisation, as well as graduates (TCS Associates).This article describes a TCS Programme between the Mechatronics Research Centre at Loughborough University and Feedback Instruments Ltd. The objective of the work was the mechatronics workbench, a concept for a range of didactic equipment facilitating the teaching and training of mechatronics principles in industry and in further and higher education institutions on a global scale     

YPON-3000/3250型氧氮液化项目工程设计

简介了郑州信益气体公司氧氮液化装置的规模和流程选择,着重阐述了空分设备老站区扩建氧氮液化装置工程设计中平面布置、管道和管架布置以及厂房建筑时需注意的问题,介绍了为保证液化装置平稳运行在启动管路和运行方式等方面采取的措施。     

YPON-3000／3250型氧氮液化项目工程设计

简介了郑州信益气体公司氧氮液化装置的规模和流程选择，着重阐述了空分设备老站区扩建氧氮液化装置工程设计中平面布置、管道和管架布置以及厂房建筑时需注意的问题，介绍了为保证液化装置平稳运行在启动管路和运行方式等方面采取的措施。     

The role of control in mechatronics

This paper discusses some design issues of mechatronic systems. New tools for the design of controllers are needed to apply more advanced control algorithms in an industrial environment. In addition, modelling and simulation tools can play an important role in evaluating designs at an early stage and in supporting design decisions. Re-use of models and controller code can help reduce the time to market of new mechatronic products     

The what, why and how of mechatronics

This article provides an introduction to the basic concepts of mechatronics. It considers the impact of mechatronics on the process of product design and development and sets out a framework within which the underlying technical and organisational requirements associated with a mechatronic approach to system design and development can be successfully deployed     

The design and properties of steel castings: Part 1 — Engineering design and design for castability

In Vol. II No. 1 of this journal a paper entitled “Fracture Mechanics Aids Steel Castings Design” described the use of fracture mechanics in design and materials selection for steel castings. This is the first of a series of three papers giving more detailed information on the factors affecting the design and properties of steel castings.     

The joint prosthesis design project: an anatomy database for the design of joint replacement

The level of fit and fill of a stem in the host femur is one of the most critical factors for the mechanical stability and success of the prosthesis. For this reason, it would be useful to have a simulation tool able to investigate the stem-bone anatomical compatibility of a new implant in the early phases of the design process. The Joint Prosthesis Design (JPD) project aimed to develop software for the simulation of the stem implant in a library of anatomies providing relevant and quantitative indicators of the compatibility between the prosthesis and the host femurs.     

Engineering design education: situation report

A brief survey of the history of science is followed by more extensive historical views about teaching engineering design. A context of paedagogic and didactic considerations is presented. Specific points about teaching and learning engineering design, and planning of engineering curricula are outlined.     

华润二期空调设计

从中央制冷站、热回收系统、集中热源、空调水系统、噪声治理五个方面详细介绍了深圳华润二期项目的空调系统设计,以期对同类项目起到一定的借鉴作用。     

Engineering design complexity: an investigation of methods and measures

In this paper, two measures are proposed for valuation of size and coupling complexities of design products as abstracted by three distinct representations. The proposed size complexity measure is based on the information theoretic definition of complexity that connects the complexity of a design to the level of entropy, or uncertainty, inherent in the design product. The proposed coupling complexity measure evaluates the decomposability of the graph-based representation of design products. To validate the proposed measures, an experiment is conducted to calculate the complexities of three consumer products based on three product representations, namely, function structure, connectivity graph, and parametric associativity graph. The findings indicate that coupling and size are independent measures of a product’s complexity. Thus, it is recommended that both measures should be used. Further, the complexity of a product is not independent of the choice of representation model used to describe the product. This suggests that the complexity of a product will vary with the selected view. Finally, it is shown that the two approaches for measuring complexity of a product are generalizable and can be applied to different representations.     

The Fundamentals of Engineering: The Art of Engineering

This sequence of courses is a major component of Drexel's E⁴ experimental program which spans the freshman and sophomore years. It is based on the premise that there exists a central body of knowledge, methods and attitudes which constitute the “Art” of Engineering. Further, exposing students to this art at the very beginning of their education is an excellent way to introduce them to the profession. The subject matter emphasizes design as the critical professional essence, interdisciplinary and common fundamentals, the pivotal roles of the computer and experimentation, and the imperative for superior communications skills. The methodology is experiential, consisting of several practicums, experiments and projects. The achievement and growth of participating students has been impressive. Evaluations indicate that the program also generates considerable interest and enthusiasm among the students and a sense of pride in their accomplishments. It appears that most students begin to understand what it means to be an engineer and many begin to enjoy the practice of the profession.     

Engineering aspects of turbomolecular pump design

The development of modern (thin-bladed) turbomolecular high-vacuum pumps began in 1957 with the demonstration of the possibility of obtaining high compression ratios with axial flow compressors in the molecular flow regime. Thirty years later, such pumps had become the major method for high vacuum pumping. It had been apparent from the beginning that pneumatic compressors can be useful at any pressure provided a proper number of suitable impellers were used. However, theoretical studies, initially by Prof. A. Shapiro's group at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) dealt primarily with the pumping mechanism in molecular flow rather than with an optimum practical pump design. Some observations in such studies were misunderstood and the first pump designs were not optimized. Later, compound or hybrid pumps were introduced, which incorporated molecular drag pumping stages. In more recent years, pumps have been made which can exhaust directly to the atmosphere by means of added centrifugal-regenerative impellers. The use of different impeller types provides freedom to the designer to create pumps that match any reasonable desired performance.This paper will attempt to explore some of the engineering aspects of design, especially relationships of volume and mass flows, permissible pressure ratios in various density domains, and their relevance to power consumption.     

Engineering design of a cardiac myocyte

We describe a design algorithm to build a cardiac myocyte with specific spatial dimensions and physiological function. Using a computational model of a cardiac muscle cell, we modeled calcium (Ca²⁺) wave dynamics in a cardiac myocyte with controlled spatial dimensions. The modeled myocyte was replicated in vitro when primary neonate rat ventricular myocytes were cultured on micropatterned substrates. The myocytes remodel to conform to the two dimensional boundary conditions and assume the shape of the printed extracellular matrix island. Mechanical perturbation of the myocyte with an atomic force microscope results in calcium-induced calcium release from intracellular stores and the propagation of a Ca²⁺ wave, as indicated by high speed video microscopy using fluorescent indicators of intracellular Ca²⁺. Analysis and comparison of the measured wavefront dynamics with those simulated in the computer model reveal that the engineered myocyte behaves as predicted by the model. These results are important because they represent the use of computer modeling, computer-aided design, and physiological experiments to design and validate the performance of engineered cells. The ability to successfully engineer biological cells and tissues for assays or therapeutic implants will require design algorithms and tools for quality and regulatory assurance. W.J. Adams and T. Pong contributed equally to this work.     

陶瓷膜工程设计:从工艺到微结构

针对目前陶瓷膜工程设计偏重工艺参数设计所存在的问题,分析了陶瓷膜材料微结构特性对膜过程影响的重要性,提出了目前以工艺为主的陶瓷膜工程设计向以膜微结构参数为主设计转变的新思路.在前期工作的基础上,建立了胶体体系过滤的陶瓷膜性能与微结构关系模型,并结合工程应用实例就膜材料微结构设计方法进行探索,在颗粒悬浮液、中药水提液、乳化废水等工程应用中得到了很好地实施,理论计算和工程应用结果表明,微结构优化设计的陶瓷膜具有更好的分离性能.陶瓷膜工程设计方法从工艺到微结构的转变为陶瓷膜应用提供了新的模式.     

Engineering design education: the potential offered by artificial intelligence techniques

Current approaches to the teaching of engineering design are reviewed, as are current approaches to the use of computers in designing and in design education. Recent trends in research into the application of artificial intelligence techniques to education are identified. Some ways in which design education might benefit from intelligent tutoring systems research results (in terms of a growing understanding of teaching techniques and learning processes) are proposed. Some potential advantages of applying those results directly in design education are identified.     

Designing in young organisations: engineering change propagation in a university design project

Engineering change (EC) is an important phenomenon in the design of products and systems, accounting for nearly one-third of the work effort; however, the literature has been focused on mature firms, and few studies have documented the impact of EC beyond them. Hence, we use a case study approach to study EC and its propagation in the context of a university design project as an example of young organisations, and compare it with the existing work done on mature firms. It was found that 33% of the changes that occurred in the case study were planned, and change propagation accounted for 20% of all changes. The propagation of changes was usually one step (67%), and it was concentrated in one independent network (54%). The results were subsequently compared with EC studies done in mature firms, being revealed that EC behaves differently in the context of a university design project; hence, existing change management tools developed to suit mature firms may not be directly suitable for supporting university design projects. The findings from this work can be used as a platform to better understand how EC propagates when designing in young organisations and shape the development of appropriate change management tools.     

Engineering design applications of surrogate-assisted optimization techniques

The construction of models aimed at learning the behaviour of a system whose responses to inputs are expensive to measure is a branch of statistical science that has been around for a very long time. Geostatistics has pioneered a drive over the last half century towards a better understanding of the accuracy of such ‘surrogate’ models of the expensive function. Of particular interest to us here are some of the even more recent advances related to exploiting such formulations in an optimization context. While the classic goal of the modelling process has been to achieve a uniform prediction accuracy across the domain, an economical optimization process may aim to bias the distribution of the learning budget towards promising basins of attraction. This can only happen, of course, at the expense of the global exploration of the space and thus finding the best balance may be viewed as an optimization problem in itself. We examine here a selection of the state-of-the-art solutions to this type of balancing exercise through the prism of several simple, illustrative problems, followed by two ‘real world’ applications: the design of a regional airliner wing and the multi-objective search for a low environmental impact house.     

小型氧气站工程设计

以《氧气站设计规范》和《氧气及相关气体安全技术规程》为主要依据标准,具体介绍了氧气站的选址、总体布置、工程管道设计、危险源以及防火、防雷、环境保护和职业安全卫生等方面的措施。