An integrated approach to environmental education and research: a case study

Industrial processes have different levels of impact on the environment and there is a need to foster knowledge of the environmental consequences of industrial activities. One way of achieving this is the application of the concepts of industrial ecology (multidisciplinary research approach) to industry’s day-to-day activities. Another possible way of pursuing this goal is to use environmental education as a tool towards increasing awareness with regard to the social, political and economic relevance, as well as to the need for environmentally sound industrial activities. This paper outlines the common features of both subjects and provides an example from Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), where such approaches have been integrated in an M.Sc. programme.     

An approximate, analytical approach to the `HRR'-solution for sharp V-notches

The well-known so-called `HRR-solution' (Hutchinson, 1968 and Rice and Rosengren, 1968) considers the elasto-plastic stress field in a power-law strain hardening material near a sharp crack. It provides a closed form explicit expression for the stress singularity as a function of the power-law exponent `n' of the material, but the stress angular variation functions are not found in closed form. More recently, similar formulations have appeared in the literature for sharp V-notches under mode I and II loading conditions. In such cases not only is the angular variation of the stress fields obtained numerically, but so is the singularity exponent of the stress field. In the present paper, approximate but accurate closed form solutions are first reported for sharp V-notches with an included angle greater than /6 radians. Such solutions, limited here to Mode I loading conditions, allow a very satisfactory estimate of the angular stress components in the neighbourhood of the notch tip, in the entire range of notch angles and for the most significant values of n (i.e. from 1 to 15). When the notch opening angle tends towards zero, and the notch approaches the crack case, the solution becomes much more complex and a precise evaluation of the parameters involved requires a best-fitting procedure which, however, can be carried out in an automatic way. This solution is also reported in the paper and its degree of accuracy is discussed in detail.     

An approach for the application of the Ecological Footprint as environmental indicator in the textile sector

The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a recent concept which has widely been used as an indicator of environmental sustainability applied to individual lifestyles, regions, nations or even the world. Recently, its application to enterprises has been proposed. In the present study, a textile tailoring plant has been analysed. The overall purpose of this study was to develop a tool useful for evaluating the environmental impact evolution due to the performance of the plant, as well as for comparing the environmental behaviour of different tailoring processes. Therefore, the selected data were those from the manufacturing work. Data were divided in three main categories: energy, resources and waste. The principal contribution to the final EF (expressed in hectares of land) was the resources category, mainly due to the high value associated to the cloth. The consumed energy was the second contributor, while the waste category remained in third place. The final outcomes were divided by the production rates to obtain a comparable relative index, easy to be interpreted by the different stakeholders. This is of special importance for a Company involved in Corporate Social Responsibility and thus meant to have a general communication strategy.     

Measuring the environmental performance of new products: an integrated approach

Environmental awareness and legislation are pushing manufacturers to introduce new ‘green’ products that, during their whole life cycle, have a low impact on the state of natural resources. Unfortunately, it is not completely clear how accounting information, physical measures and qualitative information, expressing the effects of each product development initiative, can be structured to support decision making. The paper is aimed at designing an integrated approach that takes both tangible and intangible effects into consideration and starting from the available information, suggests different decisional tools according to the decision maker's objective. In particular, at an earlier stage the paper defines an operating framework for the identification of significant evaluation criteria to support decision making on programmes aimed at introducing new ‘green’ products. At a later stage, the paper analyses whether different managers' environment related priorities require distinct types of data to be included in the selection procedure and hence suggest the most effective evaluation technique within different decisional contexts.     

An integrated approach to product design, materials selection and cost estimation

An integrated approach to the interrelated activities of product design, materials selection and cost estimation is proposed. The wide range of engineering materials is first narrowed to a limited number of candidates using design limitations and performance requirements. Each of the candidate materials is used to develop an optimum design which is then used in cost estimation. An optimization technique, such as benefit-cost analysis, is used to select the optimum design-material combination. A case study is presented to illustrate the use of the integrated approach.     

To Contribute our wisdom to the standardization and future of the world

Just as the theme of this year's World Standards Day, "Standards for a Safer World", the World Standards Day this year is unusual because the role of standards is becoming more and more important and irreplaceable.     

Extending environmental management systems principles to environmental assessment: the use of environmental audits

Natural Resources Canada is expanding the application of environmental auditing to fulfill a key requirement of its environmental management system (EMS) as applied to environmental impact assessment (EIA). Such an evaluation progamme requires endorsement and commitment from senior management. It helps to define legal and policy requirements, significantly influences the implementation of the EMS, provides the foundation for examining the management of EIA in an organization, and makes a key contribution to the review and improvement of the EMS. Through its reporting of results to senior management and requirement for action plans, it is anticipated that the Evaluation Programme will contribute to improved EIA practice in the long term.     

An approach to the dynamic modelling of manufacturing systems

Because of their complexity manufacturing systems are difficult to model. However, modelling is very often required in order to study the behaviour of the system. In this paper an approach is described, where an analogy is drawn between the behaviour of a manufacturing and a mechanical system. Manufacturing systems have to respond to a dynamic demand, namely, a demand that changes over time. Flexibility of a manufacturing system can be thought of as the ability and the rapidness with which the system responds to the dynamic demand. This resembles the behaviour of a mechanical system under the excitation of a force that changes over time. The paper attempts to establish a modelling method based on this analogy and uses this method in the study of a real industrial system.     

An evaluation of the probabilistic approach to brittle design

The weakest link theory and probabilistic approach to brittle design have been evaluated. It was found that the weakest link theory can and should be applied to brittle design. However, the probabilistic design approach (such as Weibull analysis) needs refinement in several areas such as (1) multiaxiality effect, (2) surface effect, (3) delayed failure problem and (4) characterization of failure probability. These problem areas can be resolved with the help of fracture mechanics concepts combined with non-destructive inspection (NDT).     

An algorithmic approach to the optimization of process cogeneration

In most industrial processes, there is a significant need for electric power and for heating. Process cogeneration is aimed at the simultaneous provision of combined heat and power. The net result is usually a reduction in the overall cost and emissions of greenhouse gases. Therefore, there is a significant need for the optimal design of process cogeneration systems. This objective of this paper is to introduce an algorithmic approach to the optimal design of process cogeneration systems. Focus is given to the interaction of the power cycle with the process heat requirements. Because of the need for explicit thermodynamic expressions, a new set of thermodynamic correlations of steam properties is developed for proper inclusion within a mathematical-programming approach. An optimization formulation is developed to provide a generally applicable tool for integrating the process and the power cycle and for identifying the optimum equipment size, operating parameters (such as boiler pressure, superheat temperature and steam load). The objective can be chosen as minimizing the cost, satisfying the heat requirement of the process, or producing the maximum possible of power. A case study is solved to illustrate the applicability of the devised approach and associated thermodynamic correlations.     

An energy-balance approach to the problem of fatigue-crack growth

An energy-balance approach to the problem of fatigue-crack propagation is considered here, the basic premise being that the energy equivalent of the work input in fatique over a period of time Δt must be greater than or equal to the energy dissipated in the form of heat together with the energy required to produce the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip and to create the necessary the surface for crack propagation over the same time period Δt. A fatigue-crack-growth (FCG) rate equation has been formulated based upon the above energy-balance concept. The fatigue-crack-growth rate is found to be inversely proportional to the plastic work and the energy requirement for the creation of new surfaces and directly proportional to the fatigue input energy. An experimental approach for determining the fatigue-crack-propagation rate using the energy-balance concept has been outlined.     

The evolution of excellence: Policies, paradigms, and practices shaping US research and development

An ongoing interest in the history of US technological advancement exists due to its influence on US economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Federal government policy and investments have fostered a collaborative culture between the main supporters and performers of US research and development: the government, academia, and industry. At present, a full two-thirds of our nation's research and development spending comes from the private sector, and research and development is closely linked to the marketplace. The US government tracks key international science and technology metrics in order to inform its priority-setting process. The latest trends indicate that a broad expansion of science and technology capabilities is underway in many countries, both policy- and market-driven. In today's economic landscape, the US is confronting a host of new challenges on the global scientific and economic competitive fronts.     

An approach to calculation of the viscosity of dissociated gas mixtures formed from oxygen,nitrogen, and carbon

The results of the solution of an optimization problem on coordination of the widely used data on the viscosity of individual substances and air as a whole are presented. The proposed method of correction of literature data on the viscosity of the components of air mixtures is used to estimate the possible alteration of similar data for a number of carbon-containing compounds. __________ Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 80, No. 5, pp. 97–101, September–October, 2007.     

An approach to multilayer microfluidic systems with integrated electrical, optical, and mechanical functionality

A general solution is presented for the realization of microfluidic systems containing multiple compartments with sequential functions. The approach utilizes multilayer plastic/glass/silicon microfluidic system configurations with integrated electrical, optical, and fluid control functionalities. The approach allows for the integration of on-column, on-chip electrical conductivity/impedance detectors and driving electrodes, as well as for the integration of on-column, off-chip optical detection using resonance light scattering. A process-compatible latex microvalve is demonstrated and characterized. The procedure utilizes a novel packaging technique for realizing integrated fluid and electrical interfaces between the microsystem and conventional tubing/instrumentation. The microfluidic system demonstrated in this work contains some of the most commonly used components in bioanalysis systems and can be used as a platform to fabricate more sophisticated microscale bioanalysis systems for a variety of applications.     

An innovative and versatile approach to design highly porous, patterned, nanofibrous polymeric materials

Electrospinning technology is attracting increasing interest for the fabrication of several polymeric and inorganic nanofibrous materials useful for a wide range of applications. Although the intensive research performed to understand the physics of the electrospinning process, control of polymeric jet path and of fibre deposition still remains a challenge. In this work, micropatterned electrospun materials with tunable porosity are fabricated by using novel collector devices made up of a steel sheet coated with a vitreous enamel layer. The novel approach permits to modulate electrical properties of the collector, acting on charge distribution and charge diffusion properties of the vitreous enamel coating, without introducing substantial modification of the electrospinning apparatus. The proposed solution allows the achievement of novel electrospun products for all those advanced applications requiring materials with suited fibre deposition such as, microelectronics, optical and photonic devices, as well as scaffolds for tissue engineering.     

An approach to the formation and growth of new phases with application to polymer crystallization: effect of finite size,metastability, and Ostwald's rule of stages

This article aims to link the mainstream subject of chain-folded polymer crystallization with the rather speciality field of extended-chain crystallization, the latter typified by the crystallization of polyethylene (PE) under pressure. Issues of wider generality are also raised for crystal growth, and beyond for phase transformations. The underlying new experimental material comprises the prominent role of metastable phases, specifically the mobile hexagonal phase in polyethylene which can arise in preference to the orthorhombic phase in the phase regime where the latter is the stable regime, and the recognition of thickening growth as a primary growth process, as opposed to the traditionally considered secondary process of thickening. The scheme relies on considerations of crystal size as a thermodynamic variable, namely on melting-point depression, which is, in general, different for different polymorphs. It is shown that under specifiable conditions phase stabilities can invert with size; that is a phase which is metastable for infinite size can become the stable phase when the crystal is sufficiently small. As applied to crystal growth, it follows that a crystal can appear and grow in a phase that is different from that in its state of ultimate stability, maintaining this in a metastable form when it may or may not transform into the ultimate stable state in the course of growth according to circumstances. For polymers this intermediate initial state is one with high-chain mobility capable of thickening growth which in turn ceases (or slows down) upon transformation, when and if such occurs, thus locking in a finite lamellar thickness. The complete situation can be represented by a P, T, 1/l (l crystal thickness) phase-stability diagram which, coupled with kinetic considerations, embodies all recognized modes of crystallization including chain-folded and extended-chain type ones. The task that remains is to assess which applies under given conditions of P and T. A numerical assessment of the most widely explored case of crystallization of PE under atmospheric pressure indicates that there is a strong likelihood (critically dependent on the choice of input parameters) that crystallization may proceed via a metastable, mobile, hexagonal phase, which is transiently stable at the smallest size where the crystal first appears, with potentially profound consequences for the current picture of such crystallization. Crystallization of PE from solution, however, would, by such computations, proceed directly into the final stage of stability, upholding the validity of the existing treatments of chain-folded crystallization. The above treatment, in its wider applicability, provides a previously unsuspected thermodynamic foundation of Ostwald's rule of stages by stating that phase transformation will always start with the phase (polymorph) which is stable down to the smallest size, irrespective of whether this is stable or metastable when fully grown. In the case where the phase transformation is nucleation controlled, a ready connection between the kinetic and thermodynamic considerations presents itself, including previously invoked kinetic explanations of the stage rule. To justify the statement that the crystal size can control the transformation between two polymorphs, a recent result on 1 -4-poly-trans-butadiene is invoked. Furthermore, phase-stability conditions for wedge-shaped geometries are considered, as raised by current experimental material on PE. It is found that inversion of phase stabilities (as compared to the conditions pertaining for parallel-sided systems) can arise, with consequences for our scheme of polymer crystallization and with wider implications for phase transformations in tapering spaces in general. In addition, in two of the Appendices two themes of overall generality (arising from present considerations for polymers) are developed analytically; namely, the competition of nucleation-controlled phase growth of polymorphs as a function of input parameters, and the effect of phase size on the triple point in phase diagrams. The latter case leads, inter alia to the recognition of previously unsuspected singularities, with consequences which are yet to be assessed.