Computer-oriented building design: Advances in daylighting and thermal simulation tools

Advanced computer simulation tools for analyzing daylighting features and thermal performance of buildings are improved at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. For an analysis of daylighting elements in lighting simulations, new light-deflecting structures and materials have been measured and modeled. In order to study the interaction between lighting and thermal behaviour of rooms, thermal and lighting simulation techniques are linked together. Thus, integrated energy concepts can be evaluated. Programs for handling parallel image generation in a network of high-performance Unix workstations have been developed.     

Quarter micron BiCMOS technology platform with implanted-base- or SiGe-bipolar transistor for wireless communication ICs

We present a modular 0.25 μm ASIC-compatible, double-poly self-aligned BiCMOS technology comprising either an implanted-base 45 GHz bipolar transistor or a 80 GHz-HBT with selective SiGe-epitaxy. All passive devices for RF-design are integrated, including a 7 fF/μm² stacked MIS-/MIM-capacitor.     

Assessment of Product Engineering Creativity

One important element of a company's capability to innovate is the creativity of each individual employee – especially in the context of product engineering. Employee recruitment or promotion to improve the creativity of one's workforce needs assessment of individual creativity. This paper proposes a human resource assessment methodology suitable to assess creative ability of product engineers on an individual level. This methodology is composed of pre‐existing instruments to measure prerequisites (including cognitive abilities, expertise, personality and motivation), and outputs of general creativity. The specifics of product engineering creativity and recruitment or promotion decisions are taken into account.     

An interpolation scheme for the approximation of dynamical systems

The demand of many industries for highly accurate predictions of the structural response of dynamical systems leads to a rapidly growing complexity of the established numerical models. Due to the thereby arising large computational efforts, the use of model reduction techniques becomes an essential task. Model reduction procedures in the context of deterministic structural analysis are already well developed and widely used, such as Guyan reduction and component mode synthesis techniques. However, the assumption of deterministically known structural properties is in most cases not realistic. Hence, the rational propagation of uncertainties becomes an indispensable task in the robust prediction of the structural response. The associated multiple simulation runs of complex models bring the topic of model reduction to the foreground of technical and scientific interest.In this work, a novel method which approximates eigenfrequencies and mode shape vectors needed for the evaluation of frequency response functions, will be presented. This meta-model of structural matrices is established by employing interpolation between the matrices evaluated at some supporting points. The technique has no difficulties with closely spaced eigenfrequencies and mode switching and it can be employed over the entire frequency range on the full model, but also on the substructures and it is hence applicable together with deterministic model reduction techniques.     

Electrical Power Quality of Iron and Steel Industry in Turkey

The iron and steel industry has been growing increasingly in Turkey in the last decade. Today, its electricity demand is nearly one tenth of the installed generation capability of 40 GW in the country. In this paper, power quality (PQ) investigations based on the arc furnace installations of the iron and steel plants using field measurements according to the international standard IEC 61000-4-30 are documented. Interharmonics and voltage flicker problems occurring both at the common-coupling points of those plants and at the arc furnace and static var compensator (SVC) systems of the plants themselves are determined with the use of GPS receiver synchronization modules attached to the mobile PQ measurement systems. It has been observed that flicker and interharmonic problems are dominant at the points of common couplings where arc furnace installations are supplied. Based on the field measurements obtained with collaborative work of five arc furnace plants, it is possible to say that contemporary SVC systems cause interharmonic amplification problems around the second harmonic, and novel methods are required to solve this problem.      

Incorporating heterogeneous distance metrics within block layout design

This paper focuses on optimal design of block layouts when using more than one distance metric within a single facility. Previous work in block layout has assumed a single distance metric, usually the shortest rectilinear distance between department centroids, during the design step. However, most facilities have more than one method of material handling and alternative material handling systems can imply alternative distance metrics and cost structures. Specifically, up to three distance metrics within a single facility are considered--the shortest rectilinear distance between centroids (appropriate for automated guided vehicles and forklift trucks), the Tchebychev (maximum) distance (appropriate for overhead cranes) and the shortest Euclidean distance between centroids (appropriate for conveyor lines). Optimal block layouts using each of these distance metrics individually and then collectively are compared and contrasted. This approach can also be used to compare layouts when the choice of material handling system is not clear. It is argued that incorporating the distance metric that best reflects the planned material handling device is more realistic than previous formulations, avoids block layouts that are sub-optimal for the material handling systems installed, and is quite workable within a heuristic optimization framework.