Combined Design Approach Research Articles

Software Update Methodologies for Feature-Based Product Lines: A Combined Design Approach

The automotive industry is experiencing a significant shift, transitioning from traditional hardware-centric systems to more advanced software-defined architectures. This change is enabling enhanced autonomy, connectivity, safety, and improved in-vehicle experiences. Service-oriented architecture is crucial for achieving software-defined vehicles and creating new business opportunities for original equipment manufacturers. A software update approach that is rich in variability and based on a Merkle tree approach is proposed for new vehicle architecture requirements. Given the complexity of software updates in vehicles, particularly when dealing with multiple distributed electronic control units, this software-centric approach can be optimized to handle various architectures and configurations, ensuring consistency across all platforms. In this paper, our software update approach is expanded to cover the solution space of the feature-based product line engineering, and we show how to combine our approach with product line engineering in creative and unique ways to form a software-defined vehicle modular architecture. Then, we offer insights into the design of the Merkle trees utilized in our approach, emphasizing the relationship among the software modules, with a focus on their impact on software update performance. This approach streamlines the software update process and ensures that the safety as well as the security of the vehicle are continuously maintained.

Straightforward Design Strategy toward 3D Near-Net-Shape Stoichiometric SiC Parts.

Fused deposition modeling (FDM), traditionally reserved for thermoplastics, is modified here with a granule-based extrusion head to be extended to advanced nonoxide ceramics via a straightforward design strategy that considers the shaping opportunities and the chemical richness offered by preceramic polymers. Specifically, 3D near-net-shape stoichiometric silicon carbide (SiC) objects are designed by manipulating the key features of a commercially available polycarbosilane (fusibility, high carbon content, relatively high SiC yield). In the early stage of the process, the carbon-rich polycarbosilane is first mixed with Si and SiC fillers and then thermolyzed at 120 °C to increase polymer branching while offering tailored rheological properties during the subsequent extrusion process at 90 °C and adequate shape retention once extruded. This allows for the design of tailored and complex 3D complex polycarbosilane-based architectures with features down to 400µm. Polymer-based parts are further converted into 3D stoichiometric SiC objects with quasi-near-net-shape-a volume shrinkage reduced to 9.1% is measured-by heat treatment at a temperature as low as 1400 °C (argon flow). Given the flexibility to tune the preceramic polymer chemical and rheological properties, a new combined design approach is leveraged to generate bespoke advanced ceramics with a high freedom in geometry complexity.

Thermal compensation design of achromatic andapochromatic optical systems using a 3D glass chart.

It is important to determine the ideal combination of housing materials, groups of refractive materials, and their optical powers for athermalizing achromatic and apochromatic optical systems. This study proposes a combined design approach that utilizes three or more glass types to resolve thermal aberrations and defocus achromatic and apochromatic optical systems. It selects a suitable glass type using a 3D glass chart and calculates the optical power analytically. Furthermore, a temperature-insensitive optical system with a 450-750nm band based on refractive materials (CDGM Glass Co., Ltd.) is designed, with the modular transfer function value of the center field of view decreasing by less than 0.024 in the temperature range of -40∘ C to +80∘ C and the secondary spectrum aberration decreasing by over three times and being maintained within 0.08mm.

Preservation of active components in olive leaf extract by spray drying method in biodegradable polymers: Optimization, in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and application.

Encapsulation of the bioactive ingredients in biodegradable and edible polymers is an alternative novel application method to keep these kind of natural products stable. The purpose is to optimize the encapsulation system of olive leaf extract by spray drying method, and to apply the products into a model food. Olive leaf extract was encapsulated in arabic gum/maltodextrin blend by spray drying method. Combined design approach under I-optimal design type was used to optimize the system. Characterisation studies under moisture content, water activity, solubility, bulk density, tapped density, Carr index, particle size distribution, powder morphology and glass transition temperature were applied to the microparticles obtained under optimum conditions. The bioavailability of the encapsulated active material was tested by in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. Furthermore, microparticles produced under optimum conditions were also evaluated for a potential functional food application. The optimum conditions were achieved by arabic gum/maltodextrin (3.7:6.3) with 10% (w/v) in the mixture of wall material and active material under 165.5°C to achieve maximum encapsulation efficiency (86.92%), encapsulation yield (71.32%) and antioxidant activity (5.74 mg Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity/g dry microparticle). Olive leaf extract encapsulated in arabic gum/maltodextrin may be a good alternative additive to prevent the lipid oxidation in fat-containing food products as well as improvement of the product quality by functional properties.

An Advanced Single-Stage Turbine Facility for Investigating Nonaxisymmetric Contoured Endwalls in the Presence of Purge Flow

AbstractIn modern gas turbines, endwall contouring (EWC) is employed to modify the static pressure field downstream of the vanes and minimize the growth of secondary flow structures developed in the blade passage. Purge flow (or egress) from the upstream rim-seal interferes with the mainstream flow, adding to the loss generated in the rotor. Despite this, EWC is typically designed without consideration of mainstream–egress interactions. The performance gains offered by EWC can be reduced, or in the limit eliminated, when purge air is considered. In addition, EWC can result in a reduction in sealing effectiveness across the rim seal. Consequently, industry is pursuing a combined design approach that encompasses the rim-seal, seal-clearance profile, and EWC on the rotor endwall. This paper presents the design of and preliminary results from a new single-stage axial turbine facility developed to investigate the fundamental fluid dynamics of egress–mainstream flow interactions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the only test facility in the world capable of investigating the interaction effects between cavity flows, rim seals, and EWC. The design of optical measurement capabilities for future studies, employing volumetric velocimetry (VV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), is also presented. The fluid-dynamically scaled rig operates at benign pressures and temperatures suited to these techniques and is modular. The facility enables expedient interchange of EWC (integrated into the rotor bling), blade-fillet and rim-seal geometries. The measurements presented in this paper include: gas concentration effectiveness and swirl measurements on the stator wall and in the wheel-space core; pressure distributions around the nozzle guide vanes (NGV) at three different spanwise locations; pitchwise static pressure distributions downstream of the NGV at four axial locations on the stator platform.

Mixed-Method Design for User Behavior Evaluation of Automated Driver Assistance Systems: An Automotive Industry Case

AbstractAutomotive systems are changing rapidly from purely mechanical to smart, programmable assistants. These systems react and respond to the driving environment and communicate with other subsystems for better driver support and safety. However, instead of supporting, the complexity of such systems can result in a stressful experience for the driver, adding to the workload. Hence, a poorly designed system, from a usability and user experience perspective, can lead to reduced usage or even ignorance of the provided functionalities, especially concerning Adaptive Driver Assistance Systems.In this paper, the authors propose a combined design approach for user behavior evaluation of such systems. At the core of the design is a mixed methods approach, where objective data, which is automatically collected in vehicles, is augmented with subjective data, which is gathered through in- depth interviews with end-users. The aim of the proposed methodology design is to improve current practices on user behavior evaluation, achieve a deeper understanding of driver's behavior, and improve the validity and rigor of the named results.

Additive manufacturing integration with topology optimization methodology for innovative product design

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the production of functional parts with complex geometries, multi-materials, as well as individualized mass production. Another significant benefit of AM is the ability to produce optimized geometries with near perfect strength to weight ratios. Weight plays a crucial role in many functional parts such as parts used in automotive and aeronautic industries. Current topology optimization techniques, a powerful tool for weight reduction and product optimization in general, do not work well for such kind of process since AM methods necessitate applying own dedicated design rules. This paper reports a product/process optimization study of a simple test case geometry (C-Clip), where structural optimization has been applied using an innovative approach based on the design of lattice structure feasible thanks to additive process adoption. Moreover, it has been conducted a study to evaluate the possible advantages offered by the integration of the two previous approaches in order to verify the required design specifications. The aim of the work has been to evaluate the potentiality offered by the integration of the two structural optimization approaches (topological and lattice structures design) to obtain innovative and highly performing structures. This activity represents a necessary step for the definition and the subsequent development of a methodology aimed to the creation of structures obtained with this combined design approach. In order to define an objective evaluation of the component performances, appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPI) have been developed. An engineering intelligence tool has been used to post process the generated optimization results for the three different approaches. Finally, the first three “best” structural solutions have been manufactured by 3D printing machine, with scaled dimensions, in order to evaluate the printing time considering the geometry complexity for the chosen structural layout in order to have useful feedbacks on Product/Process choices interaction.

Designing and Analysing STEM Studios for preservice teacher education

There is a need for approaches to understand the teaching and learning of STEM and STEAM in schools in order to prepare preservice teachers for innovative classroom practice. In this paper we use a combined design approach to examine the activity of school students, preservice teachers and graduate STEAM students in two STEM Studios at a University in Queensland. We present our revised conceptual model based on earlier iterations as part of an OLT funded project. Multimodal learning analytics approaches will be applied in order to understand the integration of knowledge processes, epistemic cognition, collaboration and tool use.

Optimization of Formulation Ingredients and Aging Time for Ice Cream Processing Using Combined Design Approach

In this study, effects of different stabilizers on sensory properties of ice cream were investigated by combined design which is a versatile experimental design technique because of combination of mixture design and process factor. For this aim, different product formulations were composed depending on the combined design points and sensory analyses were conducted. In the study, combined design was composed by two mixture designs and one numeric process factor. Totally, 270 different ice cream samples which have different formulations were prepared and evaluated by a 10 trained panelists in terms of taste-odor, color-appearance, texture-consistence and overall acceptance using a hedonic scale evaluation form. The panel scores were subjected to optimization using Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm. The best five different product formulations having different desirability values were composed. The results of this study showed that the ingredient proportion and aging time could be optimized using combined design effectively. Use of salep and guar gum among the stabilizers provided an increment on the desirability of the ice cream samples and aging time as a process factor showed a significant effect on the ice cream acceptability. Practical Applications Combined design is a quite effective mathematical approach for the optimization of the processing variables containing mixture components and process factors. So, it could be used efficiently to model the ingredients of ice cream processing. The results of this study showed that the ingredient proportion and aging time could be optimized using combined design effectively.

Application of Organoclay Nanoparticle in Low-Density Polyethylene Films for Packaging of UF Cheese

Polymer/clay nanocomposites are a group of hybrid materials made from layered silicates of clay dispersed in the polymer matrix with a layer thickness in nanometre. The ability of organoclay nanoparticle including cloisite 15A, cloisite 20A and cloisite 30B incorporated into a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) polymeric matrix was investigated in order to inhibit the growth of coliform bacteria in ultra-filtrated cheese. The number of surviving cells of coliforms was decreased by 2.21 log cfu/g after 4 weeks storage at 4 ± 0.5°C, while pure LDPE showed a reduction of only 0.759 log cfu/g. LDPE film composed of 3% cloisite 15A, 3% cloisite 20A, with no cloisite 30B nano-filler was found as optimum point by combined design approach in design-expert analysis. The resulting film showed coliform load decreased by 2.05 log cfu/g in the optimum point, which was in line with Japanese industrial standard (JIS Z 2801: 2000) about antibacterial effect on coliform bacteria. A suitable microbial model for bacteria growth reduction was also suggested. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Probabilistic analysis for design assessment of continuous steel–concrete composite girders

In the design of continuous steel–concrete composite girders, cross section plastic resistance can be exploited in the sagging regions, where the compressed flange of the steel beam is connected to the reinforced concrete slab. However, elastic verification of cross sections is normally adopted in the hogging regions, where the compressed portion of the steel beam is unrestrained by the concrete slab and more prone to buckling. In a combined design approach, which uses the cross section plastic resistance in the sagging regions and the cross section elastic resistance in the hogging regions, the design must satisfy the condition that the sagging plastic moment can develop while the hogging bending moment remains below the elastic limit. The objectives of this work are to present a framework for simplified probabilistic nonlinear analysis of steel–concrete composite bridges and to assess, through such framework, the combined elastic–plastic design as applied to a realistic three-span continuous steel–concrete composite road bridge. The methodology presented here is based on the First-Order Second-Moment (FOSM) approximation, adopted to compute the first- and second-order statistical moments (means, variances and covariances) of structural response quantities. Deterministic and probabilistic numerical results for the benchmark problem are illustrated and discussed.

A Hyperstability/Multiobjective Optimization Approach for Active Flexible Structures

A controller design method is proposed as a combination of the so-called hyperstability theory and the multiobjective optimization approach. In this combination the hyperstability theory serves to specify a computationally tractable controller structure which is stability robust with respect to neglected high frequency modes as well as uncertain model parameters. The free controller parameters within this structure are determined via a multiobjective optimization method, which takes care of additional dynamic realization constraints as well as specific mission oriented control requirements through suitably specified performance criteria The combined design approach has been successfully applied to a generic flexible structure (DLR plate experiment).