scholarly journals Variational h-adaption for coupled thermomechanical problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1261-1290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit Pethe ◽  
Thomas Heuzé ◽  
Laurent Stainier

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a variational mesh h-adaption approach for strongly coupled thermomechanical problems. Design/methodology/approach The mesh is adapted by local subdivision controlled by an energy criterion. Thermal and thermomechanical problems are of interest here. In particular, steady and transient purely thermal problems, transient strongly coupled thermoelasticity and thermoplasticity problems are investigated. Findings Different test cases are performed to test the robustness of the algorithm for the problems listed above. It is found that a better cost-effectiveness can be obtained with that approach compared to a uniform refining procedure. Because the algorithm is based on a set of tolerance parameters, parametric analyses and a study of their respective influence on the mesh adaption are carried out. This detailed analysis is performed on unidimensional problems, and a final example is provided in two dimensions. Originality/value This work presents an original approach for independent h-adaption of a mechanical and a thermal mesh in strongly coupled problems, based on an incremental variational formulation. The approach does not rely on (or attempt to provide) error estimation in the classical sense. It could merely be considered to provide an error indicator. Instead, it provides a practical methodology to adapt the mesh on the basis of the variational structure of the underlying mathematical problem.

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Rindell ◽  
Tore Strandvik ◽  
Kristoffer Wilén

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore ethical consumers' brand avoidance. The study contributes to brand-avoidance research by exploring what role consumers' ethical concerns play in their brand avoidance. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is adopted by interviewing 15 active members of organizations that represent ethical concerns for the well-being of animals, the environment and humans. Findings – The study indicates that consumers with a strong value-based perspective on consumption (such as ethical consumers) may reject brands in two different but interrelated ways. In essence, the study reveals characteristics of brand avoidance that have not been discussed in earlier research, in terms of two dimensions: persistency (persistent vs temporary) and explicitness (explicit vs latent). Practical implications – The study shows the importance of considering the phenomenon of brand avoidance, as it may reveal fundamental challenges in the market. These challenges may relate to consumer values that have not been regarded as important or that have been thought of as relating only to a specific group of consumers. Originality/value – The ethical consumers' views represent new insights into understanding brand avoidance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Som Sekhar Bhattacharyya

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to ascertain how social entrepreneurs were required to recognize their new ventures’ scope and scale of operations. The firm boundary was based upon two dimensions, namely, the scope of the offering and its scale. The objective of this research was to ascertain the thinking regarding this of social entrepreneurs engaged through technology-based social entrepreneurship (TBSE). Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an in-depth interview of 26 technology entrepreneurs engaged in social entrepreneurship ventures in India. The interview was carried out based upon a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. This study undertook thematic and relational content analysis to develop a model of technology-based social entrepreneurs’ venture scoping and scaling. Findings This study found that the antecedent variables were the level of support perceived by social entrepreneur from government and at the industry level. Furthermore, the variables’ entrepreneurial and market orientation of social entrepreneurs were found to be the independent variables. These four variables in turn determined the explorative and exploitative horizon of the technology-based social entrepreneurs. Finally, an interplay of these variables ascertained the perspectives of social entrepreneurs engaged in TBSE regarding the notion of their firm’s scope and scale. Research limitations/implications The theoretical insights developed in this research study provided an integrated theoretical perspective accommodating both environmental perspectives (industry support and government support) and organizational perspectives (entrepreneurial and market aspects). This was in context of TBSE. Practical implications The insights from this research study could provide a robust and comprehensive understanding to social entrepreneurs regarding the strategic thinking towards scale and scope for a technology-based social venture. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study was one of the first theoretical works in TBSE towards scaling versus scoping perspectives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinyun Duan ◽  
Macy Wong ◽  
Yumeng Yue

PurposeResearch examining the effect of helping on outcomes related to helpers has gained some mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile such inconsistency by understanding the multi-dimensional nature of helping behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first develop a helping behavior scale that differentiates between the proactive and reactive form of helping. Furthermore, the authors also examined whether these two forms of helping are differently related to employees’ well-being. Data were collected from 448 employees and their immediate supervisors working in different organizations in the South Jiangsu province, in which the authors examined the main relationship and also explored the mediating effect of meaningfulness.FindingsResults provided corroborating evidence that helping behavior was a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of proactive and reactive dimensions. Furthermore, the authors are also able to support discriminatory validity between these two dimensions by showing that they are differently related to employees’ well-being.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to management practice by specifying the benefits and detriments of different kinds of helping behaviors.Originality/valueThe findings of this study do not only provide ideas to explain contradictions in the effect of helping behaviors on helpers themselves, but also deepens scholars’ knowledge and understanding toward helping behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Dhir ◽  
Swati Dhir

Purpose This study aims to comprehend the ambidexterity and organizational learning capability construct in the Indian E-commerce industry context. Design/methodology/approach The survey method was adopted for this study. A survey was circulated among the personnel working in E-commerce companies in India. The focus was on people working in managerial positions and had at least three years of experience in the same industry. Findings This paper investigates the link between two dimensions of ambidexterity, i.e., exploration, exploitation and learning capability in firm performance. The paper also establishes the moderating effect of the learning capability on the two dimensions of ambidexterity and firm’s performance. Research/limitations/implications Our focus was to cover most of the E-commerce companies, yet to generalize the research the analysis needs to be conducted with even more E-commerce companies. Although we took extraordinary care to gather data from multiple resources and discarded the data that was incomplete or was from lower level employees yet, we need a larger sample to establish the causal claim of our model. Practical/implications We reason that learning capability of a firm impacts the two dimensions and firms should focus both on external and internal knowledge to benefit from the ambidexterity efforts. Social/implications Learning capability influences a firm’s performance and has managerial implications. The analysis’ results on the India based ecommerce companies differs from prior research done in more developed countries and other industries. Originality/value No prior research has been done from this perspective in the Indian context, and thus our work opens up new avenues for researchers to look at.Keywords Ambidexterity, Firm performance, Learning capability


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Minkov

PurposeHofstede’s model of national culture has enjoyed enormous popularity but rests partly on faith. It has never been fully replicated and its predictive properties have been challenged. The purpose of this paper is to provide a test of the model’s coherence and utility.Design/methodology/approachAnalyses of secondary data, including the World Values Survey, and a new survey across 56 countries represented by nearly 53,000 probabilistically selected respondents.FindingsImproved operationalizations of individualism-collectivism (IDV-COLL) suggest it is a robust dimension of national culture. A modern IDV-COLL index supersedes Hofstede’s 50 year-old original one. Power distance (PD) seems to be a logical facet of IDV-COLL, rather than an independent dimension. Uncertainty avoidance (UA) lacks internal reliability. Approval of restrictive societal rules and laws is a facet of COLL and is not associated with national anxiety or neuroticism. UA is not a predictor of any of its presumed main correlates: importance of job security, preference for a safe job, trust, racism and xenophobia, subjective well-being, innovation, and economic freedom. The dimension of masculinity-femininity (MAS-FEM) lacks coherence. MAS and FEM job goals and broader values are correlated positively, not negatively, and are not related to the MAS-FEM index. MAS-FEM is not a predictor of any of its presumed main correlates: achievement and competition orientation, help and compassion, preference for a workplace with likeable people, work orientation, religiousness, gender egalitarianism, foreign aid. After a radical reconceptualization and a new operationalization, the so-called “fifth dimension” (CWD or long-term orientation) becomes more coherent and useful. The new version, called flexibility-monumentalism (FLX-MON), explains the cultural differences between East Asian Confucian societies at one extreme and Latin America plus Africa at the other, and is the best predictor of national differences in educational achievement.Research limitations/implicationsDifferences between subsidiaries of a multinational company, such as IBM around 1970, are not necessarily a good source of knowledge about broad cultural differences. A model of national culture must be validated across a large number of countries from all continents and its predictions should withstand various plausible controls. Much of Hofstede’s model (UA, MAS-FEM) fails this test while the remaining part (IDV-COLL, PD, LTO) needs a serious revision.Practical implicationsConsultancies and business schools still teach Hofstede’s model uncritically. They need to be aware of its deficiencies.Originality/valueAs UA and MAS-FEM are apparently misleading artifacts of Hofstede’s IBM data set, a thorough revision of Hofstede’s model is proposed, reducing it to two dimensions: IDV-COLL and FLX-MON.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Emran Hossain ◽  
S.M. Zabed Ahmed

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the use of smartphones for academic purposes by students at Dhaka University, the top-ranked university in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach Students currently using smartphones answered a questionnaire survey, which focused on whether or not students used smartphones for academic works and, if so, for what purposes they used them and their opinion on the advantages of using smartphones for academic purposes. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic and academic characteristics of the students in relation to their smartphone usage. Non-parametric analyses were performed using Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests to compare between students’ demographic and academic variables and their opinion on the advantages of academic use of smartphones. Findings The findings indicate that a vast majority of university students used smartphones for academic purposes. They, on average and across the board, had a positive perception toward academic use of smartphones. Although there were some differences in terms of gender, age, place of origin and duration of smartphone use, these differences were largely due to fact that a smartphone is a relatively new addition to the life of most students who participated in this study. Originality/value Research investigating the academic use of smartphones in the perspective of developing countries is virtually non-existent. This is the first time an effort has been made to examine the use of smartphones by a large sample of university students in Bangladesh.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-169
Author(s):  
Alberto Fuertes ◽  
Jose María Serena

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how firms from emerging economies choose among different international bond markets: global, US144A and Eurobond markets. The authors explore if the ranking in regulatory stringency –global bonds have the most stringent regulations and Eurobonds have the most lenient regulations – leads to a segmentation of borrowers. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a novel data set from emerging economy firms, treating them as consolidated entities. The authors also obtain descriptive evidence and perform univariate non-parametric analyses, conditional and multinomial logit analyses to study firms’ marginal debt choice decisions. Findings The authors show that firms with poorer credit quality, less ability to absorb flotation costs and more informational asymmetries issue debt in US144A and Eurobond markets. On the contrary, firms issuing global bonds – subject to full Securities and Exchange Commission requirements – are financially sounder and larger. This exercise also shows that following the global crisis, firms from emerging economies are more likely to tap less regulated debt markets. Originality/value This is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study that examines if the ranking in stringency of regulation – global bonds have the most stringent regulations and Eurobonds have the most lenient regulations – is consistent with an ordinal choice by firms. The authors also explore if this ranking is monotonic in all determinants or there are firm-specific features which make firms unlikely to borrow in a given market. Finally, the authors analyze if there are any changes in the debt-choice behavior of firms after the global financial crisis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 1221-1226
Author(s):  
Sreedhar Karunakaran

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore various in-flight crew escape options of a prototype transport aircraft and finalize the option offering safest crew egress for different combinations of contingencies and flight conditions. Design/methodology/approach Various egress options were explored through simulation in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software using aircraft 3D CAD model and scalable digital mannequins. For this, certain important contingencies which best describe the extreme aircraft behaviour were identified. Crew escape options, which have least external interference in expected egress trajectory, were selected. Several test simulations representing each feasible combination of contingency, escape option and flight condition were simulated. The option which offers safe crew escape in each test case is deemed to be the safest egress option for the test aircraft. Findings Among five options explored, crew escape through forward ventral hatch provided the safest crew escape for all test cases. The selected option was validated for robustness with additional test cases modelling different anthropometric characteristics of 5th and 50th percentile pilot populations with different postures. Originality/value In-flight validation of safe crew escape option is infeasible by actual trial. Exploration of safe crew options for required number of test cases by any analytical method or by wind tunnels tests is tedious, time consuming and extremely expensive. On the other hand, exploration of safest crew option by CFD, besides being first of its kind, provides convenient option to configure, test and validate different test cases with unmatched benefits in time, cost and simplicity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 3908-3937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Younes Menni ◽  
Ahmed Azzi ◽  
Ali J. Chamkha ◽  
Souad Harmand

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to carry out a numerical study on the dynamic and thermal behavior of a fluid with a constant property and flowing turbulently through a two-dimensional horizontal rectangular channel. The upper surface was put in a constant temperature condition, while the lower one was thermally insulated. Two transverse, solid-type obstacles, having different shapes, i.e. flat rectangular and V-shaped, were inserted into the channel and fixed to the top and bottom walls of the channel, in a periodically staggered manner to force vortices to improve the mixing, and consequently the heat transfer. The flat rectangular obstacle was put in the first position and was placed on the hot top wall of the channel. However, the second V-shaped obstacle was placed on the insulated bottom wall, at an attack angle of 45°; its position was varied to find the optimum configuration for optimal heat transfer. Design/methodology/approach The fluid is considered Newtonian, incompressible with constant properties. The Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations, along with the standard k-epsilon turbulence model and the energy equation, are used to control the channel flow model. The finite volume method is used to integrate all the equations in two-dimensions; the commercial CFD software FLUENT along with the SIMPLE-algorithm is used for pressure-velocity coupling. Various values of the Reynolds number and obstacle spacing were selected to perform the numerical runs, using air as the working medium. Findings The channel containing the flat fin and the 45° V-shaped baffle with a large Reynolds number gave higher heat transfer and friction loss than the one with a smaller Reynolds number. Also, short separation distances between obstacles provided higher values of the ratios Nu/Nu0 and f/f0 and a larger thermal enhancement factor (TEF) than do larger distances. Originality/value This is an original work, as it uses a novel method for the improvement of heat transfer in completely new flow geometry.


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