Trampoline Enclosure Safety Engineering Analysis

An 18 month old boy died when he became entrapped in a gap formed between the bottom of a trampoline net safety enclosure and the top of the trampoline structure. Accident statistics survey, safety literature review, standards research, and alternative trampoline safety enclosure design evaluation are approaches utilized in the safety engineering analysis. The primary goal of this investigation is to make trampoline enclosure designers, retailers, customer service providers, and users more aware of the entrapment and strangulation dangers and to identify design alternatives to prevent similar injuries from occurring.

A Comparison of Machine Risk Acceptance Results Among Trained Users of ANSI B11-TR3

The ANSI guideline on machine risk assessment, B11-TR3, describes risk assessment as an iterative process. This implies that protective measures of varied levels of technology can be successively evaluated until a risk that is acceptable is attained. The theories of risk acceptance are many. Reducing risk to a level that is agreed to be 'as low as reasonably practicable' (ALARP) is said to give focus to making a decision about when risk has been adequately reduced. Main (2004) says that "Although the concept of acceptable risk is becoming more commonly adopted throughout the world, a single level of acceptability cannot be universally applied. Acceptable risk is a function of many factors, and is specific to a company, culture, and time-era." Fischhoff et al. (1981) have argued that "the risk associated with the most acceptable option is not acceptable in any absolute sense. One accepts options, not risks, which are only one feature of options." This paper describes risk assessment groups in five manufacturing workplaces and discusses training that led to acceptable risk decisions for a hazardous machine system in each workplace. The composition of the five teams in this study ranged from a team with just a single engineer to teams involving several workplace personnel. The applied preventive measures ranged from measures that were tailored to meet corporate safety goals to measures that evolved from the local risk assessment team's ingenuity. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to make the risk acceptance concept meaningful in the training of future machine risk assessment teams.

Reliability Evaluation Using Finite Element Method

A robust and sophisticated structural reliability evaluation procedure is presented. Reliability of any structural systems represented by finite elements can be evaluated using the algorithm. The authors called it a stochastic finite element method. Despite the significant recent progress in the risk and reliability analysis techniques, a large segment of the engineering profession is not familiar with them and thus fails to use them in everyday practices. The procedure is expected to fill that vacuum. Many sources of nonlinearity generally overlooked in the profession can be incorporated in the algorithm. Uncertainties in the load and resistance-related variables are modeled as realistically as possible. The estimation of the failure, probability implies that structural behavior just before failure needs to be captured as accurately as possible. The algorithm is capable of evaluating the probability of failure addressing all the related issues. With the help of four informative examples, the application potential of the procedure is clearly demonstrated. It is similar to the deterministic methods and is not expected to be complicated to the practicing engineers; thus, promoting its wider applications. It is shown that the observations made in laboratory experiments can be explained with the procedure. It is hoped that the method will be used in the future to estimate the reliability of real structures.

Model Uncertainty in Fluid-Structure Impact Risk Analysis

This paper investigates the issue of model uncertainty in risk assessments of fluid-structure impact problems. Model-based risk assessments of complex phenomena such as the space shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB) splashdown event is affected by significant model uncertainty and approximations in finite element discretization, damage modeling, and the probabilistic analysis. Model verification and validation (V&V) helps in systematic assessment of modeling error, and suitable V&V techniques are explored in this paper. Since experimental testing of the SRB is infeasible, a simplified experimental framework is devised using an aluminum cylinder hinged at one end, with the objective of providing insights into the required model form (validation) as well as the required model resolution (verification). Preliminary results from error quantification as well as experimental validation are presented and discussed. Such information could be used to develop confidence and credibility in real-world reliability predictions of fluid-structure impact problems such as SRB splashdown.

Promotion of Technology Commercialization and Local Economy Development by Non-Research-Intensive Universities

In the last 25 years, the research conducted in universities, hospitals, and research institutions has resulted in the creation of over 4500 new companies based on the licenses obtained from these institutions. In the same period, there has been a 1500 percent increase in the number of patents granted to universities. These achievements have been primarily at research universities and research institutions, and have not been enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of educational institutions that are not research-intensive. This paper examines technology commercialization activities at non-research-intensive universities and recommends means by which they can generate more intellectual property in a cost-effective manner. These universities can increase financial opportunities for themselves and their communities and can be more effective in job creation and local economic development by adopting policies that are different from those of their research-intensive counterparts. They can use their resources more creatively to promote creation of intellectual property, faculty entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary cooperation among faculty

Fire and Explosion Investigations: Why Heavy Trucks May Burn

There is a basic misconception that diesel fuel does not explode and/or ignite upon a collision or impact. This particular chain of events, in fact, does occur. However, it is not always thoroughly investigated or understood. The purpose of this paper, through mechanical analysis and accident reconstruction, is to inform truck manufacturers and operators of this hazard. In addition, it will supply design alternatives that will aid in mitigating and/or preventing injuries altogether.

What Will It Take to Deliver a Zero-to-Landfill Product?

Driven by legal mandates and consumer demand, sustainable businesses will be those that recognize the need for extended responsibility for their products beyond the point of sale. One strategy gaining increasing attention throughout the world is the production and sale of Zero-to-Landfill products - products that contain nothing that is disposed of at the end of their useful life. A product take-back process is required to ensure products that reach the end of their useful lives are reclaimed for reuse, remanufacturing, or recycling. But can companies develop products that are truly zero-to-landfill? What must manufacturers do to deliver products offering this environmental beneficence? The stakeholders in a sustainable enterprise are considered, and the desire for zero-to-landfill products from their perspectives will be examined. Implications for government regulations, reverse logistics, product design and manufacturing, and for corporate profits are examined. The emphasis will be on how such a strategy will impact today's design and manufacturing engineers. Through the use of representative examples, it will be shown that many of the requisite behaviors and processes are being implemented, but that it is still early to quantify the impacts and to understand the emergence of unforeseen consequences.

Uncertainties in Spectral Fatigue Damages and an Efficient Simple-Reliability Calculation of Offshore Structures

This paper presents uncertainties in spectral fatigue damages of offshore structures firstly. Then, attention is given to the formulation and procedure of a fast and efficient computation of fatigue reliability estimates. Most of uncertainties are embedded in response characteristics of the stress process and the damage-model used. Uncertainties in stress statistical characteristics are associated with the modeling of structures and random wave environment as well as wave loading and the analysis used. Uncertainties arising from degradation of member stiffness, wave-current and water-structure interactions can be considered in the modeling of structures, wave environment and loading. In the fatigue damage, there are additional uncertainties arising from the modeling of damage-mechanism. These uncertainties are due to experimental fatigue data and structural joint configurations. All these uncertainties can be classified into aleatory (naturally inherent) and epistemic (due to lack of knowledge) categories. The second part of the paper is devoted to a fast and efficient computation of fatigue reliability. This algorithm eliminates repetitive execution of spectral analysis procedure. It is performed only once for all reliability iterations. In this technique, a suitable spectral formulation of the stress process is used and a new uncertainty parameter is introduced to represent most of uncertainties in the stress spectrum. A detailed modeling of the fatigue-related uncertainties is presented. The failure function of the reliability analysis is expressed independently of the spectral analysis. The advanced FORM reliability method is used to calculate the reliability index and to identify important uncertainty parameters. The procedure is demonstrated by an example jacket structure and the results are compared with previously available ones.

Midstream Modulation of Nanotechnology in an Academic Research Laboratory

No clear implementation methods exist for US legislation on integrating societal considerations into nanotechnology research and development. An empirical study was thus undertaken to investigate the possibility and utility of "sociotechnical integration" during nanoscale engineering research in an academic setting. For twelve weeks, an "embedded humanist" interacted with three graduate engineering researchers to identify and assess opportunities for influencing research decisions in accordance with societal concerns. The study focused not on the nature of societal concerns, but on the nature of engineering decisions, and on the potential capacity of researchers to perform integration by "modulating" their decisions. Engineering research decisions were found to be subject to societal influences, and researchers were found to become aware of the possibility of modulating their decisions accordingly. The interactions were not found to hamper research and were found to add value to research. No attempt was made to alter research decisions, only to stimulate awareness of the possibility of doing so. Still, one researcher did alter several decisions as a result of the study. Midstream modulation represents a promising approach for implementing US nanotechnology policy.

Sustainable and Market-Based Analyses of Cooking Technologies in Developing Countries

Over two billion persons worldwide use biomass as their primary form of energy in household cooking. This creates significant adverse consequences to families in developing nations that use stoves made without technical advancements commonly used in the industrialized world. The often simple, ad-hoc stoves lead to harmful side effects including disease, pollution, injury, and deforestation. Further negative consequences arise in household economics when considering losses in labor, time spent gathering fuel, and high fuel costs relative to income. Because of this much research over the past 10-20 years has been conducted with developing better household cooking methods. Findings from these efforts produced more effective stoves to accommodate the needs of impoverished families. Many of these projects began with philanthropic interests and grants to aid the world's poor. However outside of lump-sum funds for materials and labor there is often be little available to sustain the technical or human resources needed for continued stove utilization. One method to approach sustainability involves a market-based approach to better insure continuation of the benefits of improved cookstoves. This paper provides an assessment of the benefits of advanced cooking devices to both consumers and producers. Further investigations demonstrate consumer and producer impediments in collaborating for mutual benefit. Through realization of the interests and constraints facing both sides, plausible processes can be drawn for holistic improvement of communities in relation to household cooking. This paper also provides various options for intervention and start-up as potential methods in creating sustainable markets for safe, cost-effective, and efficient stoves.