It has become increasingly common for a city or region to use sporting and media events to promote themselves. But what is behind these events? What kind of organisation is necessary to plan and run them? In the summer of 2009 the internationally known Volvo Ocean Race will arrive in Stockholm. The race is eight months long and will be hosted in Stockholm for almost the whole of June. The City of Stockholm is behind the event and Stockholm’s marinas will be responsible for making sure that everything runs smoothly and on schedule. Hosting this big event will have an impact on the citizens of Stockholm in many ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the political decision-making behind the event and the first part of the year of planning and preparations that have lead up to it. The study is based on interviews with the people responsible for the planning of the event and one politician that were involved in the decision-making. The method that is used in the study is Grounded Theory, which the authors believe has been valuable in this case. The implication of using this method is that the authors have been able to look more closely into the planning of the event without being too influenced by earlier learned theories. The method also can help us to see patterns in the study that otherwise could be missed. In the end of this study we look at previous research and give suggestions for future studies. The authors hope that this study can give inspiration to other researchers in this growing and interesting field.

High-speed planing craft operating in waves are subject to frequent water impact, or slamming, as a portion or whole of the craft exits the water and re-enters at high velocity. The global load induced by slamming can cause fatigue-related damages to structures. The local slamming can cause local damage to structures and its induced acceleration can cause damage to equipment and personnel aboard. Therefore the slamming loads in high-speed craft are critical design loads. Nowadays, due to the increasing use of composite materials in high-speed craft, the interaction between the hydrodynamic loading and structural response, or hydroelasticity, must be considered. In this work, a flexible V-shaped wedge, which vertically enters the calm water with an impact velocity, was examined experimentally and numerically to characterize the slamming of a representative cross-section of high-speed craft. Physical quantities of interest include rigid-body kinematic motions, spray root propagation, hydrodynamic loading, and structural response. In the experimental work, with varied impact velocity and flexural rigidity of the wedge bottom plate, a wide range of hydroelasticity factors were investigated. The intersection between the bottom plate and side plate is called chine. The phases before and after the spray root reached the chine are called chine-unwetted and chine-wetted phase, respectively. It was found that the maximum deflection and strain occur in the chine-unwetted phase while a structural vibration with rapidly decaying magnitude is observed in the chine-wetted phase. Furthermore, the kinematic effect of hydroelasticity changes the spray root propagation and hence the pressure, while the inertial effect elongates the natural period of the plate. Inspired by the experimental work, a computational framework was proposed to focus on the chine-unwetted phase. Several hydroelastic models can be obtained from this framework. The hydroelastic models were validated to show reasonable agreement with experiments. Various parameters were studied through the computational framework. The hydroelasticity factor was modified to account for the mass and boundary conditions. It was found that the nondimensional rigid-body kinematic motions and maximum deflection showed little dependence on the hydroelasticity factor. Hydroelastic effects increased the time it takes for the peak maximum deflection to be reached for small values of the hydroelasticity factor. Hydroelastic effects also have little influence on the magnitude of the maximum deflection. These discoveries further the understanding of hydroelastic slamming and show the potential to guide the structural optimization and design of high-speed craft. / Doctor of Philosophy / High-speed planing craft operating in waves are prone to frequent water impact, or slamming, as a portion or whole of the craft exits the water and re-enters at high velocity. The slamming loads in high-speed craft are critical design loads as the slamming can cause damage to the structures and equipment as well as injure personnel aboard. Nowadays, due to the increasing use of composite materials in high-speed craft, the interaction between the hydrodynamic loading and structural response, or hydroelasticity, must be considered. In this work, a flexible V-shaped wedge entering water is studied experimentally and computationally to characterize the slamming of a representative cross-section of high-speed craft. The contact point between the water surface and the wedge bottom is called the spray root. It was found that the hydrodynamic loading and structural response interact with each other through the spray root. The maximum deflection and strain occur when the wedge bottom is partially submerged while a structural vibration with rapidly decaying magnitude is observed when the wedge bottom is fully submerged. Using the hydroelasticity factor proposed by other researchers, the extent of fluid-structure interaction was quantified. Hydroelastic effects manifest themselves when the hydroelasticity factor is small These discoveries further the understanding of hydroelastic slamming and show the potential to guide the structural optimization and design of high-speed craft.

The straight line calm water performance of stepped planing hulls has been studied experimentally, by prediction method, and numerically. A model test was conducted to provide a systematic understanding of the effects that displacement and step location have on the performance of a stepped planing hull. Ten different step configurations were tested at three different displacements and over a range of four different speeds in calm water. Seven of these configurations were tested at two different Longitudinal Center of Gravity (LCG) locations. Of all the configurations tested, the stepped hull configurations showed reduced resistance compared to the unstepped hull. The configurations with the largest step height aft showed the least amount of resistance over the speed range tested. Increasing displacement and shifting LCG had similar effects on craft performance for both stepped and unstepped hulls. The current stepped hull prediction method was expanded to include a three dimension wave profile and the ability for the stagnation line to cross the step. Using previous model test data and existing two dimension wave profile equations, a single equation was developed to predict the three dimension wave profile aft of a step. Formulations were added to Savitsky's planing prediction method to include very high speed craft and chines dry conditions. Lastly, two simulations were performed using two computational fluid dynamics numerical tools, OpenFOAM, and NFA. The results of these simulations were compared to the experimental test results to assess each code's relative strengths and weaknesses for use in detail design of stepped planing craft. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis deals with the path planning and movement of the holonomic robot in a dynamic environment. The aim of this work is implementation of several algorithms based on Rapidly-explored random tree algorithm and their comparison in designed dynamic environment.

Ziel dieser Studie war es, die längerfristige Auswirkung der Taschenspül-lösungen 0,9% NaCl (n=18), 0,12% Chlorhexidindigluconat (n=17) und Povidon-Jod (n=16) auf klinische und mikrobiologische Variablen bei 51 Patienten mit generalisierter moderater chronischer Parodontitis während des full mouth SRP zu untersuchen. Die subgingivale Irrigation der behandelten parodontalen Taschen wurde randomisiert durchgeführt. Vor SRP, nach 3 und nach 12 Monaten erfolgte die klinische Diagnostik (PD, BOP, AL) mittels 6-Punktmessung. Subgingivaler Biofilm wurde an vier Zähnen mit einer Sondierungstiefe von 4-6 mm zur quantitativen mikrobiologischen real time PCR-Analyse von Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia und Treponema denticola entnommen. PD nahm in allen Gruppen signifikant ab (p<0,001–p=0,002), CHX wirkte dabei nach 3 Monaten signifikant besser als NaCl (p=0,041). AL war in allen Gruppen nach 3 Monaten signifikant verbessert, nach 12 Monaten nur in der CHX- und Povidon-Jod-Gruppe (p<0,001–p=0,044) ohne Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen. BOP war bei allen signifikant verringert (p<0,001–p=0,002) ohne Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen. Die Gesamtkeimzahl von A.a. (p=0,045) und von P.g. (p=0,002) war nach 12 Monaten und von T.f. nach 3 (p=0,021) und zwischen 3 und 12 Monaten (p=0,011) für Povidon-Jod signifikant reduziert. Für P.g. wurde eine signifikante Reduktion der positiven Proben in der Povidon-Jod-Gruppe nach 3 (p=0,017) und nach 12 Monaten (p=0,001) festgestellt. Bei T.d. lag keine signifikante Veränderung vor. Signifikante Unterschiede lagen zur Baseline-Untersuchung bei A.a. zwischen der CHX- und der Povidon-Jod-Gruppe (p=0,038) und bei P.g. zwischen der Povidon-Jod- und der CHX- bzw. NaCl-Gruppe vor (p<0,001), dies ließ sich im weiteren Verlauf nicht verfolgen. Die angewandte Therapie hat, unabhängig von der Spüllösung, klinisch zum Erfolg geführt. Bei Betrachtung der Wirksamkeit gegen die parodontopathogenen Bakterien A.a., P.g. und T.f. scheint Povidon-Jod überlegen zu sein, jedoch nur bei Betrachtung der Unterschiede innerhalb der Gruppen, nicht bei deren Vergleich.

Dieser Beitrag basiert auf einer Planungshierarchie zur Produktionsplanung und -steuerung, die üblicherweise in der industriellen Praxis verwendet wird. In der Produktionsprogrammplanung werden meist deterministische Planungsparameter unterstellt. Tatsächlich sind insbesondere die Bedarfe zum Planungszeitpunkt nicht bekannt und somit unsicher. Zur Berücksichtigung dieser Unsicherheit wird in der aktuellen Forschung insbesondere die szenariobasierte robuste Optimierung verwendet. In diesem Forschungsvorhaben wird untersucht, wie eine robuste Produktionsprogrammplanung in einer solchen Planungshierarchie eingesetzt werden kann.

Dieser Beitrag basiert auf einer Planungshierarchie zur Produktionsplanung und -steuerung, die üblicherweise in der industriellen Praxis verwendet wird. In der Produktionsprogrammplanung werden meist deterministische Planungsparameter unterstellt. Tatsächlich sind insbesondere die Bedarfe zum Planungszeitpunkt nicht bekannt und somit unsicher. Zur Berücksichtigung dieser Unsicherheit wird in der aktuellen Forschung insbesondere die szenariobasierte robuste Optimierung verwendet. In diesem Forschungsvorhaben wird untersucht, wie eine robuste Produktionsprogrammplanung in einer solchen Planungshierarchie eingesetzt werden kann.

The vast majority of the research efforts in finite capacity scheduling over the past several years has focused on the generation of precise and almost exact measures for the working schedule presupposing complete information and a deterministic environment. During execution, however, production may be the subject of considerable variability, which may lead to frequent schedule interruptions. Production scheduling mechanisms are developed based on centralised control architecture in which all of the knowledge base and databases are modelled at the same location. This control architecture has difficulty in handling complex manufacturing systems that require knowledge and data at different locations. Adopting biological control principles refers to the process where a schedule is developed prior to the start of the processing after considering all the parameters involved at a resource involved and updated accordingly as the process executes. This research reviews the best practices in gene transcription and translation control methods and adopts these principles in the development of an autonomous finite capacity scheduling control logic aimed at reducing excessive use of manual input in planning tasks. With autonomous decision-making functionality, finite capacity scheduling will as much as practicably possible be able to respond autonomously to schedule disruptions by deployment of proactive scheduling procedures that may be used to revise or re-optimize the schedule when unexpected events occur. The novelty of this work is the ability of production resources to autonomously take decisions and the same way decisions are taken by autonomous entities in the process of gene transcription and translation. The idea has been implemented by the integration of simulation and modelling techniques with Taguchi analysis to investigate the contributions of finite capacity scheduling factors, and determination of the ‘what if’ scenarios encountered due to the existence of variability in production processes. The control logic adopts the induction rules as used in gene expression control mechanisms, studied in biological systems. Scheduling factors are identified to that effect and are investigated to find their effects on selected performance measurements for each resource in used. How they are used to deal with variability in the process is one major objective for this research as it is because of the variability that autonomous decision making becomes of interest. Although different scheduling techniques have been applied and are successful in production planning and control, the results obtained from the inclusion of the autonomous finite capacity scheduling control logic has proved that significant improvement can still be achieved.

Flight and drop tests of the Martin 270 (M270) seaplane were conducted in 1955. Theoretical and empirical pressures were determined by use of Wagner’s theory and also by the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The pressure results from the experimental tests on the hull were compared with pressures calculated from Wagner’s theory to determine how well the theory correlated with the measured pressures. The experimental pressure data was also compared with the CFR results to determine how the current industry standard of estimating impact loads compares with actual pressures a seaplane is subjected to. Using the structural design and geometry of the M270 the seaplane hull was modeled in Maestro with a coarse mesh finite element model. The pressures from Wagner’s theory and the CFR were applied to the model of the M270 hull. The structural reactions of the drop test section were compared with the reactions determined from Maestro.