The sex shop aimed primarily at the female consumer is a phenomenon which forms part of our everyday understanding of the sexualisatian of culture or the mainstreaming of sexual representation and consumption. The women's sex shop privileges notions of female empowerment achieved through the consumption of goods and spaces dedicated to the pursuit of female erotic pleasure. Prioritising women's interpretations of the visual presence of the women's sex shop, this project establishes how the sex shop is re-made for its female consumers, making it both acceptable and desirable to a new audience. Primarily its aim is to interrogate the ways in which design is put to use to reflect, materialise and contribute to discourse around feminine sexuality and sexual pleasure. Utilising a feminist research methodology this thesis takes as a starting point the voices of women consumers and retailers, facilitating a new reading of the ways in which women negotiate the meanings invested in the spaces of gendered sexual consumption. In line with the testimony of participants, investigation begins by positioning the women's sex shop in relation to its progenitor, the traditional male sex shop, the model without which the women's shop could not be envisaged or designed. Secondly it investigates the ways in which the design of the women's sex shop and its goods, appropriate or resist established , normative and classed representations of female sexuality expressed in the geographical position of the shops, the interior layout, the external façade and the use of visual references. In conclusion, drawing on consumer narratives, research exposes a visual and spatial symbiosis between the 'seedy' masculine and the stylish women's sex shop. Key tensions and contradictions are unearthed in the things and spaces of the women's shop, calling into question the notions of female sexual agency and empowerment it proposes.

Engine thermal and lubricant systems have only recently been a serious focus in engine design and in general remain under passive control. The introduction of active control has shown benefits in fuel consumption during the engine warm-up period, however there is a lack of rigorous calibration of these devices in conjunction with other engine systems. For these systems, benefits in fuel consumption (FC) are small and accurate measurement systems are required. Analysis of both FC and NOx emissions measurements processes was conducted and showed typical errors of 1% in FC from thermal expansion and 2% in NOx per g/kg change in absolute humidity. Correction factors were derived both empirically and from first principles to account for these disturbances. These improvements are applicable to the majority of experimental facilities and will be essential as future engine developments are expected to be achieved through small incremental steps. Using prototype hardware installed on a production 2.4L Diesel engine, methodologies for optimising the design, control and integration of these systems were demonstrated. Design of experiments (DoE) based approaches were used to model the engine behaviour under transient conditions. A subsequent optimisation procedure demonstrated a 3.2% reduction in FC during warm-up from 25°C under iso-NOx conditions. This complemented a 4% reduction from reduced oil pumping work using a variable displacement pump. A combination of classical DoE and transient testing allowed the dynamic behaviour of the engine to be captured empirically when prototype hardware is available. Furthermore, the enhancement of dynamic DoE approaches to include the thermal condition of the engine can produce models that, when combined with other available simulation packages, offer a tool for design optimisation when hardware is not available. These modelling approaches are applicable to a wide number of problems to evaluate design considerations at different stages of the engine development process. These allow the transient thermal behaviour of the engine to be captured, significantly enhancing conventional model based calibration approaches.

Passive ventilation and cooling systems can offer energy savings when combined into a mechanical ventilation and cooling strategy for office buildings. At early design stages, it is difficult to predict actual energy savings as current design and calculation tools are limited and do not allow assessment for energy reductions when attempting to use typical passive options such as solar chimneys, rain screen facades, ventilated double facades, passive downdraught evaporative cooling and earth ducts. The only passive systems that are directly incumbent to dynamic thermal modelling software are natural ventilation and external solar shading. Currently, impacts of passive systems on annual building energy performance is unclear and lacks clarity. In hot climates, this is even more problematic as buildings need to endure higher external temperatures and solar irradiation. Understanding minimal energy performance reductions for each passive system can aid with design decisions regarding building ventilation and cooling strategies. The aim of this study is to investigate how existing passive ventilation and cooling system design and operational strategies can be improved to reduce mechanical ventilation and cooling energy consumption for commercial buildings in hot climates. Theoretical commercial building models are created using dynamic thermal simulation software to determine minimum mechanical ventilation and cooling energy values, which are verified against published bench marks, known as base case models. These base case models are simulated using weather data from four different hot climates (Egypt, Portugal, Kenya and Abu Dhabi). Impacts of passive system energy performance are afforded by using either dynamic thermal simulation or fundamental steady state analysis identifying approximate passive ventilation and cooling potentials for reducing mechanical energy. These percentage reductions are created based upon passive system parameters and weather data, using appropriate methodology. From these findings new simplified design guidelines, integration strategies and performance design tools are created including a new passive system energy assessment tool (PSEAT) using Microsoft Excel platform to ensure that a wider audience can be achieved in industry. The design guidance and integration strategies are developed and simplified to enable architects, building services engineers and alike, to apply with speed and accuracy influencing the design process and improve confidence in desired passive solution.