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In this special issue ofHeat Transfer Engineeringyou will find selected papers presented during the 14th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering—ENCIT, held in Windsor Atlântica Hotel at Copacabana Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 18–22, 2012. A cosmopolitan metropolis, known worldwide for its scenic beauty and its natural resources, Rio de Janeiro provides a harmonious and agreeable environment for its inhabitants and visitors. Rio de Janeiro hosts several games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, including the final game at the historical Stadium of Maracanã, as well as the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Nevertheless, Rio de Janeiro has also hosted the 14th ENCIT, which is organized under the auspices of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (ABCM). ENCIT has been held every other year since 1986, and its recent editions have included more than 400 presentations of peer-reviewed papers. The ENCIT series of congresses has successfully served as the major forum for the interaction of professionals from the academia, industry, and government, within the heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics communities in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering and technology have a central role in shaping our reality that frequently goes unnoticed or not critically analyzed by engineers and engineering faculty and curricula. In so doing, the engineering that is taught, investigated (and improved), and practiced can unwittingly foster an ethical-political reality with which many engineers and engineering teachers may disagree. In this paper, drawing on literature from philosophy and sociology of technology and Latin-American liberating and decolonial traditions, the theoretical bases for a different engineering practice are set; an engineering committed to empowering people and constructing with them other possible socio-technical orders (and ethical-political realities). It can be called decolonial engineering. Then, grassroots (or popular) engineering, as it is practiced, taught, and improved (investigated) by some Brazilian university extension centres and groups, is presented and analyzed according to its decolonial foundations and outcomes. Finally, from grassroots engineering experience, some general traits of decolonial engineering education and research are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazil, the development of the dam engineering can be directly correlated to social and economic progress. Although fundamental, a dam construction and operation invariably involve some level of risk, which must be managed through different mechanisms and tools governed by appropriate laws. This paper aims to scrutinize the data contained in National Water Agency (ANA) reports, published annually following institution of the National Dam Safety Policy (PNSB), pertinent to dams accidents and incidents. This information was cataloged and analyzed in order to identify trends associated to types of accidents and incidents, dam component materials and entrepreneurs involved, as well as the disparities between data available from the different regions of Brazil. There is a lack of basic data in numerous reports, hindering more in-depth statistical analyses. The recurrence of this deficit was observed as well as the need to improve the methodologies used to apply the PNSB guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a life cycle assessment (LCA)-based ecodesign teaching practice via university-industry collaboration in an industrial engineering undergraduate course. Design/methodology/approach: A new course was designed and taught in the Industrial Engineering undergraduate course of a Federal University in Brazil. The course comprised explanatory lectures and a practical project developed in a partnership between the university and an industry partner where students had to develop Ecodesign proposals based on LCA to improve the environmental profile of both solid and reticulated paint brushes. To that end, students used the LCA software tool Umberto NXT v.7.1.13 (educational version), where they modeled the life cycle of four plastic brushes and assessed it using the impact categories of climate change and resource consumption, and the Ecoinvent v.3.3 database. After course completion, students, professors and industry collaborators were asked to provide feedback on the project performance and expectations. Findings: The course design used was welcomed by both students and the industry partner. Students found the novel approach intriguing and useful to their future careers. The results also exceeded the industry partner's expectations, as students formulated valuable insights. Professors observed that learning was made easier, as content was put into practice and internalized more easily and solidly. The approach was found to be a win-win-win. Practical implications: Students acquired a fair share of knowledge on sustainability issues and potential existing trade-offs, which is valuable to industrial practices. The industry noticed the valuable contributions that academia can provide. The university profited from providing students with a real case challenging traditional teaching methods. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first case studies to show how LCA and ecodesign teaching practice can support sustainability learning in an industrial engineering undergraduate course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a contribution to the diagnosis of scientificresearch evaluation in Brazil, supported by a national database dubbed "Qualis". Capes is the governmental institution in charge of the development and management of this database, which presents the classification of journals and is an important tool for the improvement of Brazilian scientific research. The present paper identifies the major difficulties in research evaluation and provides an analysis of the latest changes regarding the criteria which are applied within the field of "Engineering III", which includes: Aerospace Engineering, Production Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Naval/Ocean Engineering. The analysis comprises a discussion of proposals for improvement and a conceptual map showing synthetically the interrelationships among the concepts utilized in the study. In addition, it presents some suggestions which are specific for the context of Operations Research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the investigation of the performance of a structural membrane roof project for an amphitheater in Ouro Preto, Brazil. It aims to improve the geometry of the roof structural system in order to withstand structural loads with minimal system mass. This investigation is based on nonlinear structural analysis. A set of design parameters was investigated leading to eight models with different geometry. The numerical analysis and comparison of the models showed that the optimal performance of these structures is a result of the refined adjustment of the spatial arrangement of the whole structure and the geometry of the membrane aiming for the form that reveals the best load path and improves the cooperative interaction among all components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results obtained from a group of simple and basic procedures used to assess slope instability in terms of shallow landslides on data-scarce hillsides at the slope unit scale. The procedures are based on engineering geological mapping to obtain geological and geotechnical data and on an adapted Hovland 3D safety factor (SF 3D) associated with a van Genuchten infiltration model to simulate the rainfall percolation. The procedures were applied on a data-scarce hillside in the Campos do Jordão municipality located in the Mantiqueira Mountains, São Paulo state, Brazil. This area was chosen because it is affected by shallow landslides due to a loss of shear strength when suction decreases or dissipates due to rainfall infiltration. The combined procedures permitted the total SF 3D to be obtained from the partial SF of each grid cell (considering 4 different rainfall events and quasi-saturation conditions) and the failure probability (SF 3D < 1) and marginal probability (1

In this paper the design of power system stabilizers for small-signal stability using phasor measurements is considered. An approach based on optimal control with structural constraints is proposed to design a two-level control structure. Time delays are included in the design. The method is combined with order reduction to ensure faster convergence of the design algorithm and to facilitate the choice of the weighting matrices for damping inter-area modes. The control scheme is discussed and modal analysis and time-domain simulations of two Brazilian equivalent systems are performed to assess the control performance. The robustness to loss of communication links, topological changes, and variations of time delay is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the August 2003 issue of "Inverse Problems in Engineering," which contains papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Inverse Problems in Engineering: Theory and Practice," held in May 2002 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Total number of papers submitted to the conference and the journal; Reviewers invited to contribute to the conference and to the journal.