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The German Aerospace Center DLR is the German research institute with approximately 8000 employees in 20domestic locations. Among the aerospace research priorities of the German Aerospace Center DLR it includes also energy, safety and transport. DLR is institutionally supported by federal and state governments. Next funding sources arise in the context of third-party funds business (contract research and public contracts and subsidiaries). Main activities of the test center Lampoldshausen are testing of ARIANE's main and upper stage engines in the frame of ESA contracts. In the last years the test center of the DLR in Lampoldshausen has grown strongly over more than 30 %, so that the number of employees is actually of about 320. The testing department is mainly responsible for rocket combustion testing according to customer requirements. Two kinds of test facilities are operated, sea level test facilities and the altitude simulation test facilities. In addition to the DLR's growth also the activities of the industrial partner Ariane Group has been elevated so that actually nearly 600 employees are present on site Lampoldshausen. The management of the site in relation to safety and security requires special measures with special respect to the presence of more people inside the testing area in order to guarantee trouble-free and safe experimental operation onsite the DLR´s test plants. In order to meet with the future needs of continuing growth, the security and safety requirements have to be adopted. This report gives comprehensive outlook information about future possible scenarios of our coming tasks. Main driving force for future requests is the evolution of the rocket ARIANE. The new test position P5.2 has been erected to perform the qualification of the new upper stage with the VINCI engine. This project is very complex. In parallel to the construction work and acceptance testing actual running operation processes requires special procedures related to the overall safety of the test center. The site of Lampoldshausen with its test and supply facilities is subject to the restrictions of the German law Bundesimissionsschutzgesetz (derived from the European SEVESO-III directive) and its relevant ordinances, especially the Hazardous Incident Ordinance. Because of the complex framework effort which guarantees safety and security, Lampoldshausen has invested in people and processes in order to respect the restrictions of all relevant laws and ordinances as well as to guarantee the protection of people and the environment. Therefor a very special Master plan has been developed, with the goal to rearrange the complete testing area in order to be able to divide the area in certain sectors (testing range, technology and bureau) so that future testing enterprises will not affect almost free testing activities inside the site as it is in the present status. The paper provides comprehensive information related to the applied innovations including detailed background facts linked to the established safety and security standard applications.

Purpose In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach for evaluating airworthiness factors were presented. The purpose of this study is to develop an acceptable rationale for operational activities in civil and military aviation and for design, production and maintenance activities in the aviation industry that can be used in-flight safety programs and evaluations. Design/methodology/approach In aviation, while the initial and continuing airworthiness of aircraft is related to technical airworthiness, identifying and minimizing risks for avoiding losses and damages are related to operational airworthiness. Thus, the airworthiness factors in civil and military aviation were evaluated under these two categories as the technical and operational airworthiness factors by the analytic hierarchy process and analytic network process. Three technical and five operational airworthiness criteria for civil aviation, three technical and nine operational airworthiness criteria for military aviation were defined, evaluated, prioritized and compared in terms of flight safety. Findings The most important technical factor is the “airworthiness status of the aircraft” both in civil (81.9%) and military (77.6%) aviation, which means that aircraft should initially be designed for safety. The most significant operational factors are the “air traffic control system” in civil (30.9%) and “threat” in the military (26.6%) aviation. The differences within factor weights may stem from the design requirements and acceptable safety levels (frequency of occurrences 1 in 107 in military and 1 in 109 in civil aircraft design) of civil and military aircraft with the mission achievement requirements in civil and military aviation operations. The damage acceptance criteria for civil and military aircraft are different. The operation risks are accepted in the military and acceptance of specific tasks and the risk levels can vary with aircraft purpose and type. Practical implications This study provides an acceptable rationale for safety programs and evaluations in aviation activities. The results of this study can be used in real-world airworthiness applications and safety management by the aviation industry and furthermore, critical factor weights should be considered both in civil and military aviation operations and flights. The safety levels of airlines with respect to our airworthiness factor weights or the safety level of military operations can be computed. Originality/value This is the first study considering technical and operational airworthiness factors as an MCDM problem. Originality and value of this paper are defining critical airworthiness factors for civil and military aviation, ranking these factors, revealing the most important ones and using MCDM methods for the evaluations of airworthiness factors for the first time. In civil aviation flight safety is the basic tenet of airworthiness activities in risk analysis, on the other hand in military aviation high levels of risks are to be avoided in peace training or operational tasks. However, even high risks have to be accepted during the war, if the operational requirements impose, as mission achievement is vital. The paper is one of a kind on airworthiness evaluations for flight safety.

Large structural forgings of complex shape are required for several components of the precompression structure of the ITER Central Solenoid, consisting of a stack of six electrically independent modules and featuring a total height of 18 m and a diameter of over 4 m. The precompression structure allows the vertical tensile loads to be reacted and adequate preload to be maintained, in order to insure the contact between the modules during plasma operation. Several components of the precompression structure such as tie plates, lower and upper key blocks, lower and upper components are machined from open die forgings of an unprecedented combination of complex shape and large size. The selected material is FXM-19, a high strength nitrogen bearing austenitic stainless steel. A specific manufacturing schedule including redundant multidirectional forging is applied in order to achieve the required properties and microstructure of the final parts. The paper summarises the lessons learned from the series production of the components. The achievement of a fine and homogeneous microstructure, which is of paramount importance for final inspectability of the parts and to obtain the mechanical properties, is particularly challenging taking into account their large size. It requires a perfect mastering of the whole manufacturing process, from the steelmaking route, based in some cases on sequential remelting of electrodes from different master heats to create large Electroslag Remelted (ESR) ingots, to the sequence of the thermomechanical steps, from the initial upsetting of the ingots to the final solution annealing of the as-forged parts. Non-Destructive Examinations are based on stringent acceptance criteria. A fine microstructure is indispensable to allow full volumetric inspection with sufficient lateral resolution. Indeed, inspectability of the full thickness of the parts by Ultrasonic Testing, compatible with the criteria imposed by the technical specification and the structural requirements of the single components, is only possible in absence of unrecrystallised areas or excessive grain growth.

Traditional requirements engineering does not benefit from modern software development techniques. The goal of this tutorial is to revisit requirements elicitation and to bridge the gap between traditional requirements engineering and modern software development. This tutorial will provide the attendees with concrete and immediately applicable guidance by demonstrating how to operationalize a fully-fledged toolchain going from user stories to automated acceptance testing using open-source tools.

The cataloguing and revision of reactor pressure vessels (RPV) manufacturing and in-service inspection codes and their standardized material specifications—as a technical heritage—are essential for understanding the historical evolution of criteria and for enabling the comparison of the various national regulations, integrating the most relevant results from the scientific research. The analysis of the development of documents including standardized requirements and the comparison of regulations is crucial to be able to implement learned lessons and comprehend the progress of increasingly stringent safety criteria, contributing to sustainable nuclear power generation in the future. A novel methodology is presented in this work where a thorough review of the regulations and technical codes for the manufacture and in-service inspection of RPVs, considering the implementation of scientific advances, is performed. In addition, an analysis focused on the differences between irradiation embrittlement prediction models and acceptance criteria for detected defects (both during manufacturing and in-service inspection) described by the different technical codes as required by different national regulations such as American, German, French or Russian is performed. The most stringent materials requirements for RPV manufacturing are provided by the American and German codes. The French code is the most stringent with respect to the reference defect size using as a criterion in the in-service inspection.

Manufacturing, in regulated industries, has developed systematic practices, protocols and tools for equipment acceptance testing, described by the term Equipment Qualification. This paper, in drawi...

Within the Broader Approach Program between Europe and Japan for the early realization of fusion with the construction of the JT-60SA tokamak, ENEA, the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, was in charge, among others, to supply ten superconducting Toroidal Field (TF) coils for the JT-60SA magnet system. The related procurement started in 2011 and was concluded in 2018 with the delivery of the tenth coil to the Cold Test Facility in France. The construction of each TF coil module consisted of two main phases: manufacturing of the superconducting winding pack and integration in the corresponding casing structure. With all the foreseen modules already completed, this paper provides a critical review of the contract for the manufacturing of the coils highlighting the main difficulties occurred in the different manufacturing steps and evaluating the performances obtained from the measurements taken at the acceptance tests.

As many offshore production systems approach the end of their original Design Life, Operators are faced with the choice of either decommissioning or demonstrating that the original Design Life can be extended (Life Extension). Life extension requires the Operator to perform detailed engineering analyses to verify that the system can be operated safely over the period of Life Extension. In many cases this requires detailed fatigue analysis and inspection programs to demonstrate that original fabrication flaws or fatigue cracks that may have existed during the welding of the riser joints or initiated over the original Design Life will not grow to a critical size resulting in failure. Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) is now routinely applied in the design and fabrication of new offshore riser systems to develop girth weld flaw acceptance criteria. The resulting flaw acceptance criteria ensure that fabrication flaws will not extend to a critical size over the Design Life and thus the riser still meet its calculated fatigue life. Although ECA procedures for new construction are well established and standard practices have been adopted throughout the industry, ECA procedures for Life Extension have not yet evolved to the same level of acceptance. This paper will review specific issues associated with applying ECA to support Life Extension of offshore Riser Systems. The paper will provide the overall ECA philosophy and methodology for life extension to be adopted for the historical (hindcast or Phase 1) and future (forecast or Phase 2) analysis of the risers. Some thoughts will also be given to the approach implemented to take advantage of the actual weld fabrication data with the focus on the fatigue critical sections of the risers. Finally, the paper will address the requirements for riser in-situ inspection and how the results could be analyzed and applied to the life extension analysis in conjunction with the ECA analysis.

This paper introduces a new approach for the seismic performance evaluation of planar RC walls. Compared to existing assessment guidelines, such as those in ASCE/SEI 41-17, where performance limits are described by plastic rotation or lateral drift, the proposed method uses local (strain) quantities, obtained from computational models. The analyses rely on a user-friendly implementation of the nonlinear truss model for RC structures, which eliminates the need to manually create a line-element representation of a wall and includes a material law for steel accounting for buckling and rupture of reinforcement. The capability of the models to capture common failure patterns for planar walls is validated for a set of six previously tested wall components which experienced a variety of damage modes (bar rupture, boundary element failure, diagonal compression and tension failures). The analytical models accurately predict the lateral strength, deformation capacity and failure modes observed in the tests. A set of acceptance criteria, based on the analytically obtained concrete and steel strains, is then established for the immediate occupancy, life safety and collapse prevention levels, consistent with different levels and types of damage. An initial calibration of the limit values associated with these criteria is proposed and verified using the analytical results for the six walls considered. The results of the proposed assessment methodology applied to the six walls are compared to those obtained using the nonlinear procedures in ASCE/SEI 41-17. The results indicate that ASCE/SEI 41-17 may not accurately describe the deformability of walls exhibiting mixed flexure-shear inelastic deformations. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) - USA [70NANB19H060] Published version The research presented in this paper is supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under award No. 70NANB19H060. Any opinions and findings presented in this paper are those of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsor.

In Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the studies for the development of cryogenic propulsion were initiated in early 1980’s. The first cryogenic turbopump design (C12) in ISRO was made for 12 tonne (T) thrust engine identified for Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The C12 turbopumps have undergone only initial developmental and design validation tests. The specific objective of attaining indigenous capability to launch Indian National Satellite-II (INSAT-II 2.5 T) spacecraft to geo transfer orbit (GTO) led to the need for developing a high-performance stage combustion (SC) cycle cryogenic engine. This cryogenic upper stage (CUS) engine forms the third stage of GSLV-MarkII (GSLV-MkII) launch vehicle (LV). The design check, development, extensive qualification and acceptance tests for these turbopumps were carried out and turbopumps are being used in GSLV-MkII LV. The need for launching 4 T class satellite to GTO led to the development of a high thrust 20 T cryogenic engine (CE-20). The design and development of these turbopumps were indigenously carried out. These turbopumps are rotor dynamically configured and its bearings and seals were indigenously developed. Turbopumps for CE-20 engine has successfully undergone development, qualification and acceptance tests and is being used in GSLV-MkIII vehicle. CE-20 engine turbopumps are the first indigenously designed, realised and qualified high speed turbopump in ISRO. To increase the payload capability of GSLV-MkIII LV and to meet ISRO’s future LV programme, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), has taken up the development of a 200 T semicryogenic engine (SE-2000). Preliminary design review (PDR) of turbopumps are completed, hardware realisation and developmental tests are in progress.

The stairlift is equipment that transports a person (especially the elderly and the disabled) when going up and down the stairs both residential buildings and transportation infrastructure facilities such as stations, terminals, and airports by sitting in a chair or standing on the platform. The objective of this study is to analyze the strength of guide rails based on the guide rails profile. The material used for guide rails is ASTM A36 steel. The material profile of the stairlift guide rails is IWF 100 × 50 × 4 × 3 mm reinforced with square steel 10 × 10 mm and U Channel 50 × 30 × 3 mm. The evaluation of the strength of the stairlift guide rails refers to ASME A18.1 and ASME A17.1 standard. The acceptance criteria for the equivalent von mises stress on the guide rails is 100 MPa and the acceptance criteria for the deflection of the stairlift guide rails is 6 mm. The methodologies used in this study are a literature study, design, simulation, and analysis. The stairlift guide rails with the IWF profile needs strengthening, modification of the support shape and support distance. The stairlift guide rails with U-Channel profiles in analysis calculation and simulation meets ASME A18.1 standard requirements. The deflection of the stairlift guide rails with IWF profile and U-Channel profile in analysis calculation and simulation meets ASME A18.1 standards.

The New San Giorgio Bridge has been built in a very short time between April 2019 and Au- gust 2020 in order to reconnect the highway system of the western part of Italy after the trag- edy of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, bui lt in 1967 by prof. Riccardo Morandi. The new viaduct has a steel concrete composite closed section for the deck, a structural scheme of con- tinuous beam with a total of 19 spans supported by elliptical concrete box piers with a maxi- mum height of 40 m. The bridge is seismically isolated by means of friction pendulum devices and multidirectional bearings. In the transverse di rection the seismic devices, except for two piers, are a combination of friction pendulum and shear fuses. The paper describes the con- struction supervision process for the functional acceptance tests of the bearing devices with respect to the Italian National Law, NTC2018, European norms EN15129 and EN1337, and in fulfilment with the Technical Specifications issued by the Italian Railway system (RFI) and Italian State Road Association (ANAS). The pa per highlights the main issues encountered during the application of the several specifica tions for the certification and acceptance pro- cesses. A description of the different functional tests required during the construction supervi- sion process is presented as well as an overview of the different acceptance criteria of the tests results. The aim is to provide useful recommendations for technicians involved in the definition of the seismic acceptance tests for be aring devices for highway bridges in the Ital- ian and European contest.

ITER magnets are in the final phases of production and are preparing for the upcoming assembly challenges. The ITER magnet team has expressed the need for close-range support labs in order to perform qualification tests, procedure tuning, mockup testing, site acceptance tests, as well as training of assembly staff and logistics management. In the framework of its general support to the ITER project, CEA's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research proposed a support structure in line with this need on CEA Cadarache premises. In July 2014, the MIFI agreement (Magnet Infrastructure Facilities for ITER) was signed between ITER organization and CEA. It led to the creation of four laboratories and a storage area dedicated to magnet instrumentation components. This paper gives a general description of the work organization in MIFI, and describes the main ongoing activities with specific focuses on critical qualification activities like high-voltage testing and diagnostic of Glass–Kapton–Glass resin impregnated insulation and the scale 1 mock-up and test of the intermediate outer intercoil structure assembly procedure.

Adjustable speed drive (ASD) and motors, if selected as a prime mover for compressors, pumps, extruders, etc. can provide various electro-mechanical benefits to its operators and stakeholders. Their benefits and application considerations have been well documented in past papers and tutorials. However, a successful installation of a multi-megawatt motor and ASD system requires detailed application, engineering, manufacturing, testing and installation considerations. Many times testing is requested by the operator and/or consultant, but navigating the types of tests available, test procedures, plans and how they comply with appropriate standards is often not fully understood. This can lead to surprises, shipment delays, price adders and ultimately the equipment itself not being in compliance with the stated project objectives. This paper attempts to address the factory acceptance testing (FAT) phase of a medium voltage motor and ASD system whether procured separately or as a package. Issues such as type of test selection, specifications, standards, preparation, acceptance criteria, and finally string testing will be covered. This paper serves as a guideline of how one can select, prepare, witness and sign off of a medium voltage motor and ASD test.

The paper summarizes the main features of a standardization activity carried out in Italy by the Ministry of Public Works, to which two of the authors have taken part, for the homologation and the acceptance of Fabric-Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) composites. During the last years, such composite materials have becoming increseangly popular in the civil engineering field for strengthening existing constructions, even if difficulties can occur in their mechanical characterization that is strongly affected by different and complex failure mechanisms. The American ACI 549.4R-13 is currently the only available guideline for design and construction of these systems. In this framework, the paper describes the Italian proposals for the homologation process of FRCM materials as well as for the design of strengthening interventions with these composites. Comparisons with the American guideline are also reported together with some considerations regarding the different partial safety factors.

Several Trials for Protection and Control Schemes based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 standard were recently implemented for the new electrical system at a U.S. oil refinery. IEC 61850, generic object-oriented substation event (GOOSE) messaging, was used for several schemes, including transfer tripping, breaker failure, islanding detection, remote synchronizing, automatic restoration, manual transfer, and load shedding. Site acceptance tests validated the operation of the protection and control schemes. Bench testing was also performed for the load-shedding scheme using a power-system simulator. All of the testing focused on verifying scheme operations during normal operation and failure modes. The experience gained during early project trials influenced the design and testing of subsequent schemes. This article describes the bench and site acceptance testing approaches used and presents example tests along with their relevant results and the lessons learned.

Above ground storage tanks (AST) are essential equipment in the oil and gas industry. In general, large field erected steel storage tanks have been studied and evaluated to understand their behavior under different loadings and identify possible design flaws. However, deep research is necessary to improve the operation of shop-built storage tanks. Particularly, API 12F storage tanks are commonly used in the upstream, exploration, and production segments of oil and gas projects. The environmental conditions of these projects will depend on their locations and might be harsh and threatening for the equipment operation. This paper investigates the brittle fracture failure of the API 12F shop-welded tanks. An elastic stress analysis using finite element models was developed to determine the response of these equipment to extreme environmental conditions and the API 579 “Fitness-for-Service” rules were implemented to perform the brittle fracture assessment. A brittle fracture evaluation is conducted to inquire the propensity of a material to fail without appreciable plastic deformation. In case of the API 12F tanks, several parameters such as ambient temperature, residual stresses, and material toughness can play significant roles in the behavior of the equipment. Complete 3D models of the current API 12F shop-welded, flat bottom tanks as well as axisymmetric and solid submodels were created to address the brittle fracture evaluation and determine whether these storage tanks can operate safely under extreme conditions. Through-wall and surface crack flaws were considered in the most critical joints of the storage tanks and toughness relative ratios between the response of the steel material and the acceptance criteria of the API 579 standard were calculated to describe the behavior of the equipment.

The City of Kingston in Ontario, Canada, has implemented improved asphalt cement specifications, implemented double-edge-notched tension (DENT) and extended bending beam rheometer (EBBR) tests on paving contracts, and set reasonable acceptance criteria. Several contracts from 2009 and 2010 showed unanticipated, premature and excessive cracking, possibly due to contamination or overheating of the asphalt mix, or other issues unforeseen during the pavement design process. However, more recent contracts investigated for this study are expected to perform well, highlighting the importance of testing the asphalt cement recovered from the loose mix and of using appropriate specification tests and acceptance criteria.

In order to develop a domestic research roadmap for severe accidents, a special committee was established by the Korean Nuclear Society. One of the subcommittees discussed the characteristics and the relevant technical issues in the stages of fission product release and physical forms of radionuclide release and transport. The group members developed a tree to identify fission product release phenomena by tracing failures of individual defense-in-depth barriers and added possible countermeasures against failure. For each elemental issue, they searched for technical problems by examining the phenomena, accident management actions, and regulatory aspects relevant to the mitigation features for containment, including mitigation strategies against containment bypass accidents. Regulatory concerns, including the source term and the acceptance criteria for radionuclide release, were also considered. They identified further research needs regarding important technical issues based on the degree of the current knowledge level in Korea and in foreign countries, looking at the significance and urgency of issues and the expected research period required to reach an advanced level of knowledge. As a result, the group identified the 12 most important and urgent issues, most of which were expected to require mid-term and long-term research periods.

The paper describes the combination of safety and normal operation functions adopted in the AES-2006 design, as illustrated by a two-channel structure of active safety systems, showing the major innovative solutions and their differences from earlier designs, such as: – The use of a pump-ejector assembly in the primary circuit emergency and scheduled cooldown and spent fuel pool cooling system; – The emergency and scheduled cooldown and spent fuel pool cooling system is designed as two fully independent channels (each channels consists of two legs, each channel leg has a capacity of 100%); – The redundancy rate is 2 × 200%. Differences in the emergency and scheduled cooldown systems are considered for the V-392M и V-320 designs. Compliance with the acceptance criteria is shown based on test results, including additional tests performed in different modes during the commissioning of the Novovoronezh NPP II Unit 1 with the V-392M reactor plant. A description and a pattern are provided for the full-scale simulator tests to justify the long-term performance of the pump-ejector assembly scheduled for 2017, including an inspection of the water-jet pump nozzle inner surface condition and the water-jet pump service life tests followed by an examination for possible damage and visible defects on the nozzle surface. As a result of the innovations, the overall reliability of safety systems has been improved. The successful completion of the life tests of the pump-ejector assembly of the emergency and planned cooling system made it possible to confirm the reliability and efficiency of the water-jet unit used for the first time in the NPP safety systems.

Guler, Erol/0000-0002-3492-387X; WOS:000445635700006 In this study, pullout performance tests were conducted on five prestressed ground anchors having different tendon bond and unbonded lengths. The tendon bond lengths of the tested anchors varied from 4 to 10m, whereas the unbonded lengths were in the range of 8-16m. The tests were performed separately on a dense, gravelly sandy soil slope with an inclination of 90 degrees in Cottbus, Germany. The anchors were inclined downwards at an angle of 15 degrees below the horizontal. The results indicated that three of the five anchors did not satisfy the acceptance criteria as outlined in DIN 4125 Standards. According to the acceptance criteria, the line that was composed of the elastic displacements of the unbonded length had to remain between two specific limit lines. Although the elastic displacements of the unbonded tendons were taken into account for the acceptance of the anchors, the length of the unbonded tendon did not have a significant effect on stability. The anchors having unbonded lengths of 8, 13, and 15m failed, whereas the anchors with unbonded length of 9 and 16m were accepted after the termination of the performance tests. However, the tendon bond length was proved to be an important parameter that contributed to the acceptance of the tested anchors. Test results indicated that anchors having tendon bond lengths longer or shorter than 6m were rejected.

ENEA, in the framework of Broader Approach program for the early realization of fusion with the construction of JT-60SA tokamak, is procuring 9 of the 18 TF coils of JT-60SA magnet system. Within 2016 five coils will be completed and delivered to the cold test facility in Saclay, France, for the final acceptance tests before their shipment to Naka site for the assembly. Manufacturing has been divided in two main production steps: winding pack (WP) manufacturing and integration into casing. All the nine WPs have been already completed on September 2015 and the final integration phase has started in 2015 for the first coil. The integration, in its turn, is composed of six sub-steps: insertion, welding, embedding impregnation, final machining of interface areas, He piping assembly and final acceptance tests. Each of these steps has been already accomplished and two coils have been delivered to Saclay and undergone the cryogenic acceptance tests. This paper provides an overview and intermediate assessment of the contract that ENEA signed with ASG Superconductors for this supply.

Throughout the life cycle of a biotechnological drug product, changes and improvements of manufacturing processes are common. It is required by the regulatory bodies that manufacturers establish adequate and appropriate comparability between pre-change and post-change products. The goals of comparability assessments are to demonstrate the comparability and consistency of product quality before and after change and to demonstrate that the changes do not have an adverse effect on safety and efficacy of the drug products. A well-planned and detailed comparability protocol may facilitate the approval of process changes and expedite the production and distribution of lifesaving drug products to patients. Analytical comparability is the foundation of all comparability exercise. Therefore, a sound comparability protocol should carefully select relevant critical quality attributes, prepare a flexible testing plan, and predefine appropriate acceptance criteria. Selection of analytical methods and acceptance criteria for determining comparability may be the most challenging step in the comparability study. In this article, a risk-based approach is proposed to setting the acceptance criteria for analytical comparability during the pharmaceutical process change. The proposed method is applied to a late-phase process comparability study, illustrating the value of using prior information and historical data. The Bayesian methodology allows the manufacturer to utilize accumulated scientific knowledge and manufacture experience during the life cycle of pharmaceutical development and the risk assessment enables control of the probability of out-of-specification, thus protecting the patients’ risks.

Aero-engine test bed is the most vital test bench or test equipment for assessing the performance of any aero-engine after production, repair or overhaul as per the performance specification. Aero-engine test bed thus requires periodic calibration as a part of any quality control checks of engine passing out as per the acceptance test procedure laid down for the engine. Periodic aero-engine test bed calibration includes not only calibrating the various sensors used in the test bed system independently but also subjecting the test bed as a whole for calibration with a master engine. While calibration periodicity of the test bed sensors is generally one year or so, test bed calibration as a whole is carried out once in two years. Calibration of test bed using a master engine is very expensive and sometimes not feasible due to non-availability of such engines belonging to early generation of fighter aircrafts. This paper presents a novel concept for calibrating engine test bed using trend analysis. It is mainly based on the performance data of engine acceptance tests carried out over a considerable period of time. This concept completely avoids requirement of a master engine and thus saves enormous effort in terms of cost and man-hours. The concept evolved has been used for calibrating a typical vintage test bed as the proof for validation and found the results comparable with the present trending pattern followed by other engine houses.

The usage of risk acceptance criteria for preventing major accident hazards (MAH) in chemical industrial installations is not widely practiced in Sri Lanka at present. This paper attempts to derive a societal risk acceptance criterion for MAH installations in the Sri Lankan context. In the absence of a precedent for a “societal risk acceptance criteria” in Sri Lanka a reference criteria or baselines were developed initially based on historical data using an empirical deductive approach. Disasters resulting from natural and technological events were considered. The level of risk is presented in the form of a Cumulative Frequency, F (N) vs Fatalities, N curve or FN curve. Two FN curves for natural disasters were compared with one FN curve for technological disasters to select a suitable reference or baseline. The selected baseline was then compared with internationally accepted societal risk acceptance criteria for the two major characteristics of the criteria line, slope and anchor point. Based on this comparison a line having a slope of −1 and an anchor point of (10, 10−4) is proposed as an initial estimate for the societal risk acceptance criterion.

Testing safety-critical systems is crucial since a failure or malfunction may result in death or serious injuries to people, equipment, or environment. An important challenge in testing is the derivation of test cases that can identify the potential faults. Model-based testing adopts models of a system under test and/or its environment to derive test artifacts. This paper aims to provide a systematic mapping study to identify, analyze, and describe the state-of-the-art advances in model-based testing for software safety. The systematic mapping study is conducted as a multi-phase study selection process using the published literature in major software engineering journals and conference proceedings. We reviewed 751 papers and 36 of them have been selected as primary studies to answer our research questions. Based on the analysis of the data extraction process, we discuss the primary trends and approaches and present the identified obstacles. This study shows that model-based testing can provide important benefits for software safety testing. Several solution directions have been identified, but further research is critical for reliable model-based testing approach for safety.

A Interface Homem Computador (IHC) é parte fundamental nos critérios de aceitação de um software, na determinação de seu tempo de vida e no interesse que o mesmo despertará em seus usuários. Apesar de sua importância, as fábricas de software, em geral, pouco se aprofundam em análises e investimentos na área de IHC, tendo seu foco profissional em regras de negócio e funcionalidades implementadas. O objetivo é utilizar o uso de papel e caneta com as técnicas já conhecidas e reduzir o tempo de elaboração das ideias e elicitação de requisitos de IHC. A metodologia adotada para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho foi a revisão bibliográfica e análise a partir de um estudo de caso. O resultado obtido demonstra que as técnicas existentes na literatura são adequadas para realizar o correto levantamento dos requisitos e que, quando combinadas da forma proposta, os requisitos podem ser avaliados antes da fase de codificação, economizando tempo e recursos.

Since more and more large battery based energy storage systems get integrated in electrical power grids, it is necessary to harmonize the wording of the battery world and of the power system world, in order to reach a common understanding. In this regard this article presents different battery content values and their relation to each other. Battery operations typically lead to a change of battery’s electric charge or energy content. Based on a simplified battery model the basic values necessary to describe battery operations are clarified. Then the reference values and some acceptance criteria for batteries and secondary cells are defined. Also values describing limited usable energy content caused by operational restrictions are provided. In order to be as close as possible to existing definitions and practical applications, care is taken to be conform to current standards wherever possible in this article. The given set of consistent battery definitions can be used for an agreed design of battery storage systems and provides options for battery performance criteria.

Even if safety in the shipping industry improved significantly over the last decades, by novel design and construction techniques, driven by technological, cultural and regulation improvements, recent passenger ship accidents emphasized that significant safety challenges still remain. The modern trend towards large cruise ships can pose a serious threat in terms of both people evacuation/rescue and potential impact on sensible environmental targets. This paper firstly presents a critical analysis of three passenger ship accidents, identifying main similarities with the process sector and relevant learning points. Secondly, the study approaches risk evaluation, acceptance criteria and sea use planning in connection with cruise activity, referring to the worldwide known sensible area of Portofino (Italy). By utilizing numerical methods, the study develops a consequence-based framework incorporating the effects, the hazardous distance and the reaction time scale, related to fuel spill and fire scenarios with smoke spreading. The results evidence that the approach can be a powerful tool to design optimal ship route and temporary docking points for cruise tourism, balancing economic issues and mitigating physical impact to sensitive biological communities. Additionally, it can provide a technical basis for setting-up emergency planning, with appropriate response equipment and thus minimizing coastal impact from a spill.

This paper presents a detailed investigation, via field experiment, into the mechanism of high-order polygonal wear of wheels of a new type of high-speed train. The investigation was carried out during the performance acceptance test of the train and its initial commercial operation. The investigation covered the performance acceptance test of 150 000 km and the commercial operation of about 150 000 km. In the performance acceptance test of the first stage of about 70 000 km, at 200–250 km/h with full loading and sometimes overloading by 30%, the serious polygonal wear of 23-order took place on all the wheels of the train, and was measured and analyzed in detail. All the polygonized wheels were re-profiled because the polygonal wear had caused strong vibration and damage to the train parts. After re-profiling, the vibration of the train and track and the wear status of the wheels were measured and analyzed at different test mileages according to the polygonal wear situation of the wheels. The measured vibration of the train includes the accelerations at different positions of a motor car and a trail car. The vibration modes of the key parts of the bogies of the two cars were calculated. Meanwhile, the track resonant frequencies were investigated at the site. The purpose of the above tests and analysis is try to find the frequency of work mode matching the passing frequency of the high-order wheel polygon. The present investigation shows that one of the working models causes the formation and development of the high-order wheel polygonal wear. The growth of this wear was effectively reduced through the frequent changing of the running speed of the train operating on the way back and forth every day.

The article presents the seismic evaluation and retrofit of a 10-storey steel building located in Vancouver, British Columbia, designed following the provisions of the 1980 NBCC and the CSA-S16.1-M78 steel design standard. Lateral resistance is achieved by tension-only X-bracing with back-to-back double angle members. Seismic evaluation is first performed in accordance with the recommendations of the User's Guide to NBCC 2010 using response spectrum analysis. A Tier 3 systematic evaluation according to ASCE 41-13 is then carried out using both linear and nonlinear dynamic analysis procedures. The performance objectives are set same as those implied in NBCC 2010. The ASCE 41 approach results in much less corrections to the structure. Using the mean results from 10 ground motions is also less stringent than using the maximum of three records. For this structure, nonlinear dynamic analysis permitted to identify the concentration of inelastic deformations demands on the braces along the frame height. This behaviour induced considerable bending moment demands on the columns not captured by linear dynamic analysis. Finite element analysis of the structure columns showed that columns of braced steel frames can exhibit higher ductility compared to acceptance criteria specified in ASCE 41.

Summary Historical constructions are part of the world heritage, and their survival is an important priority. Comprising mostly unreinforced, load-bearing masonry, heritage buildings may date anywhere from antiquity to the 19th and early 20th century. Being exposed to the elements over the years, they are in various states of disrepair and material degradation. Based on postearthquake reconnaissance reports, these structures occasionally behave rather poorly, even in moderate seismic events, undergoing catastrophic damage and collapse, whereas retrofitting is governed by international conventions regarding noninvasiveness and reversibility of the intervention. The complexity of their structural systems (continuous structural components, lack of diaphragm action, material brittleness, and variability) challenges the established methods of condition assessment of preretrofitted and postretrofitted heritage constructions. The most advanced state of the art in materials and analysis tools is required, far more complex than with conventional buildings. Thus, an assessment procedure specifically geared to this class of structures is urgently needed, in order to assist engineers in this endeavor. The objective of this paper is the development of a performance-based assessment framework that is palatable to practitioners and quite accurate in seismic assessment of unreinforced masonry buildings with no diaphragm action. The underlying theoretical background of the method is illustrated with reference to first principles: global demand is obtained from the design earthquake scenario for the region, using empirical estimates for the prevailing translational period of the system; deformation demands are localized using an approximation to the translational 3-D shape of lateral response, estimated using a uniform gravitational field in the direction of action of the earthquake; acceptance criteria are specified in terms of relative drift ratios, referring to the in-plane and the out-of-plane action of the masonry piers. The quantitative accuracy of the introduced procedure is evaluated through comparison with detailed time-history dynamic analysis results, using a real life example case study. Qualitative relevance of the results is evaluated through comparison of the location and extent of anticipated damage estimated from the proposed assessment procedure, with reported records of the building damages that occurred during a significant past earthquake event.

Scrum has become popular among the agile methodologies due to the substantial support that it provides to the project management teams. The scrum process delivers quick functionality in the form of sprints. Most of the quality assurance and quality control activities are skipped in scrum because of its short lifecycle and due to the absence of a dedicated quality assurance team. The development team pays more attention to delivery of products according to the customer satisfaction, and the parameters used for this type of assessment are the story success criteria and user acceptance testing. Only acceptance testing and integration testing are not sufficient to achieve a quality product. There is still a clamouring need felt to incorporate other quality control activities in scrum to achieve a quality product. In this work, we have made an attempt to implement the quality control activities in the scrum philosophy by introducing the concept of test backlog. The enhanced scrum model provides quality assessment methodology on the basis of frequency of remaining functional bugs. The concept of test backlog proposed in this study aims at implementing state of the art testing process in scrum. A case study was carried out to validate the model, which produced satisfactory results. Besides, we conducted a survey to access the state of the quality control in scrum. The proposed model and case study results are reported herein.

The main drawback of conventional braced frames is implicitly accepting structural damage under the design earthquake load, which leads to considerable economic losses. Controlled rocking self-centering system as a modern low-damage system is capable of minimizing the drawbacks of conventional braced frames. This paper quantifies main limit states and investigates the seismic performance of self-centering braced frame using a Probabilistic Safety Assessment procedure. Margin of safety, confidence level, and mean annual frequency of the self-centering archetypes for their main limit states, including PT yield, fuse fracture, and global collapse, are established and are compared with their acceptance criteria. Considering incorporating aleatory and epistemic uncertainties, the efficiency of the system is examined. Results of the investigation indicate that the design of low- and mid-rise self-centering archetypes could provide the adequate margin of safety against exceeding the undesirable limit-states.

The article presents the results of works aiming at comparing a methodology of research on the effect of a pressure impulse coming from detonation of trinitrotoluene – TNT. Within the work, there was studied an influence of the explosive material detonation environment on the pressure impulse. The analysis was carried out with Finite Element Method (FEM). There were selected two cases of mine detonation in the sparse ground (sand) and explosive charge detonation in the tested model of a mine. The model was described in the currently applied standardization regulations utilized for military and exploitation acceptance of special equipment.

Ten storied-3 bays reinforced concrete bare frame designed for gravity loads following the guidelines of IS 456 and IS 13920 for ductility is subjected to seismic loads. The seismic demands on this building were calculated by following IS 1893 for response spectra of 5% damping (for hard soil type). Plastic hinges were assigned to the beam and column at both ends to represent the failure mode, when member yields. Non-linear static (pushover) analysis was performed to evaluate the performance of the building in reference to first (ATC 40), second (FEMA 356) and next-generation (FEMA 440) performance based seismic design procedures. Base shear against top displacement curve of structure, known as pushover curve was obtained for two actions of plastic hinge behavior, force-controlled (brittle) and deformation-controlled (ductile) actions. Lateral deformation corresponding to performance point proves the building capability to sustain a certain level of seismic loads. The failure is represented by a sequence of formation of plastic hinges. Deformation-controlled action of hinges showed that building behaves like strong-column-weak-beam mechanism, whereas force-controlled action showed formation of hinges in the column. The study aims to understand the first, second and next generation performance based design procedure in prediction of actual building responses and their conservatism into the acceptance criteria.

This paper represents the second part of a series of four publications on response history analysis for new buildings. It specifically focuses on modeling assumptions, consideration of important effects in the analysis, and interpretation of analysis results via global and local acceptance criteria. A statistical basis for development of both force- and deformation-controlled acceptance criteria consistent with the collapse probability goals of ASCE/SEI 7 is illustrated. More explicit sub-classifications of force- and deformation-controlled actions are proposed within the statistical framework. Additional philosophical discussion and simple probabilistic arguments are presented on the topic of consideration of unacceptable response, and guidance on addressing unacceptable response is given. Similarities and differences between the new requirements and those in other performance-based design guidelines are also enumerated.

Purpose This paper aims to present a conceptual framework of how software teams can leverage the implicit information of implemented acceptance tests to cater to the needs of decision makers. The research questions on this framework were how business stakeholders can receive project status information in an intuitive way and how this framework can guarantee the traceability of tests to requirements. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework delineates the design of an acceptance test framework in three aspects: how the requirements model reflects the evolving states of requirement maturity over a project, how the acceptance test model becomes synchronized with the requirements model without a traceability matrix and how the acceptance test model communicates business value to the decision makers. Findings In an industrial case study, the presented framework yielded the positive effects of intuitive understanding by business stakeholders, high test coverage of requirements and distinctly reduced manual quality assurance (QA) work by automated testing for browsers and mobile devices. Practical implications The presented framework can help to convince business stakeholders to approve the budget for building a testing framework because it delivers them value as a status reporting tool. Originality/value This paper is the first to describe a step-by-step approach to solving a critical problem that IT departments frequently face. The solution consists in a new way of transforming the perception of a technical framework into a reporting tool for business information by intuitive design. The idea of mapping hierarchically corresponding abstraction layers can be transferred to other engineering domains.

Umbilical cables are important components in underwater oil extraction, providing electro-hydraulic connection between platform and manifold in oil well, through elements such as electrical cables and thermoplastic hoses. The connections of thermoplastic hoses are made with fittings installed by a cold forming process, called swaging, to ensure a perfect seal. These fittings are made of SAE AISI 316L stainless steel, but in order to reduce manufacturing costs, SAE AISI 1045 carbon steel fittings are used in hose factory acceptance tests. However, longitudinal cracks were produced during swaging of carbon steel of a specific supplier. In this work, samples from two different suppliers were characterized before and after installation to understand the failure cause. The characterization was made by visual inspection, dimensional control, hardness tests, chemical composition, microstructural and fracture surface analyses. In addition, swaging process simulations by finite element method (FEM) using a commercial software were performed. The results indicated large variations in material elements percentage from the supplier with failed connections history. This fact resulted in elevated amounts of non-metallic inclusions which promoted the cracks. Finally, corrective actions were recommended to mitigate the failure occurrence.

Structural strength calculation by finite element analysis (FEA) is increasingly important in design and approval process. In recently developed DNV GL guidelines, procedures for different types of FEA including global strength analysis, cargo hold analysis and fine mesh analysis are provided. These modern guidelines define appropriate loading, boundary conditions and mesh size for FEA to be used with acceptance criteria in the rules. Traditionally, cargo hold and global strength analysis in ship design were dealt with separate finite element (FE) models and analysis approaches. But using same mesh and load cases, the cargo hold FE model has to deliver identical results as the global FE model. The key success factors for suitability of results, particularly for open deck ships under torsion loads, are related to the correct application of boundary conditions on cargo hold FE model. Results from testing this approach for a bulk carrier and a container ship are reported.

The EN50128 Railway Safety Standard recommends the use of formal methods for proving the correctness of the yard-specific logic, which was developed for electronic signaling and interlocking systems. We present a tool flow, which consists of three components. The core component uses a novel method for automatically generating the relevant safety properties for a yard from its control table. The second component proves the validity of the properties on the application logic by using a new theory of invariant checking. The third component leverages the suite of formal properties to prioritize site acceptance test points. Experimental results are presented on real application data for the yards in India that are demonstrating the performance of the proposed methods.

Partial discharge (PD) measurements are in use since more than 50 years with the aim to assess the condition of the insulation systems of high voltage (HV) apparatus and components. In large power transformers and power generators, PD-sources can be situated well hidden inside complex insulation systems. For PD-sources inside the active parts of such systems, measured values of the apparent charge in pC/nC do not sufficiently reflect the real risk of these defects. This is mainly due to the strong attenuation and deterioration of the PD-signals in such insulation systems. Therefore, continuous PD-activity detected at or below nominal voltage during a factory acceptance test, or recorded on-site by a monitoring system, may be harmful for a HV apparatus in service. In case of confirmed internal PD-activity, further investigation and localization should follow. Beside the analysis of simultaneously recorded PD-patterns at all terminals, the evaluation of PD-signals in the time-domain and frequency-domain offers a considerable potential to localize internal PD-sources in extended insulation systems. PD-signals detected at the terminals of a transformer or generator contain information about their propagation paths from the unknown location of the PD-source to the specific sensor. This contribution describes both, the advanced PD-measuring techniques and procedures for identification and localization of PD-sources. The advantages and limits of PD-signal analysis in the time- and frequency-domain are discussed using practical examples.

Spheroid Ductile Cast Iron finds increasingly industrial use as a high strength material of high fatigue resistance. The material properties can be designed by density, shape and size of the graphite spheres—the nodularity—and the matrix microstructure. Until today, the near surface nodularity cannot be controlled nondestructively to take full advantage of the material quality especially at high loaded surface areas. A viable nondestructive approach we propose is based on ultrasonic backscattering preferably in the Rayleigh regime. First experiments with model samples proved significant contrast to distinguish materials with different graphite morphology and matrices. The claim of our tests is a fast and easy industrial control of nodularity in reference to a validated sample. The results encourage us for the development of a prototype equipment with optimized probe systems and inspection parameters. Quantified acceptance criteria still require systematic tests for optimized parameter settings and probe configurations on more representative samples provided by industry.

Orthogonal arrays are a powerful tool in quality and statistics. This paper shows new applications for improving testing effectiveness and efficiency in a multi-parameter environment, which is commonly encountered in today's software and systems. Unique aspects of this paper are applications in diverse areas - telecommunications, defense, automotive, information technology, and financial systems. Software and system testing cost the commercial and defense industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually. In addition, conducting each set of tests takes multiple man-months, delaying time to market of key technologies. In this current economic environment, organizations are looking for ways to reduce the cost of testing and time to market while ensuring that defects are not passed on to the customer. At the same time, the organizations are very reluctant to change their standard testing processes due to the heavy cost of field failures, regulatory concerns, and risk-averse culture. This paper describes a comparative study undertaken to assess the benefits of using Orthogonal Arrays (OA) for generating test plans in IT systems in the Financial Services industry. The formal process used for the comparative study consisted of enlisting the support of senior management and conducting multiple side-by-side pilots to compare the cost and risk of OA based testing versus the Business as Usual (BAU) testing practices. Our customers ran 20 side-by-side studies to evaluate the effectiveness of OA based testing and realized an average reduction in total test effort by 41%. In addition, all defects detected by the BAU process were detected by the OA based testing process. Further, in 40% of the cases, the OA based testing process found more defects and in the remaining 60% of the cases, BAU and Orthogonal Arrays found the same defects. The cost and schedule savings translated to tens of millions of dollars in labor and schedule.

For the sixth edition, this chapter has been updated with revised Code requirements and Code Cases from the 2017 Code and 2019 Code Editions. The important areas of revised requirements and procedures include flaw proximity rules in IWA-3300, change in the yield strength limits from 50 ksi to 90 ksi for selected grades of SA-508 and SA-533, addition of stress intensity factor equations for circumferential OD surface flaws in Appendix A, A-3000, revised procedures for pipe flaw evaluation in Appendix C, C-4000 and C-5300, and an updated glossary terminology/definitions. Several new and revised Code Cases are also discussed to include N-513-5 (temporary acceptance of flaws in moderate energy piping systems), N-705-1 (temporary acceptance of flaws in moderate energy vessels and tanks), N-806-1 (evaluation of wall loss in buried pipe), N-848-1 (proximity rules for quasi-laminar flaws), N-869 (extension of N-513 to higher pressures for Class 2 and 3 piping systems), N-877 (characterization of multiple subsurface radially oriented planar flaws), N-889 (new reference curves for irradiated-assisted stress corrosion cracking growth for austenitic stainless steels), N-899 (weld residual stress reference curves for dissimilar metal welds), and N-890 (materials exempted from Appendix G, G-2110(b) requirements). It is important to note that additional proposal changes are being developed by the committees, some of which are discussed in 30.11. History Arthur F. Deardorff was the original author of this chapter that was updated by Mr. Deardorff in the second edition. For the third through fifth editions, Russell C. Cipolla revised the entire chapter although retaining certain portions of the previous text, equations, tables, and figures. For the current online edition, Mr. Cipolla has updated using 2017 and 2019 Editions, and additional information as appropriate.

This paper describes briefly the Chemical Propulsion System (PS) which has been used in the Korean bi-propellant Geostationary Satellite. The new commonly developed platform (GK2) went after design through acceptance test and final check out at launch site in Kourou. All this steps has been performed in a very close partnership between Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and ArianeGroup. In addition the common working approach between the Korean Aerospace Research Institute and the private company ArianeGroup GmbH will be illustrated which has been let to a successful partnership in development of a new propulsion platform - successfully flown first time December 2018. Besides this technical topic this partnership developed the dimension of a certain kind of Koreanisation in the field of bi-propellant space propulsion.

When a canister used for final disposal of spent nuclear fuel is in the deposition hole of deep geological repository, the loading case which would most impact the structure integrity of the canister is to postulate an earthquake induced rock shear through a deposition hole. This paper evaluates the acceptable sizes of defects in the cast iron insert of canister using fracture mechanics analysis. The submodelling technique of finite element analysis was employed to calculate the fracture behavior of the canister with postulated defects subjected to shear loads due to earthquake. At first, the stresses of the global model and the uncracked submodel were compared to check the correctness of the transferred displacements from the global model to the submodel. Then, surface and internal flaws with various shapes and depths were modeled individually in the submodel. A 5 cm shear displacement was applied on buffer and then transmitted to the canister. The calculations of J-integral of each flaw indicate that the surface semi-elliptical defect is more critical and the density of buffer material significantly affects the acceptable size of postulated defects. Present results can provide acceptance criteria of crack detection for canisters during manufacture and examination processes.