Prospects and Problems of Increasing the Automotive Thermoelectric Generators Efficiency

The chapter considers the current state and trends in the field of heat recovery units for vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE), including thermoelectric generators for cars, motorcycles, ships and railway transport. Based on the analysis of literature data, mathematical modeling and experimental studies, this chapter presents various designs of such generators. This research considers a heat exchange between exhaust gas (EG) and thermoelectric modules (TEM), as well as how their usage affects ICE operation. Furthermore, the chapter profoundly explores the challenges of installing thermoelectric generator (TEG) on vehicle system. In addition, the ways of increasing overall system efficiency, by optimizing the flow channel and reducing electrical power losses, are presented

Small business innovation research. Abstracts of completed 1987 phase 1 projects

Non-proprietary summaries of Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects supported by NASA in the 1987 program year are given. Work in the areas of aeronautical propulsion, aerodynamics, acoustics, aircraft systems, materials and structures, teleoperators and robotics, computer sciences, information systems, spacecraft systems, spacecraft power supplies, spacecraft propulsion, bioastronautics, satellite communication, and space processing are covered

A cumulative index to the 1976 issues of a continuing bibliography on Aerospace Medicine and Biology

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 151 through 162 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography. It includes three indexes - subject, personal author, and corporate source

A cumulative index to the 1977 issues of a continuing bibliography on aerospace medicine and biology

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in the Supplements 164 through 175 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. It includes three indexes-- subject, personal author, and corporate source

“I’LL FLY AWAY”: THE MUSIC AND CAREER OF ALBERT E. BRUMLEY

Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) was the most influential American gospel song composer of the twentieth century, penning such “classics” within the genre as “Jesus, Hold My Hand,” “I’ll Meet You in the Morning,” “If We Never Meet Again,” “Turn Your Radio On,” and “Rank Strangers to Me.” His “I’ll Fly Away” has become the most recorded gospel song in American history with over one thousand recordings to date, and several of his works transcend cultural boundaries of style, genre, race, denomination, and doctrine. However, the racialized historiography of American gospel music has left Brumley—from America’s lesser-known white gospel traditions of convention singing and southern gospel music—largely untouched by scholarly scrutiny. Comprising nearly four hundred works, most of which appeared in annual shapenote gospel songbooks published during the 1930s and 1940s, Brumley’s music is central to many Americans’ religious identity. This thesis represents the first thorough, academic assessment of his music, career, and his work’s cultural impact. Deeper examinations of the composer’s personal life and his work as a songwriter, as well as a fresh look at his publishing business’s growth and development, contribute a more complete biography. A broad analysis of his output—including a complete thematic catalogue of his published works—provides a framework for interpreting Brumley’s general compositional style and offers a context for understanding his music’s enduring legacy within popular music history, especially southern gospel, black gospel, and country music. Research into the cultural history of one particular Brumley work—“I’ll Fly Away”—and its various incarnations in music, television, film, and other outlets acts as a lens through which to view his impact on American music and society. This thesis ultimately argues that Brumley’s compositions have influenced the development of religious and popular music in America much more significantly than indicated by current scholarship, and that his music has become an important medium for American cultural expression that stretches well beyond the confines of the convention-singing and southern gospel traditions. As a result, it recognizes him as an emblematic figure of American music deserving inclusion within the ranks of its greatest contributors

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 138 through 149 of AEROSPACE MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY: A CONTINUING BIBLIOGRAPHY. It includes three indexes -- subject, personal author, and corporate source

Extracting product development intelligence from web reviews

Product development managers are constantly challenged to learn what the consumer product experience really is, and to learn specifically how the product is performing in the field. Traditionally, they have utilized methods such as prototype testing, customer quality monitoring instruments, field testing methods with sample customers, and independent assessment companies. These methods are limited in that (i) the number of customer evaluations is small, and (ii) the methods are driven by a restrictive structured format. Today the web has created a new source of product intelligence; these are unsolicited reviews from actual product users that are posted across hundreds of websites. The basic hypothesis of this research is that web reviews contain significant amount of information that is of value to the product design community. This research developed the DFOC (Design - Feature - Opinion - Cause Relationship) method for integrating the evaluation of unstructured web reviews into the structured product design process. The key data element in this research is a Web review and its associated opinion polarity (positive, negative, or neutral). Hundreds of Web reviews are collected to form a review database representing a population of customers. The DFOC method (a) identifies a set of design features that are of interest to the product design community, (b) mines the Web review database to identify which features are of significance to customer evaluations, (c) extracts and estimates the sentiment or opinion of the set of significant features, and (d) identifies the likely cause of the customer opinion. To support the DFOC method we develop an association rule based opinion mining procedure for capturing and extracting noun-verb-adjective relationships in the Web review database. This procedure exploits existing opinion mining methods to deconstruct the Web reviews and capture feature-opinion pair polarity. A Design Level Information Quality (DLIQ) measure which evaluates three components (a) Content (b) Complexity and (c) Relevancy is introduced. DLIQ is indicative of the content, complexity and relevancy of the design contextual information that can be extracted from an analysis of Web reviews for a given product. Application of this measure confirms the hypothesis that significant levels of quality design information can be efficiently extracted from Web reviews for a wide variety of product types. Application of the DFOC method and the DLIQ measure to a wide variety of product classes (electronic, automobile, service domain) is demonstrated. Specifically Web review databases for ten products/services are created from real data. Validation occurs by analyzing and presenting the extracted product design information. Examples of extracted features and feature-cause associations for negative polarity opinions are shown along with the observed significance

A comprehensive approach to complex system product development : operations management tools applied to automotive design

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-135).The research is based on observations made over a two-year period with the Closures Systems Integrators or CSIs (supervisory engineers who coordinate attribute balance and system decisions for conflicting door attributes) at a North American automobile manufacturer, focusing on organizational and technical improvements in product development. The product development (PD) process for vehicle side doors forms the case study. A Design Structure Matrix model was made of the process by which important closures attributes are managed through PD, Stamping, Manufacturing and Plant Teams. The attribute delivery process is very tightly coupled with many interactions and conflicts between the attributes, and careful system integration and interface management are essential. The study highlights the need for standardized designs and processes to create time for these system-level tasks, along with better knowledge and resource management. Critical inputs for system attributes are identified and it is shown that a lot of rework occurs if these inputs are changed. The Datum Flow Chain method is developed as a way to communicate data, help with assembly decisions and manage interfaces between component owners.(cont.) An investigation of issues experienced at product launch shows that programs with CSIs have fewer design- related problems during launch, but that CSIs still spend too much time on Design and Release-type tasks for components (instead of a system focus) and fire-fighting. An extensive organizational study reveals the need for more leverage and clearer roles and responsibilities of CSIs. Conclusions on the process are supported by a simulation model and interviews with CSIs and many other engineers. Simulation results also show that adherence to official product development schedules timing is inherently difficult due to the structure of the as-is PD process. A brief comparison to Toyota's closures design process is also part of the thesis but was not part of the project itself. Recommendations for improvement include a set of design tasks that should be standardized, types of analytical tools that should be developed and managerial practices to be followed.by M. Jehanzeb Noor.S.M