Methyl Methacrylate from Methyl Acetylene via Carboxymethylation

Previous process designs and current world demand for methyl methacrylate (MMA) have necessitated the investigation of the feasibility of designing a new MMA production process. The most commonly used industrial process for MMA production is the acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) process, which has the disadvantage of using large quantities of hydrogen cyanice (HCN). HCN is both an environmental and a health hazard if not handled properly. The Shell Oil Company has developed a process where the use of HCN can be avoided. In this process, methyl acetylene (MA) is converted to MMA by reaction with high-pressure carbon monoxide gas and methanol over a palladium catalyst. We have therefore considered the construction of a plant capable of producing 100 MM lbs./yr. of MMA at a United States Gulf Coast location via the carboxymethylation of methyl acetylene. The worldwide demand for the use of MMA in plastics, resins, extrusions compounds, chemical intermediates, etc. is well documented. To satisfy this demand, we have successfully designed a plant to produce 111 MM lbs./yr. of 99.9% pure MMA at full capacity. The subsequent economic analysis of this design showed a return on investment after the third year of production of 56.3% and an investor\u27s rate of return of 39.5%. Based on these returns, and on the environmental and safety advantages of this production method over others currently in use, we highly recommend the construction of this plant beginning in April 2000

Early aspects: aspect-oriented requirements engineering and architecture design

This paper reports on the third Early Aspects: Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering and Architecture Design Workshop, which has been held in Lancaster, UK, on March 21, 2004. The workshop included a presentation session and working sessions in which the particular topics on early aspects were discussed. The primary goal of the workshop was to focus on challenges to defining methodical software development processes for aspects from early on in the software life cycle and explore the potential of proposed methods and techniques to scale up to industrial applications

Coatings for Corrosion Protection: Offshore Oil and Gas Operation Facilities, Marine Pipeline and Ship Structures

This workshop on Coatings for Corrosion Protection: Offshore Oil and Gas Operation Facilities, Marine Pipelines, Ship Structures, and Port Facilities was held on April 14-16, 2004 in Biloxi, Mississippi. This workshop of 150 attendees drew participation by internationally recognized marine coating experts, material specialists, inspection specialists, coating manufacturers, maintenance engineers, and designers. The workshop was crafted to include multiple viewpoints: industrial, academic, environmental, regulatory, standardization, and certification. Keynote and topic papers were presented to establish a current information base for discussions. Six discussion groups addressed specific issues and identified, prioritized, and recommended specific research and development topics for the government and industries to undertake. The recommendations of this workshop offer a clear identification of research and development issues and create a roadmap for achieving them

Eighteenth Space Simulation Conference: Space Mission Success Through Testing

The Institute of Environmental Sciences' Eighteenth Space Simulation Conference, 'Space Mission Success Through Testing' provided participants with a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state-of-the-art in space simulation, test technology, atomic oxygen, program/system testing, dynamics testing, contamination, and materials. The papers presented at this conference and the resulting discussions carried out the conference theme 'Space Mission Success Through Testing.

Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)

http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"

Structural Framework for Flight: NASA's Role in Development of Advanced Composite Materials for Aircraft and Space Structures

This serves as a source of collated information on Composite Research over the past four decades at NASA Langley Research Center, and is a key reference for readers wishing to grasp the underlying principles and challenges associated with developing and applying advanced composite materials to new aerospace vehicle concepts. Second, it identifies the major obstacles encountered in developing and applying composites on advanced flight vehicles, as well as lessons learned in overcoming these obstacles. Third, it points out current barriers and challenges to further application of composites on future vehicles. This is extremely valuable for steering research in the future, when new breakthroughs in materials or processing science may eliminate/minimize some of the barriers that have traditionally blocked the expanded application of composite to new structural or revolutionary vehicle concepts. Finally, a review of past work and identification of future challenges will hopefully inspire new research opportunities and development of revolutionary materials and structural concepts to revolutionize future flight vehicles

NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

This document is a collection of technical reports on research conducted by the participants in the 1992 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This was the eighth year that a NASA/ASEE program has been conducted at KSC. The 1992 program was administered by the University of Central Florida in cooperation with KSC. The program was operated under the auspices of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) with sponsorship and funding from the Office of Educational Affairs, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The KSC program was one of nine such Aeronautics and Space Research Programs funded by NASA Headquarters in 1992. The basic common objectives are to further the professional knowledge, to stimulate an exchange of ideas, to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities, and to contribute to the research objectives of the NASA centers

Proceedings of the First NASA Formal Methods Symposium

Topics covered include: Model Checking - My 27-Year Quest to Overcome the State Explosion Problem; Applying Formal Methods to NASA Projects: Transition from Research to Practice; TLA+: Whence, Wherefore, and Whither; Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation; Theorem Proving in Intel Hardware Design; Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering; Model Checking for Autonomic Systems Specified with ASSL; A Game-Theoretic Approach to Branching Time Abstract-Check-Refine Process; Software Model Checking Without Source Code; Generalized Abstract Symbolic Summaries; A Comparative Study of Randomized Constraint Solvers for Random-Symbolic Testing; Component-Oriented Behavior Extraction for Autonomic System Design; Automated Verification of Design Patterns with LePUS3; A Module Language for Typing by Contracts; From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications; Introduction of Virtualization Technology to Multi-Process Model Checking; Comparing Techniques for Certified Static Analysis; Towards a Framework for Generating Tests to Satisfy Complex Code Coverage in Java Pathfinder; jFuzz: A Concolic Whitebox Fuzzer for Java; Machine-Checkable Timed CSP; Stochastic Formal Correctness of Numerical Algorithms; Deductive Verification of Cryptographic Software; Coloured Petri Net Refinement Specification and Correctness Proof with Coq; Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context; Tactical Synthesis Of Efficient Global Search Algorithms; Towards Co-Engineering Communicating Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems; and Formal Methods for Automated Diagnosis of Autosub 6000

A Total Systems analysis Method for the Conceptual design of Spacecraft: An application to Remote Sensing Imager Systems

Increased emphasis is being placed on improving the performance of space projects, within tighter budgets and shorter development times. This has led to a need for more efficient space system design methods. The research described here represents an effort to develop and evaluate such a method. Systems engineering and concurrent engineering together provide the theoretical foundation for the method. The method, derived from both this theoretical foundation and ideas from experts in the space industry, emphasizes a total systems analysis approach, taking into account given mission requirements, and the mathematical modeling of interactions between system variables and between subsystems. The emphasis makes it possible to apply the method for effectively sizing and configuring the full space project, its subsystems, and its variables. Size and configuration issues are especially important in the early conceptual design stages. The focus of this research and the developed method was, therefore, put on facilitating the design decisions taking place during those design stages. Mass, as a proxy for cost, was selected as the evaluation and optimization criterion. To make the method practical, LabVIEW was selected for developing the total systems analysis model. LabVIEW is a graphical programming language that is easy to learn, program, modify, and run; and, it has a good user interface. These characteristics make it well suited for rapid model development and for performing the large number of analysis runs required in the early conceptual design stages. The method was demonstrated for a V/IR (Visual/Infrared) space based Earth observation system. The mathematical model describing the interactions in this system was developed in close cooperation with subsystem specialists, primarily at NASA Langley Research Center, making it as realistic as possible. The model includes some 300 variables and 130 equations, and uses 1.7 MB of code. The demonstration, focusing on size and configuration issues, showed how the method and model could be used for better understanding of model dynamics, for evaluating alternative technologies, for detecting technology limits, for performing inter-subsystem analyses, and for suggesting new technology developments. It is hoped that this research will encourage engineers and project managers in the space sector to apply the developed design method to other types of space projects