Design optimisation of air-fed full pressurised suits

This article is a post-print version of the published article which may be accessed at the link below.The JET machine and associated facilities require significant maintenance and enhancement installation activities in support of the experimental exploitation programme. A proportion of these activities are within radiological and respiratory hazardous environments. As such, breathing air-fed one-piece pressurised suits provide workers with protection from the inhalation of both airborne tritium and beryllium dust. The design of these suits has essentially developed empirically. There is a practical necessity to improve the design to optimise worker performance, protection and thermal comfort. This paper details the complexity of modeling the three-dimensional thermofluid domain between the inner surface of the suit and under garments that includes mass as well as heat transfer, suiting geometry, human metabolism and respiration and effects of limb movements. The methods used include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), theoretical adaptations of mixed-phase turbulent flow, profile scanning of a suit and actuating life size mannequin and data processing of the images and experimental validation trials. The achievements of the current programme and collaborations are presented in the paper and future endeavors are discussed.The author gratefully acknowledges the loan of the articulated mannequin from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratories. This work was funded jointly by EPSRC and by the European Communities under the contract of Association between EURATOM and UKAEA. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. This work was carried out within the framework of EFDA

Modelling of two-component turbulent mass and heat transfer in air-fed pressurised suits

This article has been accepted for publication in the Flow, Turbulence and Combustion journal.In this paper the modelling of an important industrial problem is addressed, which involves the two-component turbulent flow with heat transfer that takes place inside protective clothing. The geometry of the flow boundaries is reconstructed in a CAD system from photogrammetry scan data. The overall model is sufficiently realistic to allow, after validation, design improvements to be tested. Those presented here allow the reduction of hot spots over the worker’s body surface and increase thermal comfort.This project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the UK Atomic Energy Authority

Heat and mass transfer in air-fed pressurised suits

Air-fed pressurised suits are used to protect workers against contamination and hazardous environments. The specic application here is the necessity for regular clean-up maintenance within the torus chamber of fusion reactors. The current design of suiting has been developed empirically. It is, therefore, very desirable to formulate a thermofluids model, which will be able to define optimum designs and operating parameters. Two factors indicate that the modelling should be as comprehensive as possible. Firstly, the overall thermofluids problem is three-dimensional and includes mass as well as heat transfer. The fluid field is complex, bounded on one side by the human body and on the other by what may be distensible, porous and multi-layer clothing. In this paper, we report firstly the modelling necessary for the additional mass and heat transport processes. This involves the use of Fick's and Fourier's laws and conjugate heat transfer. The results of an initial validation study are presented. Temperatures at the outlet of the suits were obtained experimentally and compared with those predicted by the overall CFD model. Realistic three-dimensional geometries were used for the suit and human body. Calculations were for turbulent flow with single- and two-component (species) models

A thermo-fluid model for protective suiting used in fusion reactor shutdown operations

In this paper we report a method of modelling the overall thermo-fluid processes which occur in protective suiting as used in the Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor at Culham, UK. It had three main objectives: to be as basic and comprehensive as possible, to have an ability to model real situations and suiting, and hence to provide a tool for improvements in design. Basic thermo-fluids equations for multi-component and multi-phase flow have been developed within commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to address the heat and mass (moisture) transfer processes. This is combined with a human metabolic heat load model to simulate working operations. Finally, a particular feature is the definition of the 3-D human body/suit microclimate, via the use of an unsuited and suited mannequin. This involved a geometrical reconstruction method developed from the point cloud data given by photogrammetry. Examples of predicted temperature distributions are compared with experimental data to show the potential of the model we have used

Skeletal muscle responses to unloading in humans

This study examined the effects of unloading on skeletal muscle structure. Method: Eight subjects walked on crutches for six weeks with a 110 cm elevated sole on the right shoe. This removed weight bearing by the left lower limb. Magnetic resonance imaging of both lower limbs and biopsies of the left m. vastus laterallis (VL) were used to study muscle structure. Results: Unloading decreased (P less than 0.05) muscle cross-sectional areas (CSA) of the knee extensors 16 percent. The knee flexors showed about 1/2 of this response (-7 percent, P less than 0.05). The three vasti muscles each showed decreases (P less than 0.05) of about 15 percent. M. rectus femoris did not change. Mean fiber CSA in VL decreased (P less than 0.05) 14 percent with type 2 and type 1 fibers showing reductions of 15 and 11 percent respectively. The ankle extensors showed a 20 percent decrease (P less than 0.05) in CSA. The reduction for the 'fast' m. gastrocnemius was 27 percent compared to the 18 percent decrease for the 'slow' soleus. Summary: The results suggest that decreases in muscle CSA are determined by the relative change in impact loading history because atrophy was (1) greater in extensor than flexor muscles, (2) at least as great in fast as compared to slow muscles or fibers, and (3) not dependent on single or multi-joint function. They also suggest that the atrophic responses to unloading reported for lower mammals are quantitatively but not qualitatively similar to those of humans

Assessing wellbeing at school entry using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire: professional perspectives

<p>Background: Emotional and behavioural disorders in early childhood are related to poorer academic attainment and school engagement, and difficulties already evident at the point of starting school can affect a child’s later social and academic development. Successful transfer from pre-school settings to primary education is helped by communication between pre-school staff and primary school teachers. Typically, in Scotland, pre-school establishments prepare individual profiles of children before they start school around the age of five years, highlighting their strengths and development needs, for transfer to primary schools. There is, however, no consistent approach to the identification of potential social, emotional and behavioural problems. In 2010, in one local authority area in Scotland, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was introduced for children about to start school as a routine, structured, component of the transition process to help teachers plan support arrangements for classes and individual children. The SDQ assesses emotional, conduct, hyperactivity/ inattention and peer-relationship problems as well as pro-social behaviour. In order to be an effective means of communicating social and emotional functioning, the use of instruments such as the SDQ needs to be practicable. Finding out the views of pre-school education staff with experience of assessing children using the SDQ was, therefore, essential to establish its future utility.</p> <p>Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the views of pre-school education staff about assessing social and emotional wellbeing of children at school entry using the SDQ. The objectives were to examine the opinions of pre-school workers about completing the SDQ and to elicit their thoughts on the value of doing this and their perceptions of the usefulness of the information collected.</p> <p>Method: Pre-school establishments were approached using a purposive sampling strategy in order to achieve a mix of local authority (n=14) and ‘partnership’ establishments (n=8) as well as different socio-economic areas. Semi-structured interviews (n=25) were conducted with pre-school head teachers (n=14) and child development officers (n=11) in order to explore the process of completing the SDQ along with perceptions of its value. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.</p> <p>Results: In general, staff in pre-school establishments viewed the use of the SDQ positively. It was seen as a chance to highlight the social and emotional development of children rather than just their academic or educational ability. Most felt that the SDQ had not identified anything they did not already know about a child. A minority, nevertheless, suggested that a previously unrecognised potential difficulty was brought to light, most commonly emotional problems. Completing the SDQ was felt to be relatively straightforward even though the staff felt under pressure from competing priorities. Concerns were, however, raised about the potential of labelling a child at an early stage of formal education.</p> <p>Conclusion: The findings from this small scale study suggest that, from the point of view of pre-school education staff, it is feasible to assess children systematically for social and behavioural problems as part of the routine transition process at school entry.</p&gt

A novel framework for closed-loop robotic motion simulation - Part II: motion cueing design and experimental validation

This paper, divided in two Parts, considers the problem of realizing a 6-DOF closed-loop motion simulator by exploiting an anthropomorphic serial manipulator as motion platform. After having proposed a suitable inverse kinematics scheme in Part I [1], we address here the other key issue, i.e., devising a motion cueing algorithm tailored to the specific robot motion envelope. An extension of the well-known classical washout filter designed in cylindrical coordinates will provide an effective solution to this problem. The paper will then present a thorough experimental evaluation of the overall architecture (inverse kinematics + motion cueing) on the chosen scenario: closed-loop simulation of a Formula 1 racing car. This will prove the feasibility of our approach in fully exploiting the robot motion capabilities as a motion simulator

German Survey on Volunteering - Deutscher Freiwilligensurvey (FWS) 2014: survey instrument - English version

The instrument for the telephone survey of the German Survey on Volunteering 2014 was developed by the German Centre of Gerontology. This documentation contains the English version of the questions, the answer categories, the programming instructions and the filter paths (see Table I for the columns structure of the instrument). Questions are documented according to the labels of the variables in the Scientific Use Files (DOI: 10.5156/FWS.2014.M.001). The survey was conducted in six languages: German, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Arabic and English. This document reproduces the English instrument. Question and answers were translated for use in the telephone survey by infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences. Filters, interviewer instructions and all other information were translated at the DZA for documentation purposes. Interviews were conducted by bilingual interviewer

The yellow European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) may adopt a sedentary lifestyle in inland freshwaters

We analysed the movements of the growing yellow phase using a long-term mark–recapture programme on European eels in a small catchment (the Frémur, France). The results showed that of the yellow eels (>200 mm) recaptured, more than 90% were recaptured at the original marking site over a long period before the silvering metamorphosis and downstream migration. We conclude that yellow European eels >200 mm may adopt a sedentary lifestyle in freshwater area, especially in small catchment