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Article
Publication date: 29 April 2020

Mohammad Mehdi Pouria, Abbas Akbarpour, Hassan Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza Tavassoli and Amir Saedi Daryan

Offshore structures are among the structures exposed to fire more often. Most of these structures are likely to be associated with flammable materials. In this research, some of…

73

Abstract

Purpose

Offshore structures are among the structures exposed to fire more often. Most of these structures are likely to be associated with flammable materials. In this research, some of the structures constructed on top of marine decks have been studied.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, the upper-bound theory of plastic analysis has been used to investigate its collapse behavior. In this way, genetic algorithm has been used for application of the combination of elementary mechanisms in the classic plastic analysis problem.

Findings

The studied structures are optimized by plastic analysis theory before and after the fire and their failure modes are compared with each other. The comparison of the results indicates significant changes in the load factor value, as well as the critical collapse mode of the structure before and after the fire.

Originality/value

Results indicate that the combination of plastic analysis and a genetic algorithm can predict the collapse mode of the structure before and after the fire accurately.

Details

Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-2317

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2018

Hassan M. Al-Ahmadi, Wael S. Alhalabi, Rezqallah Hasan Malkawi and Imran Reza

The purpose of this study is to analyze the crowd dynamics of the visitors at Al-Masjid al-Nabawi during the most oversaturated period to characterize the most critical conditions…

8974

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the crowd dynamics of the visitors at Al-Masjid al-Nabawi during the most oversaturated period to characterize the most critical conditions and suggest technical solutions to accommodate visitors and provide them safe passage.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the time of entrance from the Al-Salam Gate to the tomb and from the tomb to the exit from the Al-Baqi’ Gate has been collected in the most oversaturated period. To be precise and to model the worst case, important crowd measures of effectiveness data are collected in the two holiest times considered by Muslims, during the holy month of Ramadan and the month of Dhul-Hijjah and during the busiest hours of the day to consider safety factors while proposing future solutions. The conventional manual head-counting method has been adopted to determine the crowd density and to carry out actual counting of the visitors from the recorded videos and photos captured by the legitimate authority.

Findings

The analyses revealed that the crowd dynamics in the month of Ramadan (peak) are statistically different from those for other times (off peak). In general, the crowd dynamics at all times on days other than Ramadan are almost identical.

Originality/value

The results of crowd characterization from this study are expected to help optimize crowd management in the Masjid at the most critical location and time. The data collected in this study could be used for future research to simulate similar crowd scenes or for even different crowd management scenarios in case of emergencies such as fire hazards or evacuation process.

Details

International Journal of Crowd Science, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-7294

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2023

Lara Agostini, Anna Nosella, Riikka Sarala and Corinne Nkeng

Strategic flexibility (SF) has become increasingly important for firms because of the fast changes in the external environment. In line with the practical importance of SF, an…

2885

Abstract

Purpose

Strategic flexibility (SF) has become increasingly important for firms because of the fast changes in the external environment. In line with the practical importance of SF, an emerging research field has developed around it that has attempted to understand the nature of SF and the key relationships. The aim of this study is to unveil the semantic structure of the recent literature on SF and to suggest new promising areas for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct a systematic literature review with a bibliographic analysis technique, which allows authors to identify the main recent streams in the literature, as well as offer reflections and suggestions for future research.

Findings

The authors uncover three main emerging areas in the research on SF, namely SF as a dynamic capability, the role of knowledge management for SF and the relationship between a firm SF and the external environment. The authors put forward three avenues for future research on SF: Avenue 1. SF, business model innovation (BMI) and other dynamic capabilities (DC), Avenue 2. Digital technologies and SF/organizational agility and Avenue 3. SF and sustainability. Articles included in the special issue entitled “A strategic perspective on flexibility, agility and adaptability in the digital era” contribute to Avenue 2, thus paving the way for filling some of the identified gaps regarding the relationship between SF and digitalization.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on SF that uses a bibliometric approach to draw conclusions on the findings in the literature. The review contributes to the theoretical understanding of SF by illustrating and explicating core topics that have persisted over time, as well as by presenting three main avenues for further developing authors’ knowledge around SF.

Details

Management Decision, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 October 2022

Diqian Ren, Jun-Ki Choi and Kellie Schneider

Because of the significant differences in the features and requirements of specific products and the capabilities of various additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, selecting the…

2062

Abstract

Purpose

Because of the significant differences in the features and requirements of specific products and the capabilities of various additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, selecting the most appropriate AM technology can be challenging. This study aims to propose a method to solve the complex process selection in 3D printing applications, especially by creating a new multicriteria decision-making tool that takes the direct certainty of each comparison to reflect the decision-maker’s desire effectively.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology proposed includes five steps: defining the AM technology selection decision criteria and constraints, extracting available AM parameters from the database, evaluating the selected AM technology parameters based on the proposed decision-making methodology, improving the accuracy of the decision by adopting newly proposed weighting scheme and selecting optimal AM technologies by integrating information gathered from the whole decision-making process.

Findings

To demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed methodology, this case study describes a detailed industrial application in rapid investment casting that applies the weightings to a tailored AM technologies and materials database to determine the most suitable AM process. The results showed that the proposed methodology could solve complicated AM process selection problems at both the design and manufacturing stages.

Originality/value

This research proposes a unique multicriteria decision-making solution, which employs an exclusive weightings calculation algorithm that converts the decision-maker's subjective priority of the involved criteria into comparable values. The proposed framework can reduce decision-maker's comparison duty and potentially reduce errors in the pairwise comparisons used in other decision-making methodologies.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 28 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 29 September 2023

Suraj Goala and Prabir Sarkar

One of the critical reasons for the nonacceptance of additive manufacturing (AM) processes is the lack of understanding and structured knowledge of design for additive…

323

Abstract

Purpose

One of the critical reasons for the nonacceptance of additive manufacturing (AM) processes is the lack of understanding and structured knowledge of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). This paper aims to assist designers to select the appropriate AM technology for product development or redesign. Using the suggestion provided by the design assist tool, the user’s design alterations depend on their ability to interpret the suggestion into the design without affecting the design’s primary objective.

Design/methodology/approach

This research reports the development of a tool that evaluates the efficacy values for all seven major standard AM processes by considering design parameters, benchmark standards within the processes and their material efficacies. In this research, the tool provides analytical and visual approaches to suggestion and assistance. Seventeen design parameters and seven benchmarking standards are used to evaluate the proposed product and design quality value. The full factorial design approach has been used to evaluate the DfAM aspects, design quality and design complexity.

Findings

The outcome is evaluated by the product and design quality value, material suit and material-product-design (MPD) value proposed in this work for a comparative assessment of the AM processes for a design. The higher the MPD value, the better the process. The visual aspect of the evaluation uses spider diagrams, which are evaluated analytically to confirm the results’ appropriateness with the proposed methodology.

Originality/value

The data used in the database is assumed to make the study comprehensive. The output aims to help opt for the best process out of the seven AM techniques for better and optimized manufacturing. This, as per the authors’ knowledge, is not available yet.

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Article
Publication date: 28 November 2022

Khalil Mustafa Abdulkarem Algunaid and Jichang Liu

This study aims to develop a system framework to organise, manage and evaluate 3D printing (3DP) services in the cloud and help users select the best service according to…

86

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop a system framework to organise, manage and evaluate 3D printing (3DP) services in the cloud and help users select the best service according to application requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

Users can personalise their 3DP services based on their application requirements. The user is supplied with the performance capabilities and trust of all possible services. If the user is unable to select a service directly from the list of possible 3DP services, he/she can assign preference values for the application requirements to make a trade-off between the performance capabilities of services provided in terms of response time, manufacturing capabilities, lead time, cost and data integrity. After obtaining the finished product, the performance trust of the selected service are modified based on consumer feedback regarding their satisfaction. The accumulated input of a service's users is used to dynamically update its performance trust and is offered to new customers as a guide.

Findings

An industry case study is applied to verify the proposed methodology. The systematic order of the system framework demonstrated its efficiency in customising production based on trusted 3DP service providers.

Originality/value

The system upgraded the conventional 3DP service evaluation and selection approach. It considers the evaluation criteria of 3DP resources and the trust of service performance in the cloud context. The system favours 3DP cloud service providers. A registry tool is proposed to allow 3DP service providers to comprehensively define their services. By implementing a trust evaluation approach, 3DP service providers' trust are regularly updated based on their historical performances. In addition, a punishment mechanism is designed to motivate service providers to publish their true performance capabilities, therefore promoting a competitive environment and resulting in more reliable services.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 January 2022

Rohit Agrawal

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have tremendous applications in industries owing to their unique advantages. Sustainable AM (SAM) is gaining significance because of…

610

Abstract

Purpose

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have tremendous applications in industries owing to their unique advantages. Sustainable AM (SAM) is gaining significance because of lightweight structures, lattice geometries and customized parts for industrial applications. To facilitate design for SAM, design guidelines from AM and environment viewpoints are to be analyzed. In this context, this paper aims to present the analysis of SAM guidelines.

Design/methodology/approach

This work divides 26 identified SAM guidelines into four categories. Grey axiomatic design was used to calculate the weights of guidelines categories. Further, the grey technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution was used as a solution methodology to prioritize the SAM guidelines.

Findings

The top identified guidelines are “Design for reusability” and “Optimize part orientation for build time and roughness.” Implementing proper design guidelines leads to many sustainable benefits such as minimum material consumption, energy consumption and emissions.

Originality/value

This study would facilitate Am product designers to deploy prioritized guidelines for enhancing the effectiveness of the additively manufactured product with sustainability benefits. The prioritized guidelines would guide the AM product designers to take maximum advantage of the AM process by deploying design for AM and design for environment guidelines. This study contributed a structured approach for design engineers and practitioners to deploy guidelines during the early stages of product design to ensure AM feasibility with minimal environmental impact.

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Article
Publication date: 6 August 2020

Hassan M. Selim, Riyad Eid and Gomaa Agag

The adoption of smart classroom is increasing in higher education around the world. Yet, factors affecting smart classroom adoption have not been sufficiently explored. Based on…

668

Abstract

Purpose

The adoption of smart classroom is increasing in higher education around the world. Yet, factors affecting smart classroom adoption have not been sufficiently explored. Based on the innovation diffusion theory and external pressures, the present study developed a model to investigate the main drivers of smart classroom adoption.

Design/methodology/approach

SEM-AMOS was used to analyse the data collected from a sample of 1,208 educators.

Findings

The findings revealed that innovation diffusion theory and external pressures provide an appropriate model for understanding smart classroom adoption.

Practical implications

The findings offer important implications for higher education institutions, IT managers, and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of smart classrooms.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that used innovation diffusion theory external pressures to understanding smart classroom adoption.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 62 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

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Expert briefing
Publication date: 25 February 2015

Scenarios for Iran's regional policy if nuclear talks fail.

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Article
Publication date: 5 October 2020

Rouhallah Khara, Leila R. Kalankesh, Hassan Shahrokhi, Saeed Dastgiri, Kamal Gholipour and Mohammad-Reza Feizi-Derakhshi

The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and solutions in the empowerment of families of children with autism in Tabriz located in the North West of Iran.

219

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and solutions in the empowerment of families of children with autism in Tabriz located in the North West of Iran.

Design/methodology/approach

In this exploratory and qualitative study, which was conducted from January to March 2019, 14 in-depth face-to-face interviews and 1 focus group (n = 5) were conducted with family empowerment experts. Data analysis was performed based on a content analysis approach via MAXQDA v 10.

Findings

Results revealed that empowerment challenges can be classified into six main themes including shortage of facilities and specialists, family-related problems, administrative and organizational, cultural and societal, financial and other problems. The most important empowerment solutions were divided into three main themes including informing and training skills by holding empowerment programs, governmental and insurance companies support, and organizational and administrative solutions.

Research limitations/implications

Limitation of this study is that families are not included; as families may also provide or challenge other solutions for empowerment based on their needs, ignoring their views may be losing part of vital information in this field. It is recommended that this research be conducted in the future from the perspective of families of people with autism and other stakeholders.

Practical implications

Based on the results of this study, stakeholders in the field of autism and the family empowerment can address the identified challenges and utilize solutions to improve the process of family empowerment and make more effective decisions in this regard.

Originality/value

Literature searches revealed a lack of any completed research in Iran specific to identifying empowerment challenges and related solutions. Efforts must be taken on root challenges which have been identified scientifically.

Details

Advances in Autism, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-3868

Keywords

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