Clive Kerr

An overview of the measurement errors associated with gas turbine aeroengine pyrometer systems

It is advantageous to operate the thermodynamic cycle of an aeroengine at as high a turbine entry temperature as practical for the current metallurgical limits of the turbine blades, in order to achieve peak cycle efficiency and thus lower specific fuel consumption. However, achieving the highest possible turbine entry temperature requires accurate knowledge of the turbine blade temperatures for control purposes to prolong component life, as frequent excursions beyond the design limits of the blades can severely reduce their service life. The optical pyrometry technique represents the best method for providing these crucial temperature data needed for blade condition based monitoring. However, this method of non-contact temperature measurement is subject to a number of errors inherent to the gas turbine operating environment. In this paper we present the general operating principles and an overview of the measurement errors associated with optical pyrometry, together with a discussion of the techniques to prevent, limit and compensate for such errors resulting from the turbine environment.

Design Requirements Management using an Ontological Framework

The specification activity is a critical enabler for collaborative product development through an extended enterprise. Often this activity involves numerous iterations before a shared understanding of the product requirements is achieved since various omissions, ambiguities and assumptions have to be resolved. This paper will present a framework for the electronic-enabling of the requirements founded on ontology-based constructs to provide a shared conceptualisation of the knowledge needed for the specification of a product. The application of ontology is a means to establish the consensual knowledge about the needs of a product and to then apply this shared understanding for its specification.

Technology insertion in the defence industry: A primer:

A key challenge for the defence industry is how to take full advantage of the latest research and technology developments for current in-service products. The route to managing the flow of technology for platform modernization and achieving the rapid fielding of new technologies for phased capability delivery can be obtained through technology insertion. However, there lacks a common understanding of the technology insertion activity. This paper provides a concise overview of the topic in order to provide a standard frame of reference. A generic definition of the term is proposed together with a taxonomy that places technology insertion into context with other technology management processes. In addition, the components and dimensions of technology insertion are presented. The fundamental principles and enablers associated with technology insertion are elicited. These concepts are illustrated by real-world examples from the defence industry.

Towards a modular toolkit for strategic technology management

Many strategic technology management methods and tools have been proposed and deployed by academics and practitioners. Each approach, with its advantages and disadvantages, provides a particular perspective for supporting understanding, analysis, decision and action. Many approaches overlap in function, the interfaces with other methods are not clear, and many variants of tools are often available with little guidance provided for their application. As a step towards the construction of a flexible toolkit for supporting strategic technology management, this paper sets out a workshop–based approach that comprises functional modules that can be combined to address a range of management challenges.

Technology Intelligence practice in UK technology-based companies

Technological information has become an increasingly important advantage for technology-based companies facing shorter technology life cycles and a more globally competitive business environment. Companies have dedicated progressively more resources to the development of Technology Intelligence (TI) systems, realising that these are important assets for business success. Reviewing eight intelligence systems implemented by UK technology-based organisations, this work aims to test the theoretical model developed by Kerr et al. (2006) and to investigate how TI systems are implemented in practice. The characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each system were reviewed using the theoretical model as an analysis template.

A Toolbox of Elements to Build Technology Intelligence Systems

In response to the need to achieve a consistent view on how to organise technology intelligence (TI) activities, a generalised framework to support the creation of TI systems was developed by Kerr et al. [2006]. This paper generalises the structure of TI systems by observing and abstracting from real life examples. As a result, a toolbox of system elements is proposed, which can be used to structure and characterise any TI system. The different choices of system elements can be attributed to the model’s four modes of searching: Mine, Trawl, Target and Scan. With the exception of the Trawl mode which features just connector elements, all the TI modes are supported by management, source connectors, repositories of information and search elements. All these elements can be either people’s roles, activities or characteristics, or physical infrastructure. TI social networks are eminently important elements for any TI system; a reasoned overview on how companies can build their own TI networks is presented.

Requirements management: an enabler for concurrent engineering in the automotive industry

Defining and agreeing the product requirements is especially important when the design and manufacture of a system is part of an Extended Enterprise. To realize an all-inclusive concurrent engineering process, tools for the upstream design activities are needed. In practice, it is often difficult for the companies to have a shared understanding of what needs to be developed, and so specifications contain ambiguities in describing the product requirements. This paper clarifies the problem domain in the context of a complex product, designed and manufactured in a pan-national Extended Enterprise and serving a highly competitive market. The authors show how the challenge can be addressed through the application of ontology. A model of a requirements-management tool is proposed that will allow the various systems and associated levels of a product to be described and then shared through the supply chain. A prototype system is presented and illustrated through a case study from the automotive industry.

Optical pyrometry for gas turbine aeroengines

Fundamentally, it is advantageous to operate an aeroengines thermodynamic cycle at as high a turbine entry temperature as practical for the current metallurgical limits of the turbine blades in order to achieve peak cycle efficiency and thus lower specific fuel consumption. However, achieving the highest possible turbine entry temperature requires accurate knowledge of the turbine blade temperatures for control purposes to prolong component life as frequent excursions beyond the design limits of the blades can severely reduce their service life. The optical pyrometry technique represents the best method for providing this crucial temperature data needed for blade condition‐based monitoring. This paper presents the general operating principles, system aspects and design considerations for the application of the optical pyrometer instrument for inflight service use on gas turbine aeroengines.

Customer Requirement Management in Product Development

Customer requirement management has been wellrecognized as the principal factor for developing a successful product in the marketplace. This has been acknowledged in an exponentially increasing number of publications in the field of customer satisfaction and requirement management, as well as in many endeavors in industrial applications. This research topic shows a multidisciplinary characteristic involving such fields as business studies, marketing research, psychological studies, human factors, software requirement engineering, and of course product and engineering design. In recent times, the importance of these front-end issues has been catalyzed by enormous e-commerce applications. This special issue is dedicated to the recent advances in customer requirement management. While requirement engineering has been intensively studied in the field of software and information systems, the focus of this special issue is given to the design and development of consumer and capital products. Based on the thorough and strict peer reviews, a total of eight papers are selected for publication from 38 submissions. These papers represent a snapshot of the cutting-edge research progress and aim to disseminate information on recent developments in the field of customer requirement management. The article by Jiao, Chen, and Fung, ‘Customer Requirement Management in Product Development: A Review of Research Issues’, provides a comprehensive literature review. It substantially extends this editorial discussion on the status quo of approaches and techniques for customer requirement management in product development. The article discusses the general process of customer requirement management. The emphasis is on a holistic view and system-wide solutions that encompass requirement elicitation, analysis, and specification. In the article, avenues for future research are highlighted along with technical challenges. Henson, Barnes, Livesey, Childs, and Ewart, in their article, ‘Affective Consumer Requirements: A Case Study of Moisturizer Packaging’, apply affective engineering approaches to the elicitation of customers’ subjective requirements. A case study of moisturizer packaging is reported, demonstrating how to recombine stimuli that have been tested separately. The results of focus groups and semantic questionnaires are fine-tuned based on the principal component analysis in order to translate the subjective requirements into values for physical properties of the packaging. The elicited requirements regarding surface textures, shape, and color are validated through the questionnaire responses to prototype packaging. The article by Khalid and Helander, ‘Customer Emotional Needs in Product Design’, emphasizes on the emotional aspect of customer requirements. The characteristics of customer emotions are discussed in detail, along with issues concerning their measurement and evaluation. They present a framework of articulating customer emotions in relation to the designer’s environment. As part of the product development life cycle, the framework enables customer needs and measured emotions to be fed early in the design process, so as to achieve a pleasurable and satisfying product. With focus on the relationships between consumers’ Kansei feelings and products’ formal elements, Chen *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jiao@pmail.ntu.edu.sg

A Product Ontology for Automotive Seat Specification

A knowledge-based requirements management tool is being developed for the automotive industry to aid in the specification of modular systems whose development is contracted out to the supply chain. The aim of this tool is to allow the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and their system suppliers to have a shared conceptualization of the product requirements. This paper highlights some of the issues with the current paper-based specifications and the use of natural language to represent the requirements. The framework of the knowledge-based tool in order to address these issues through the application of ontology is described. A ‘product’ ontology for the specification of the seating assembly for a car is presented. The ontology encapsulates the required functionalities, design parameters, performance criteria, structure and geometry. This is the result of the consensual convergence in the vocabulary, definitions and attributes that describe the product requirements.Copyright