what is an engineering case study

Engineering Case Studies

• Getting Started
• Finding Case Studies in the U-M Library
• Case Studies That Are Freely Available
• Selected Case Studies Books

General Contact

Librarians are happy to help with any research questions, or to have a consultation in-person or virtually. Contact us below.

[email protected]

Schedule an Appointment 

What Is a Case Study?

Case studies  (also called "case histories") are accounts of real engineering situations and projects that provide a context for engineers and others to explore problems. Case studies typically involve complex issues where there is often no single correct answer--you may be asked to select the "best" answer given the situation. Case Studies are found in many places, including book collections, scholarly articles, educational videos and the websites of professional organizations, and more.

Case studies allow you to:

Explore  the nature of a problem and circumstances that affect a solution

Observe  theories applied in a real-life situation

Learn  about others' viewpoints and how they may be taken into account

Define  your priorities and make your own decisions to solve the problem

Predict  outcomes and consequences

Source: University of Washington Library

• Next: Finding Case Studies in the U-M Library >>
• Last Updated: Sep 19, 2023 11:21 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.umich.edu/engrcasestudies

• U of T Home
• Faculty Home

Engineering Communication Program

Case Studies

Case studies occur frequently in engineering because, by nature, engineering analyzes (studies) situations that already exist (cases). This document explains how to use a basic engineering problem-solving method to structure case studies, but the structure may also apply to other engineering reports (including undergraduate theses). This document focuses on a particular logical structure that is important to engineering. (For format, see Type of Documents / Short Reports ) Michael Jordan (not the basketball player) describes the basics of the problem-solving method this way:

• Understanding the situation being faced;
• Analyzing the specific problem to be tackled;
• Creating, analyzing, and refining a solution;
• And further evaluating, improving, and implementing. [1]

The method is known as: Situation — Problem — Solution(s) — Evaluation

Each of the logical components here consists more of questions than “how-to” because the goal of this web page is to help you think through the logic structure of this pattern.

1. Situation: Even when a client (or professor) defines a situation, engineers need to understand it in their own terms:

• What are the needs of the client?
• What are the constraints of the situation (time, resources, laws, technology)?
• What are the background facts?
• What are the key questions that need asking?

Example: What happens when the Client doesn’t tell you everything?

If an engineer responding to the Request for Proposal (RFP) below did not think through the whole situation, she might end up in big trouble. An RFP asks contractors to bid on a particular project. Getting the job without understanding the situation can be disastrous. This RFP describes the government’s responsibilities in a research project to test ABS brakes using an “instrumented car” (a car outfitted with sophisticated measuring equipment):

An instrumented vehicle, Pontiac 6000 STE, has been developed and will be provided to the contractor without charge by Transport Canada . A separate contractor has been engaged to perform hardware modifications to the various systems in the vehicle if they are required and approved by the scientific authority. Costs associated with any approved modifications, and the maintenance of the data collection system will be the responsibility of Transport Canada , unless the contractor has been negligent in the use of the system. [2]

All of this sounds good at first–someone else is worrying about maintaining the systems inside a rather expensive vehicle–BUT what about systems outside the vehicle? Such things as pop-up stop signs and means of altering the slipperiness of the track will be needed. Since these are outside the car, who pays? If those bidding on this contract do not state their understanding of the situation clearly, they could win a bid but lose a bundle. Showing a clear understanding of the situation is the first step to a clear report.

Where it fits: Typically this will fit into the introduction or background sections of a report.

2. Problem: Before you can solve a problem you need to know what it is. Defining a Problem clearly is crucial to finding a solution. In defining the problem, you need to explain the factors that affect the problem. Consider not only what the client says the problem is, but what the client might not recognize. Here is a statement of a problem, taken from an assignment in MIE 561S, Health Care Systems:

Sunnybrook’s Chronic Pain Clinic experiences two problems:

• In its present mode of operation, it loses money on initial consultations.
• Patients’ waiting times for initial consultations are perceived as being too long and should be shortened without significant expenditure.

Unless the number of consultations can be increased by 15% using the same resources, the pain clinic is in danger of being shut down.

This problem statement is not complete. In fact, it is the problem as defined by the client, which is really just the situation. The writer needs to analyze the problem: the problem here might in part be defined as inefficiency in initial consultations.

Sunnybrook’s Chronic Pain Clinic loses money on initial consultations and suffers from long patient waiting times for initial consultations. Unless the number of consultations can be increased by 15% using the same resources, the pain clinic is in danger of being shut down. The loss of money and the waiting times are related because two of the four doctors do not manage to see their patients within the allotted one hour consultation. This means not only that these doctors are unable to see as many patients as the other two doctors, but that those they do see have to wait well past their scheduled appointment. The problem, then, is to eliminate inefficiency in initial consultations without compromising the level offer.

Part of defining the problem is seeing it in terms of what has been done before. These questions might help you explain the full background to the problem:

• What are the parameters that have been set for your analysis?
• What is happening in the situation now?
• What are the shortcomings of the current or previous ways of handling the situation?
• What changes have been made in the situation? or are expected?

These questions might lead to an additional paragraph in our example to clarify and refine the definition of the problem. Here the writer goes on to consider how one parameter physicians’ financial benefit might affect the current situation.

(cont’d from above example)

If inefficiency is a factor, understanding the physicians’ relationship to the clinic becomes important. First, financially, the four doctors who provide service in the pain clinic do so out of interest in the field. They derive little financial benefit from their involvement; in fact, they incur a significant opportunity cost for not performing other, more lucrative procedures. Their pay is not proportionally dependent on the number of patients they examine; instead, it is a percentage of the total revenue generated by a pool of twenty-six physicians performing a variety of roles at the hospital. For this reason, personal income cannot influence physician behavior.

This example is only part of what goes into a problem definition, but it shows how the writer can refine his problem definition by limiting the possible parameters for solutions.

Where it fits: Typically, the Problem definition is also the purpose of the report; therefore, it will follow the situation, or sometimes, precede it. Notice that the problem and the situation overlap. This is predictable because the problem arises out of the situation.

3. Solution: University assignments often expect you to come up with alternatives; hence, you may need to examine more than one solution. Ultimately, to be effective, any solution must:

• Solve the problem. Obvious, but explain: How does the solution work?
• Explain how the solution can be derived from the available data. How does it fit with what we know?
• Fit clearly into the available research on a topic. What research supports it?

As you might guess, this section could be a huge part of the body of a report.

4. Evaluation: Before engineers can implement a solution, it needs to be refined. The first step in refining any solution is an evaluation. You need to think your way around the solution just as if it were an object you were walking around. Ask as many questions as possible. Here are a few:

• Is the solution you suggest likely to be successful?
• What limitations might prevent total success? (eg. does it depend on people being trained?)
• What must a company do to make your solution work? (funding? training? design? safety measures?)
• If you are proposing more than one solution, which one(s) do you recommend be implemented? In which order? (short term vs. long term; most important vs. less important; necessary vs. optional)

Where it fits: Typically, the evaluation comes just before the recommendations. Once you have evaluated several options, then you can make a recommendation. It may also be incorporated into the recommendations.

References:

[1] Jordan, Michael P. 1988. “How can problem-solution structures help writers plan and write technical documents?” Solving Problems in Technical Writing. Ed. Lynne Beene and Peter White. Toronto: Oxford. [2] Supply and Services Canada . 1989. RFP 045SZ.T8080-9-4780/B.

© 2024 Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering

• Accessibility
• Student Data Practices
• Website Feedback

Searching for Case Studies in Engineering: Getting Started

Science & engineering librarian.

What are Case Studies in Engineering

Strategies for searching google for case studies.

Effective Google Search Strategies

• Helps you find credible sources other than scholarly articles and books (i.e., grey/gray literature)
• Allows you to search within a site
• "Domain Limiters" - (.gov, .edu, .org., .mil)
• Examples include: [ site:nytimes.com ] or [ iraq site:.gov ]  

• autonomous vehicle
• postal service

Strategies for Searching Databases

Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A., & Sheikh, A. (2011). The case study approach. Bmc Medical Research Methodology, 11(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

Research Databases

• Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 11:03 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.duke.edu/c.php?g=1353514

Services for...

• Faculty & Instructors
• Graduate Students
• Undergraduate Students
• International Students
• Patrons with Disabilities

• Harmful Language Statement
• Re-use & Attribution / Privacy
• Support the Libraries

• Directories
• Finding Case Studies in the UW Libraries
• Open Access & Freely Available
• Case Studies in Ethics in Science & Technology
• Library Books containing Case Studies
• Start Your Research
• Research Guides
• University of Washington Libraries
• Library Guides
• UW Libraries
• Engineering Case Studies

Engineering Case Studies: Home

What are case studies.

Case studies (also called "case histories") are accounts of real engineering situations and projects that provide a context for engineers and others to explore problems. Case studies typically involve complex issues where there is often no single correct answer--you may be asked to select the "best" answer given the situation. Case Studies are found in many places, including book collections, scholarly articles, educational videos and the websites of professional organizations, and more.

Case studies allow you to:

Explore the nature of a problem and circumstances that affect a solution

Observe theories applied in a real-life situation

Learn about others' viewpoints and how they may be taken into account

Define your priorities and make your own decisions to solve the problem

Predict outcomes and consequences

• Next: Finding Case Studies in the UW Libraries >>
• Last Updated: Sep 1, 2022 3:33 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/engcasestudies

• Jump to menu
• Student Home
• Accept your offer
• How to enrol
• Student ID card
• Set up your IT
• Orientation Week
• Fees & payment
• Academic calendar
• Special consideration
• Transcripts
• The Nucleus: Student Hub
• Referencing
• Essay writing
• Learning abroad & exchange
• Professional development & UNSW Advantage
• Employability
• Financial assistance
• International students
• Equitable learning
• Postgraduate research
• Health Service
• Events & activities
• Emergencies
• Volunteering
• Clubs and societies
• Accommodation
• Health services
• Sport and gym
• Arc student organisation
• Security on campus
• Maps of campus
• Careers portal
• Change password

How an Engineering Case Study Report is Organised

A case study analysis is usually presented as a report and will therefore contain many of the features and structure of reports in general. This section will briefly describe each section, its purpose and structure.

Before reading this section you might like to try this Quiz to see how much you already know about writing reports.

The title page presents routine information and hints at the report's content through an informative title. Design your title page to be simple yet functional and appropriate for your audience. Common elements to include on the title page include:

• Your Institution's name
• Title of the report
• Author/s (include student number if appropriate)
• Name of person or group to whom you submit the report
• Course name (or department/group or committee name)
• Date of submission

Executive summary

The executive summary is usually read by senior management. The manager will use the information in the executive summary to decide what action to take and who will carry it out. An executive summary should include an overview of the whole report and is longer than an abstract for a professional journal. It can be from one to a couple of pages, but try to keep it under 2 pages if possible. Headings can be used but there is no need to number these. In your own words present clearly and briefly:

• the topic area of the report
• the report's primary aim/s
• state what was achieved (key finding)
• a summary of your approach
• significant findings
• a summary of the report's recommendations

Contents page

Readers can use this to get a sense of how the report is structured and can skim the contents page for relevant sections to read. Include heading, subheading and page numbers. Usually in large reports a decimal numbering system for headings and subheadings are used. If it is a large report with many tables and figures in the body, a list of figures and a list of terminology or symbols can be included after the contents page.

Introduction

The introduction is very important as it sets the context for the report. Summarise the brief (your task), briefly outline the case and focus on its significance for the reader, state the report's aim(s) and describe how the report is organised. Readers use the introduction to locate the aim of your report and to decide which sections of the report they need to read. While you may include the key problem you have identified and its significance, it is not usual to detail findings or recommendations in the introduction.

Case study report body

The previous sections (title page, executive summary, contents, tables of figures, introduction) are preliminary sections.

It is difficult to give a single precise description of how a case study report should be organised as many models and variations exist. Organisation will depend on the type of report (eg; design, management), the type of case study investigation (eg; historical, problem orientated), and even the discipline or field you are writing in. Ultimately, the writer decides how best to organise and explain the case, the methodology and the recommendations. The following descriptions are examples only and are drawn from the field of risk management.

Historical case study

An historical case study's body sections may be organised as follows:

• Context — Describe the case or situation being investigated. Focus on the facts of the situation.
• Approach - Use topic based headings and a chronological sequence to give a summary and discussion of contributing factors (usually focusing on a specific time period in the past) that lead to and resulted from the situation described in the case study. Refer to theories, relevant publications or prior cases to explain and justify your interpretations of the situation. Problems and solutions and previous recommendations that were made are highlighted and briefly commented upon (eg; which problems were eventually solved and how they were solved, or which problems continued and why they remained unsolved).
• Conclusion - Try to answer the following questions. What else has been achieved since the situation occurred? Have all recommendations been implemented? What may happen in the future?

Problem-orientated case study

A problem orientated case study's body sections may be organised as follows:

Headings should be informative and descriptive providing a clue to the contents of the section.

• Describe the context of the case. Present the central issue you will be analysing, what decisions have already been made, what communication processes are occurring in the situation. Focus on the facts.
• Explain your methodology. Identify problems that are demonstrated in the case (use visuals if appropriate) and also explain and justify your choice of analysis tools (eg SWOT, PEST, Force Field…),
• Present summaries of your findings (put details in the appendices) and indicate how you decide what is acceptable/not acceptable as a solution.
• Present an action plan for the recommendations. Recommendations in a case study report should be fairly detailed. Include an action plan that details who should take action, when and how (eg; specifications, steps to follow), and how to assess the action taken. For example, in a case study report you may decide the likelihood of 3 scenarios pose the greatest risks for your company but each poses a risk in unique ways. For each scenario clearly state who is responsible, what action they should take and how they can assess the recommendation.

Conclusions

Every report should include a concluding statement/s on the subject of the report. Restate the aim of the report and state how you have achieved it. Present the main findings and key recommendations in a summarised form for the reader's benefit. You should also restate the limitations of the report.

Appendices provide additional or supporting information that while not essential to understanding the main facts and recommendations, may be of interest to the expert reader and are evidence of your research and analysis. Appendices can be tables of raw data, detailed calculations, design drawings, maps, copies of a questionnaire or survey etc. Appendices are normally listed as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, and so forth. Give each appendix a clear informative title. Appendices and reference lists are supplementary sections of a report.

Reference list

This is a list of all the sources of information you have referred to in the report. Many schools in engineering recommend the author date system. See Referencing for more information on reference styles. We recommend you check with your course facilitators on their preferences.

 See next: Activities for recognising report sections

Engineering & science.

• Report writing
• Technical writing
• Writing lab reports
• Honours thesis writing
• Writing the case study
• Recognising report sections
• Case study activity
• What is the marker looking for?
• How can I improve my writing?
• ^ More support

Scholarly Resources 4 Students | scite.ai 21 May 2024

Discover your Library: Main Library 21 May 2024

Case Studies That Define Mechanical Engineering Challenges

• Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is key in creating and perfecting the machines and systems we rely on every day. To truly grasp its complex challenges, it’s useful to look at detailed case studies.

These studies not only show how engineering works but also highlight why keeping people safe, coming up with new ideas, and making ethical choices matter so much.

Let’s explore some major events that tested mechanical engineering. We’ll look at the fix of the Hubble Space Telescope, how Mars Rovers were made to move on another planet, why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge fell apart, the nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, and the massive oil spill from Deepwater Horizon.

Each story breaks down how mechanical engineering played a role and what we can take away from these incidents to prevent future mistakes and guide new breakthroughs in the field.

The Hubble Space Telescope Repair

Mechanical engineers faced tough problems when fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. To tackle these, they combined deep knowledge with creative thinking. They carefully checked the telescope’s parts to find what was broken.

Then, they came up with special tools and steps for the astronauts to fix the telescope in space, where conditions are very difficult. They used a method called finite element analysis to make sure the telescope would be strong enough after the repairs, and they made sure that new parts could be swapped in easily.

Their detailed planning and work didn’t just get Hubble working again; it also made sure the telescope could keep working for a longer time. This shows how important mechanical engineering is in solving tough problems with machinery in space.

Mars Rover Mobility Dilemmas

Building Mars rovers is a tough job for mechanical engineers. They have to make sure these rovers can move smoothly over Mars, which has a very rough surface with lots of rocks, sand, and big hills. Engineers work with advanced robot technology, new types of materials, and knowledge about other planets to solve these problems.

They test their designs over and over to see how the rover parts will handle the ground on Mars. The parts have to be really strong and not wear out quickly, even when they hit unexpected bumps.

Also, the rovers need smart computer systems that can figure out the lay of the land by themselves and change their path to avoid getting stuck or broken. This is super important because if something goes wrong with the rover, it could mess up the whole mission to Mars.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse is a key example for mechanical engineers of why it’s essential to consider how wind affects bridges. When the bridge fell apart in 1940, it showed that suspension bridges can swing and twist dangerously in the wind.

The bridge’s narrow shape, the solid pieces it was made of, and not enough side support were big reasons why it moved so much and then broke. This disaster made it clear that testing bridges in wind tunnels was necessary.

As a result, bridge design changed a lot. Engineers started using special devices to stop bridges from swinging too much and created stronger design rules. These changes help make sure that big bridges can stand up to wind without getting damaged.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a crucial lesson in the need for strong and reliable engineering. On March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake, with a strength of 9.0, shook Japan and caused a major failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event showed how important it is for machines and structures to be able to survive natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.

After the earthquake, a tsunami followed, which made things even worse. The power plant lost power, which meant the cooling systems for three of its reactors stopped working. Without cooling, these reactors overheated and their cores melted down. This was a tragic example of what can go wrong when we don’t carefully think about the risks of building in areas where natural disasters can happen.

Later on, experts looked at what went wrong and found that the power plant wasn’t built to handle a tsunami of that size, and the emergency plans weren’t good enough for such a disaster. Now, the Fukushima disaster is a key example that engineers study. It shows the link between planning ahead, considering the environment, and the serious problems that can happen if we don’t.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Engineering

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig failed disastrously, causing a huge oil spill in the ocean. This event was significant because it showed how much we needed to improve our deep-sea drilling technology and how we respond to such disasters. Engineers had to look closely at how they build and check the safety of underwater equipment, such as blowout preventers, which are supposed to stop leaks. They also needed to make sure oil wells were designed to be very strong and could handle emergencies.

The spill made it clear that we must do better at predicting risks, watching over drilling as it happens, and creating tools that can handle the tough conditions at the bottom of the sea. After the spill, experts worked on making better plans for how to deal with such problems, which included using more advanced robots that can work underwater and creating better ways to quickly block leaking oil wells.

Engineers learned a lot from what happened with the Deepwater Horizon. They are using those lessons to try to make drilling in deep water safer, to reduce the chance of another big oil spill. This means continuing to develop new technology and safety measures that can prevent or quickly stop leaks if they do happen.

In summary, every case study shows different problems that mechanical engineers have to deal with.

For example, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope needed very accurate work, and getting the Mars Rover to move on Mars took a lot of creativity.

The fall of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi teach us that strong design and having a backup plan are very important.

The oil spill at Deepwater Horizon reminds us that safety features and thinking about the environment are essential.

These examples show that mechanical engineering involves many different areas and that it’s important to keep coming up with new ideas and to watch out for possible risks.

Related Posts

Canada’s Elite Mechanical Engineering Universities

• Engineering Career

Exploring Careers in Mechanical Engineering

• Engineering Degree

The Academic Path to a Mechanical Engineering Degree

How to Enhance Your Mechanical Engineering Skills

Various Positions Within the Mechanical Engineering Field

The Role of Coding in Mechanical Engineering

Engineering Databases

• Academic Complete E-books
• Academic Search Complete
• Access Engineering
• ACM Digital Library
• American Chemical Society
• Applied Science and Technology Source
• ASM Handbooks
• ASME Digital Collection
• ASTM Compass Standards
• Auto Repair Source
• AVON - Academic Video Online
• Dictionary of Natural Products
• Digital Commons
• EBSCO eBooks Collection

Engineering Case Studies

• Engineering Village—Compendex
• Google Scholar
• Grammarly Premium
• IEEE Xplore
• Journal Citation Reports
• Journal List A-Z
• JSTOR Collection
• Knovel Science & Engineering Datasets
• LinkedIn Learning
• MeLCat: Music, Books, Audio & More from all over Michigan
• ProQuest Central & SciTech
• SAE Mobilus
• Science Direct
• Small Engine Repair Reference Center
• Springer Journals and eBooks
• Web of Science
• WorldCat: Books, DVDs, CDs & Articles from around the world
• About the Database
• Creating Persistent Links

Creating a Persistent Link:

Engineering Case Studies has an option for persistent links inside each resource.

To locate the persistent link, select the resource you wish to share. Beneath the resource, you will see an option to "embed/link":

From here, you can choose to copy the persistent link from the pop-up window:

Using Engineering Case Studies

The analysis of engineering failures is an essential part of many engineering curricula today. This focus enables modern engineers and scholars to learn what not to do and how to create designs with a greater chance of success. Key to learning is establishing the nature of each failure—structural, corrosive, electrical, etc.—and understanding that element.

The engineering field needs a comprehensive and authoritative resource to provide in-depth, impartial analysis of key engineering failures. Engineering Case Studies Online is a collection that will grow to include 250 hours of video and 50,000 pages of text resources to meet this growing need. Content is displayed alongside targeted learning objects designed to facilitate detailed understanding of the causes and impact of these failures. Materials in the collection include:

• Feature-length video documentaries of major failures.

• Monographs explaining cases in detail and describing key engineering concepts and issues.

• Simulations depicting precisely what went wrong.

• Primary footage of accidents, including related news segments.

• Audio footage and transcripts.

• Testimonies from participants, victims, and witnesses.

• Images, accident reports, blueprints, and other key archival content whenever available.

• Bibliographies of authoritative materials from newspapers, Web sites, and journals.

• Specially written cases that explore engineering ethics.

The collection provides in-depth coverage for more than 50 of the most frequently taught and seminal case studies around the world together. Example cases include:

All materials in Engineering Case Studies Online are carefully cultivated by expert editors, with the assistance of an advisory board of engineering librarians and faculty. Materials come from a wide range of content partners, including the Digital Rights Group, BBC, Future Media, TVF International, as well as leading academic publishers such as Princeton University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Harvard University Press, and engineering associations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers.

More than 60 percent of video material in the collection was produced since 2000, and new content is added regularly. The database is global in focus, and originates from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with selections from across Europe and Asia. And because Engineering Case Studies Online addresses cases from a variety of angles, including their legal and ethical implications, the collection has broad applications for fields including architecture, business, law, urban planning, health and safety, environmental studies, science, sociology, media, and technology.

• Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 3:15 PM
• URL: https://libguides.kettering.edu/EngineeringDatabases

Rankings and Decisions in Engineering pp 201–234 Cite as

Case Studies in Engineering

• Fiorenzo Franceschini 12 ,
• Domenico A. Maisano 12 &
• Luca Mastrogiacomo 12  
• First Online: 28 February 2022

215 Accesses

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 319))

This chapter presents several examples of practical applications of the ranking aggregation problem in the field of Engineering, mainly in the context of design, development, and evaluation of the quality/reliability of products, services, and manufacturing processes.

These examples prove (1) the diffusion of the ranking aggregation problem within the Engineering field and (2) the great flexibility/adaptability of the aggregation techniques previously shown in this book (e.g., BC, EYA, and ZM II ) to the most varied practical contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

This notation is in partial contrast to that used in Sect. 7.2.2 to denote the number of so-called “ t -objects” of an incomplete ranking.

Abrizah, A., Zainab, A. N., Kiran, K., & Raj, R. G. (2013). LIS journals scientific impact and subject categorization: A comparison between web of science and scopus. Scientometrics, 94 (2), 721–740.

Article   Google Scholar  

AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group). (2019). Failure mode and effects analysis – Design FMEA and process FMEA handbook .

Google Scholar  

Akao, Y. (1988). Quality function deployment . Productivity Press.

Akao, Y., Nagai, K., & Maki, N. (1996). QFD concept for improving higher education. In ASQC’s 50th annual quality congress , Chicago.

Belhoul, L., Galand, L., & Vanderpooten, D. (2014). An efficient procedure for finding best compromise solutions to the multi-objective assignment problem. Computers & Operations Research, 49 , 97–106.

Brondino, G., Franceschini, F., Galetto, M., & Vicario, G. (2006). Synthesis maps for multivariate ordinal variables in manufacturing. International Journal of Production Research, 44 (20), 4241–4255.

Cai, C. G., Xu, X. H., Wang, P., & Chen, X. H. (2017). A multi-stage conflict style large group emergency decision-making method. Soft Computing, 21 (19), 5765–5778.

Certa, A., Hopps, F., Inghilleri, R., & La Fata, C. M. (2017). A Dempster-Shafer theory-based approach to the failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) under epistemic uncertainty: Application to the propulsion system of a fishing vessel. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 159 , 69–79.

Das Adhikary, D., Kumar Bose, G., Bose, D., & Mitra, S. (2014). Multi criteria FMECA for coal-fired thermal power plants using COPRAS-G. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 31 (5), 601–614.

De Mast, J., & Van Wieringen, W. N. (2010). Modeling and evaluating repeatability and reproducibility of ordinal classifications. Technometrics, 52 (1), 94–106.

Drotár, P., Gazda, M., & Gazda, J. (2017). Heterogeneous ensemble feature selection based on weighted Borda count. In 2017 9th International Conference on Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ICITEE) (pp. 1–4). IEEE.

Dubois, D., Godo, L., & Prade, H. (2012). Weighted logics for artificial intelligence: An introductory discussion. In Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Artificial Intellligence (ECAI) Conference, Technical Report-IIIA-2012-04 , 1–6, 28th August 2012, Montpellier.

Franceschini, F. (2001). Advanced quality function deployment . CRC Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Franceschini, F., & Galetto, M. (2001). A new approach for evaluation of risk priorities of failure modes in FMEA. International Journal of Production Research, 39 (13), 2991–3002. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540110056162

Franceschini, F., & Maisano, D. (2018a). A new proposal to improve the customer competitive benchmarking in QFD. Quality Engineering, 30 (4), 730–761.

Franceschini, F., & Maisano, D. (2018b). Classification of objects into quality categories in the presence of hierarchical decision-making agents. Accreditation and Quality Assurance, 23 (1), 5–17.

Franceschini, F., & Maisano, D. (2020). Aggregation of incomplete preference rankings: Robustness analysis of the ZM II -technique. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 27 (5–6), 337–356.

Franceschini, F., Galetto, M., Maisano, D., & Mastrogiacomo, L. (2015a). Prioritisation of engineering characteristics in QFD in the case of customer requirements orderings. International Journal of Production Research, 53 (13), 3975–3988.

Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., & Mastrogiacomo, L. (2015b). Customer requirement prioritization on QFD: A new proposal based on the generalized Yager’s algorithm. Research in Engineering Design, 26 (2), 171–187.

Franceschini, F., Galetto, M., & Maisano, D. (2019). Designing performance measurement systems: Theory and practice of key performance indicators . Springer International Publishing.

Gibbons, J. D., & Chakraborti, S. (2010). Nonparametric statistical inference (5th ed.). CRC Press.

Guerrero, H. H., & Bradley, J. R. (2013). Failure modes and effects analysis: An evaluation of group versus individual performance. Production and Operations Management, 22 (6), 1524–1539.

Indrawati, S., & Ridwansyah, M. (2015). Manufacturing continuous improvement using lean six sigma: An iron ores industry case application. Procedia Manufacturing, 4 , 528–534.

JCGM 100:2012. (2012). Evaluation of measurement data – Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement . BIPM.

Johnson, K. G., & Khan, M. K. (2003). A study into the use of the process failure mode and effects analysis (PFMEA) in the automotive industry in the UK. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 139 (1–3), 348–356.

Kano, N. (1984). Attractive quality and must-be quality. Hinshitsu (Quality, The Journal of Japanese Society for Quality Control), 14 , 39–48.

King, B. (2003). The selection and use of reference materials – A basic guide for laboratories and accreditation bodies. Accreditation and Quality Assurance, 8 (9), 429–433.

Liu, H. C., You, X. Y., Tsung, F., & Ji, P. (2018). An improved approach for failure mode and effect analysis involving large group of experts: An application to the healthcare field. Quality Engineering, 30 (4), 762–775.

Liu, H. C., You, J. X., Shan, M. M., & Su, Q. (2019). Systematic failure mode and effect analysis using a hybrid multiple criteria decision-making approach. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 30 (5–6), 537–564.

Maisano, D. A., Antonelli, D., & Franceschini, F. (2019). Assessment of failures in collaborative human-robot assembly workcells. In Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (pp. 562–571). Springer.

Maisano, D. A., Franceschini, F., & Antonelli, D. (2020). dP-FMEA: An innovative failure mode and effects analysis for distributed manufacturing processes. Quality Engineering, 32 (3), 267–285.

Matt, D. T., Rauch, E., & Dallasega, P. (2015). Trends towards distributed manufacturing systems and modern forms for their design. Procedia CIRP, 33 , 185–190.

Mayden, R. L. (1997). A hierarchy of species concepts: The denouement in the saga of the species problem. In M. F. Claridge, H. A. Dawah, & M. R. Wilson (Eds.), Species: The units of biodiversity (pp. 381–324). Chapman and Hall.

Michalowski, W., Rubin, S., Slowinski, R., & Wilk, S. (2001). Triage of the child with abdominal pain: A clinical algorithm for emergency patient management. Paediatrics & Child Health, 6 (1), 23–28.

Nahm, Y. E., Ishikawa, H., & Inoue, M. (2013). New rating methods to prioritize customer requirements in QFD with incomplete customer preferences. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 65 (9–12), 1587–1604.

Prasad, V. B. V. N., Ramarao, D. T., Rao, T. S., Rao, T. N., & Prasad, K. (2020). Some basic principles on posets, hasse diagrams and lattices. Test Engineering and Management, 83 (2), 10771–10775.

Reich, Y. (1996). AI-supported quality function deployment. In Artificial intelligence in economics and managment (pp. 93–106). Springer.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Reich, Y. (2000). Improving the rationale capture capability of QFD. Engineering with Computers, 16 (3–4), 236–252.

Reich, Y., & Paz, A. (2008). Managing product quality, risk, and resources through resource quality function deployment. Journal of Engineering Design, 19 (3), 249–267.

Roberts, F. S. (1979). Measurement theory: With applications to decisionmaking, utility, and the social sciences, encyclopedia of mathematics and its applications (Vol. 7). Addison-Wesley.

Srai, J. S., Kumar, M., Graham, G., Phillips, W., Tooze, J., Ford, S., Ravi, B., et al. (2016). Distributed manufacturing: Scope, challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Production Research, 54 (23), 6917–6935.

Stamatis, D. H. (2003). Failure mode and effect analysis: FMECA from theory to execution . ASQ Quality Press.

Tan, K. C., & Shen, X. X. (2000). Integrating Kano’s model in the planning matrix of quality function deployment. Total Quality Management, 11 (8), 1141–1151.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

Fiorenzo Franceschini, Domenico A. Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Franceschini, F., Maisano, D.A., Mastrogiacomo, L. (2022). Case Studies in Engineering. In: Rankings and Decisions in Engineering. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 319. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89865-6_7

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89865-6_7

Published : 28 February 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-89864-9

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-89865-6

eBook Packages : Business and Management Business and Management (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

12: Case Study on Nanotechnology

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 43056

Here we delve into a case study on nanotechnology which is an ancient technology as well as a cutting-edge modern technology. This contradiction is exactly why this is an interesting case study for learning what engineering (and science) is all about.

This section is meant to be accompanied with an inexpensive textbook. Fortunately wikibooks has such a textbook (free): The Opensource Handbook of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

This book is an excellent if a bit incomplete introduction (for an engineer or scientist) to nanotechnology. Some of the topics however might be overly advanced for an introduction to engineering class, so in this section nanotechnology will be reviewed with an assumption that the student will use the textbook above (or another one of their choice) to supplement. This section is not meant to take more than a week in an actually instructive setting.

What is naontechnology?

To begin with let us do another class discussion that asks the question: What is nanotechnology? Discuss before looking at some answers.

Carbon allotropes

Because "buckyballs" are the start of the modern revival of nanotechnology (at least from a media point of view) let us go over some of carbon allotropes that are making headlines.

While nanotechnology is an old technology, a new modern revival of the technology came about with discovery of C 60 or the Buckminsterfullerene (buckyball) named after Buckminster Fuller because of his penchant for building geodesic domes. Why geodesic domes? Because these domes are based off the Platonic solids 3 and C 60 is a truncated icosahedron (one of the Platonic solids).

C 60 were produced in 1985 during an experiment to help understand certain carbon molecules that might have been generated in space. Why do such an experiment? Because most stars have debris surrounding them with carbon in it and some have very long chains that are of interest to astronomers. Hence the experiment. The actual generation of C 60 was not intended but serendipity. From an engineering and science point of view, the analysis after the experiment was the real research because C 60 was identified through analysis after the experiment that did not aim to produce them or even know of their existence.

The buckyball is now considered a part of the fullerene family. An outline of facts about buckyballs:

• Truncated Icosahedron (like a Telstar football or "a soccer ball circa 1970s")
• 0.7 nm in diameter with a spacing of about 1 nm between adjacent buckyballs
• Can be made into a superconductor
• Offshoot studies led to the discovery of the carbon nanotube (next topic)
• Has been detected in burning candles (a modern addition to Faraday's The Chemical History of a Candle , yes?)
• Stacked buckyballs
• A huge amount, not miniscule
• The most massive particle to show wave-particle duality ( Nature 1999 )

There are many articles about buckyballs and interesting uses of buckyballs (though some are totally false, so be careful! See Understanding ). In this brief review though we will move onto the carbon nanotube as there have been actual products developed from this fullerene. That's not to say that buckyballs will never have products produced from them, there time just hasn't come yet.

Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes were first observed in 1991 and produced in 1992. Because of this discovery interest in buckyball technology shifted to these nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are like an individual layer of graphite (which is now called graphene) that is wrapped around to meet end to end. An outline of facts about carbon nanotubes:

• Extremely strong
• Known as buckytubes at one time
• Science in making the sabers but serendipity that CNTs were involved (just like bread making, etc.)
• Modern techniques make better sabers, but at the time they were the best (and their legend lives on)
• Varying diameters from 1 nm to 100 nm and can in theory be as long as you desire, but in practice not so long (yet)
• Good conductor of electricity
• Or can be a semiconductor
• Called (carbon) nanowires when discussing electrical properties (note: this is not the only type of nanowire)
• Single-walled (SWCNT or SWNT) and multi-walled (MWCNT or MWNT)
• Buckypaper offers many possible applications, but still is in its infancy
• GSFC/NASA continues their groundbreaking work on carbon nanotube technology
• CNT has been tested for such diverse ideas such as water filtration, supercapacitors, heat shields, etc.

A great way to look at nanotubes is to get a piece of chicken wire (plastic preferably) and cut out a rectangle (at this point you have graphene) and wrap it around (nanotube). You can do this at home which is way better then a flat screen simulation and definitely inexpensive.

Different wraps of graphene can produce different properties for carbon nanotubes. That is, depending on how you wrap the nanotube you can have metallic nanotubes or semiconductor nanotubes (or at this point you might want to call it a nanowire). Note that the ends of the wrap which normally don't have a cap in our representations represents the end of the nanotube itself.

There are two other possible wraps for the carbon nanotube and that is the chiral wraps. Chiral CNTs are stereoisomers and are mostly semiconductors.

For carbon nanotubes we can define a coordinate system that has unit vectors that help us describe the armchair, zig-zag, and chiral nanotubes.

Using the unit vectors (\(\vec{e_1}\) and \(\vec{e_2}\)) defined in the figure above we can write an equation that describes the various nanotubes as \(m \vec{e_1} + n \vec{e_2}\) where m and n are integers and \(m+n \ge 2\). Given this equation if m or n equal zero then we have a zig-zag CNT (semiconductor), if m=n we have an armchair CNT (metallic), and otherwise it is chiral CNT. In general chiral CNTs are semiconductors but if \(\lvert (m-n)\rvert \) is a multiple of 3 then it is metallic 4 .

Fullerene research is just at its infancy and there will be more to discover which will include its share of disappointments, but that is science.

So what about that sheet of graphite we discussed above? A single sheet of graphite is called graphene. Through studies of the laminar nature of graphite oxide starting as early as the 1860s where chemist Benjamin Brodie produced thin layers of the crystal which he studied and was able to get atomic weight of graphite. Studies on this structure continued with every thinner layers which had high strength and noteworthy optical properties. In 1947, physicist's P. R. Wallace produced a theoretical framework for graphene in order to understand the electronic properties of graphite. Work continued on thin layers of graphite both experimentally and theoretically with some work possibly being on graphene (there would be no way to distinguish between one and a few layers of graphite). In 1961 chemist Hanns-Peter Boehm reported on very thin layers of graphite flacks and called a single layer of graphite, "graphene." The term would be revived in the late 1990s when disscussing carbon nanotubes. Finally in 2004, physicists' Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov isolated and characterized free-standing graphene. And this is when things got interesting...

In the following outline we will list some properties of graphene that can possibly lead to exciting new products or are just very interesting scientifically:

• Single atom thickness (carbon)
• Normally a semiconductor has a greater than zero band gap and it is metals you would expect to have no band gap
• That is the graphene actual absorbs light (over 2%)
• This feature mean you can actual "see" graphene in certain conditions
• Graphene's strong interaction with photons maybe useable for nanophotonics
• Graphene is theoretically an excellent material for spintronics due to carbon coupling and long spin lifetimes (theory)
• Lightest strongest material with large tensile strength
• Small spring constant (flexible)
• Very robust
• But it has a impressive ability to distribute the force of an impact
• This allows it to bend like metals
• Graphene has high surface area to mass ratio (almost goes without saying) which could make it good for supercapacitors (instead of the currently favored idea of activated carbon)
• Can by used for energy storage, filtration, and other applications

That was just a few of the interesting properties of graphene. But this is not the last word on nanotechology as up and coming new technology includes the hexogonal Boron Nitrite (h-BN) that has just as many interesting properties as graphene. And we can go even further with combining fullerenes, graphene, and h-BN. Already combining graphene with CNTs has produced interesting research avenues as well as graphene with bismuth nanowires and graphene with h-BN (hexagonal Boron Nitrite).

So let us move on to discussing nanotechnology in more general way to give just a brief overview.

Nanotechnology by discipline

Nanotechnology spans multiple engineering disciplines which we will list briefly below. For electrical engineering the processes of making integrated circuits (ICs) has been in the nanotechnology range for decades, but new techniques are possible with nanotechnology elements.

• Bionanosensors
• Utilizing natures nanotechnology (like mRNA for vaccines, etc.)
• Nanofoods (nano-manipulation of food to improve taste, texture, etc.)
• Nanopackaging (using nanomaterials to improve packaging)
• Nanomembranes (for filtering)
• Nanocatalysts (for water remediation)
• Nanocoating (including CNT coating)
• Nanosurface protection (including uses of CNT mechanical properties)
• Quantum dots
• Lithography (been at nano-level for a long time)
• DNA nanoarray
• Nanowires or nanosemiconductors
• Nano-optics

The outline above is just a taste of nanotechology and how it effects a number of engineering disciplines.

There are three different areas of research in nanotechnology which usually are the domain of different disciplines.

• Liquid environment
• Usually biological
• Filters (CNT) and example of cross-over technology
• Silicon and other inorganic materials
• Metals, semiconductors
• Too reactive so they can't operate in wet conditions
• This should be in addition to actual experimentation and prototyping
• While this is important and could produce some excellent product or insight, it still has to be verified experimentally
• So don't get excited until the process is complete
• This is required to fully understand nanotechnology

What is so exciting about Nanotechnology?

The physical rules of the "macro" world are relevant all they way down to the microscopic level, but things change when you pass into the nano realm. Surface effects, chemical effects, optical effects, and physical effects are different in the nanoscale when compared to the macro or micro scale.

• Stain resistant clothes
• Sweat absorbing clothes
• Antimicrobial socks
• New exciting discoveries await
• However, disappointments await as well
• This is the nature of research
• Is some money going to be wasted? Yes that is the nature of searching for things. "Failure" is an integral part of engineering and science. We want success but we want to progress as well and that means some failures
• Can we predict where our money should go? Yes and no. Simulations can give us clues, but it is not a perfect solution
• Should we only do research that is proven out by a simulation? No, but we should not ignore the contribution of simulation

Understanding the different effects at the nanolevel requires an understanding of physics. For engineers and scientists this is why physics is essential. Some ideas require a graduate level physics background, but even with a calculus-based physics understanding the ideas behind nanotechnology become clearer. Simulations are going to require graduate school level education.

• Scaling laws
• Transport phenomena
• Hartree-Fock (computational physics - approximation method for wave functions)
• Hydrophobic and hydrophilic
• Diffusion, transport in all dimensions

Practical ways to do Nanotechnology

How do you go about making something in nanotechnology? There are two methods

• Building nanotechnology using larger elements
• Primary method in manufacturing at present
• No atomic-level control
• ​​​​​​State of photolithography for a couple of decade
• Laser is a larger element producing smaller nano-element
• Build from molecular components
• Static self-assembly utilizes nature to reach minimum free energy
• Dynamic self-assembly requires energy to force a solution
• That is components assemble themselves based off of a code
• What in nature might be used as a model for this?
• What are some problematic issues with using this method?

The answer to our coding is DNA which we discussed at the start of this chapter.

DNA is a coding device that is used in nature, but some have proven it can be used by humans. DNA is nanometer in size. Let us view a TED Talk by Paul Rothemund explaining his creation of DNA faces.

Note that the method described here is not the only method people are researching. You can go to the Rothemund Lab web page (under research) to get links to other researchers in the field.

Nanotechnology Examples

Because nanotechnology is so vast and covers so many disciplines we have picked only a few examples as a way of introduction. There are many many many more applications and examples in the literature. We encourage you to read as many as you can. And maybe one of your essays can be on nanotechnology in your field!

Bismuth Nanowires

Bismuth in has been used in one form or another for thermocouples and thermopiles for more than a century. Bismuth is a semimetal even in nanowire form until about 50 nm when it transitions to a semiconductor form. Most research is done, however, with Bismuth nanowires in the semimetal form as it is difficult to produce good nanowires below 50 nm (though advances continue). Nanowires offer different properties that can aid in the thermocouple/thermopile are of research such as optical properties and reduction of thermal conductivity (bulk semimetal general dissipate energy to quickly due to higher thermal conductivity.

Nanotechnology and the environment

• Humans need clean consumable water for survival
• Environmental contaminates are a serious problem that reduces the amount of consumable water to unacceptable levels
• Ultrafiltration
• Added reactive component (iron oxide ceramic membranes) add an extra-level of removal of contaminates
• Aluminum oxide ceramic membranes are another membrane being investigated
• Iron oxidization causes certain organic molecules (including toxic ones) to break down
• Therefore nanoscale iron can improve remediation
• Smaller size allows the iron to go further into the soil (percolation)

Nanotechnology materials

• The grain size is an important characterization of metal (regardless if we are taking nanotechnology or not) that defines among other things the yield strength
• \(\sigma_y = \sigma_0 + \frac{k}{\sqrt{d}}\) where \(\sigma_y\) is the yield strength, \(\sigma_0\) and k are constants that depend on the particular metal, and d is the average grain size diameter
• The equation implies that smaller grain sizes give better yield strength
• Possible negative Hall-Petch effect below 30 nm
• Questions remain; studies needed
• Issues are worsening corrosion and creep as the grain size gets smaller
• Future shows promise however
• Ceramic nanoparticles
• Possible bone repair (see next example)

Nanotechnology and bones

A large portion of our bones are nanosize hydroxyapatite which could be repairable using bioactive and resorbable ceramics. The mechanism of this repair would be osteoinduction. This is a very promising research avenue.

Spintronics (or magnetoelectronics)

The idea behind spintronics is to develop electronics that uses the spin of the electron rather than the "movement" of the electrons. The promise of this technology is to make transistors smaller and faster.

• Technically spintronics is not nanotechnology, however, nanotechnology offers the best approach for its practical use
• By creating ferromagnetic semiconductors that require layers that are only a few nanometers (\(\leftarrow\) there you go)

Nanotechnology Machines

Can there be nanotechnology machines? No, not really, nanomachines are not very practical. But nanoparts for use by microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is possible. For nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) we will outline some possible parts without getting into the details of how to control the motion (some sort of voltage will need to be applied).

• Use multi-walled nanotubes
• One tube rotates inside the other
• Kinds of emulates rotational bearings
• The nanomotor would be controlled by the use of a nanocrystal ram (sort of like a piston)
• Control by voltage in some fashion
• In general electronics this can be used as a clock or for blinking lights on a car
• This works using liquid metal droplets that exchange mass
• Utilizes surface tension (which in would be very strong at this scale)
• Graphene has relatively small spring constant and therefore is relatively flexible
• Graphene is very robust as well

Tools used in nanotechnology

A microscope is an optical device that uses light to magnify the object it is viewing, because visible light has a wavelength between 400 nm to 800 nm. Typically a "microscope" can at best see an object about twice the wavelength of light that is used. This means a normal optical microscope could at best see about 1 \(\mu m\) which is in its name...a micro scope. This would be cellular level. It is possible to infer some nanotechnology from a powerful microscope, but it would be better to use something else. Also there are UV microscopes, but still it would be better to use something else. So in this section we will go over the tools for nanotechnology.

• Focused beam of electrons
• Electrons' wavelength is much smaller than 1 nm (so this will work for nanotechnology)
• 5 to 10 nm resolution; some special SEMs can get down to just less than 1 nm
• Surface scanner
• Electrons penetrate the sample (typically less the 1 \(\mu m\))
• Magnets used to manipulate the electrons into the sample
• 0.2 nm resolution (but field of view is severely reduced in exchange for this better resolution)
• SEM, TEM with equipment like spectrometers
• 0.1 nm resolution
• While there are versions that can be used in a liquid environment, these Liquid-phase EMs have limited uses
• Need to prepare certain samples by sputtering metal (like gold) on them
• Sample is placed in a vacuum of at least 10 -4 torr
• New innovations allow for "desktop" Scanning electron microsopes
• Used electrical properties from tip to sample
• 0.01 nm depth resolution
• Uses force properties (this is how it distinguishes from STM) using a cantilever
• Detects the Van der Waals forces by oscillating very close to the surface
• Difficult mode to work because of its being close to the surface which induces troublesome forces
• Most common mode
• For soft surfaces
• There are many different type of probes (maybe 100 or so)
• Nanoscale Thermal Analysis probes for thermal maps of the sample
• Scanning Microwave Impedance Microscopy probe for scanning local electrical properties
• Magnetic probes for probing magnetic fields above the sample
• Scanning Capacitance Mode probes for getting a sense of carrier concentrations in semiconductors
• Deep Trench probe used for the integrated circuit industry
• Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy probe
• Millimeters for Electron Microscopes
• Micrometers for Scanning Probe Microscopes
• Slow scan compared to SEM
• Unless you really want to get to the atomic level then you need high vacuum
• In the case of atomic level however we are not discussing nanotechnology any more though this could be of benefit to nanotechnology in the research sense
• Tapping mode is usually used here
• Usually use same sort of probes as with solid but designed for liquid (Silver Nitride)
• Probes for AFMs can be used to do nanomanipulation (nanolithography or nanobuilding)
• Nanomanpulators are available for SEMs as well
• Only two types will be outlined here, more are covered in materials class
• Spectroscopy is the study of how light interacts with materials
• Basic spectrometers that most people are familiar with determine elements in a system but other spectrometers determine much more
• Studying spectrometers could actual be a year-long course in itself, fortunately there are numerous web sites on spectroscopy for most types of spectrometers
• Determines type of crystal structure along with defects and any other structural information
• Some methods are non-destructive
• "Common" spectroscopy in general determines if you have say carbon or not but not what form of carbon
• Allotropes of carbon: buckyball, CNTs, graphite, diamond, graphene, glassy carbon, carbon nanobuds, etc.
• Basis of this spectroscopy is Stokes Raman scattering (as opposed to say Mie or Rayleigh scattering)
• This is covered more thoroughly in the materials science course
• New advances have been produced in the lab (real) because of simulation that were originally preformed based off new theories or ideas
• Theories are made into models which are then simulated
• Need models of measuring tools and the materials to understand interactions
• Theory: what do we know about the materials and tools
• Model: represent the theory in a testable fashion (equations; numerical analysis techniques)
• Use the model to predict some new results
• Laboratory test for the new results to confirm the model
• Re-work the model
• In rare instances look at the theory

Nanotechnology involves almost everything

• Nanoparticles (like quantum dots)
• Light and its interaction at a nanoscale
• Metamaterials (negative index of refraction among other "non-natural" properties) are the most promising here
• Nanomechanics
• Nanofluidics (study of fluids confined to a nanostructure)
• Nanobiotechnology

Additional websites to satiate your curiosity on nanotechnology

• https://www.nano.gov
• https://www.nature.com/nnano/ - Nature Magazine's Nanotechnology Journal
• https://www.ornl.gov/facility/cnms
• https://nanohub.org - this is for educators and researchers can be very high level
• https://nanocenter.umd.edu
• https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscope-resource/primer/java/electronmicroscopy/magnify1/ - simulation of an electron microscope
• https://www.renishaw.com/en/raman-spectroscopy--6150 - Renishaw's Raman Spectroscopy page (they have links to a lot of literature on Raman spectroscopy)
• http://mw.concord.org/modeler/ - Molecular Workbench: Simulator program for learning science in a realistic manner
• https://www.sciencenews.org - General science periodical but you can search for Nanotechnology and get interesting articles
• https://www.nanowerk.com - kinda like a warehouse of nanotechnology links (more for learning)
• https://www.graphene-info.com - kinda like a warehouse of graphene articles and links
• https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/nanotechnology/ - National Geographic article on Nanotechnology
• https://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm
• https://www.agilent.com/labs/features/2011_101_nano.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/nano/default.html - CDC laboratory that investigates the safety of nanotechnology
• https://www.open-raman.org - open source Raman project so you can build your won Raman spectrometer (costs a bit, still)
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6982820/  - An article on this history of nanotechnology that might be of interest to some

This is just a sampling of nanotechnology, a more detail look at nanotechnology will be provide in materials science class. This is the last teacher-led case study; now it is the students turn - starting in the next section.

1 For a more modern version of the Powers of Ten you might want to look at the Cosmic Eye version:

Another interesting approach is the tool on AAAS' ScienceNetlink that gives more scales then just the power of 10 movie: Scale of Universe 2 . Still the original movie from 1977 is still amazingly good and has music from the famous American composer, Elmer Bernstein ( The Ten Commandments, Magnificent Seven ,...).

2 The tendency is to use grain size here but that actually means something else with regards to metallurgy so instead we will say nanoparticle size. Gold is obviously gold when we look at it, but a 30 nm nanoparticle size of gold is red. As you make larger and large nanoparticles it starts to change from red to a bluish-purple hue. The shape also can cause color change so rather than grinding it like you would in ancient times you would purposely make spheres or prismoids to get different colors (note that the sphere would be different color then prismoid if both were the same size).

3 The Platonic solids were described by Plato (or, maybe, Pythagoras) and consist of five solids: the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, and dodecahedron. These solids are very interesting in the field of mathematics and crystallography (and by association materials science).

4 You can examine this more by using one of Scott Sinex's Material Sciences Excelets (in particular one named "Carbon Nanotube"). This, while designed for Excel, will run on LibreOffice's spreadsheet but does not work on MacOS Numbers.

5 The example list of probes herein is from Bruker , a company that sells scientific equipment, in particular AFM and STM probes ( Bruker probes division).

Engineering Case Studies Online

• Disciplines

Engineering Events

• Organizations
• Content Types
• Mechanical engineering (120)
• Aerospace engineering (86)
• Civil engineering (83)
• Structural engineering (63)
• Petroleum engineering (49)
• Aircraft accidents (48)
• Bridges (39)
• Nuclear engineering (37)
• Oil mines and mining (36)
• Airplanes (34)
• Chemical engineering (34)
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (BP) (72)
• Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster (61)
• Chernobyl Disaster (26)
• Piper Alpha Accident (18)
• Titanic (18)
• Minneapolis Bridge Collapse (17)
• Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster (17)
• Air France Flight 4590 (15)
• Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse (14)
• Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (14)
• Bhopal Gas Disaster (13)
• TWA Flight 800 (12)
• Apollo 13 (10)
• Ford Pinto Controversy (10)
• Big Dig Ceiling Collapse (9)
• BOAC Flight 781 (8)
• September 11 Attacks (7)
• Texas City Refinery Explosion (BP) (5)
• Esso Longford Gas Explosion (4)
• Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (3)
• Hindenburg (3)
• King's Cross Fire (3)

Featured Playlists

• Airplane Crashes: Causes and Effects (28)
• Apollo 13: Eyewitness Testimony and Primary Footage (20)
• Investigation into the Challenger Disaster (26)
• Nuclear Fallout from Chernobyl (7)

will dramatically improve teaching and research by providing a single, comprehensive source for a wide range of video and text material focusing on engineering failures and successes. At completion, the collection will contain 250 hours and 50,000 pages of quality documentaries, accident reports, experiments, visualizations, case studies, lectures and interviews from leading engineering institutions around the world.

Robots: Taking the Biscuit

Tech Tools: Law and Order

Ancient Rome: The Mobile Society

Footprint database

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Case Studies

Systems engineering principles described in the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) Parts 1-6 are illustrated in Part 7, Systems Engineering Implementation Examples . These examples describe the application of systems engineering practices, principles, and concepts in real settings. These systems engineering examples can be used to improve the practice of systems engineering by illustrating to students and practitioners the benefits of effective practice and the risks of poor practice. There are two kinds of SE implementation examples: articles written for the SEBoK and those based on the SE literature.

• 1 List of Examples from the SE Literature
• 2 Value of Case Studies
• 3.1 Works Cited
• 3.2 Primary References
• 3.3 Additional References

List of Examples from the SE Literature

The following examples are included:

• Successful Business Transformation within a Russian Information Technology Company
• Federal Aviation Administration Next Generation Air Transportation System
• How Lack of Information Sharing Jeopardized the NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn
• Hubble Space Telescope Case Study
• Global Positioning System Case Study
• Global Positioning System Case Study II
• Medical Radiation Case Study
• FBI Virtual Case File System Case Study
• MSTI Case Study
• Next Generation Medical Infusion Pump Case Study
• Design for Maintainability
• Complex Adaptive Operating System Case Study
• Complex Adaptive Project Management System Case Study
• Complex Adaptive Taxi Service Scheduler Case Study
• Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems Case Study
• Northwest Hydro System

Systems engineering (SE) case studies can be characterized in terms of at least two relevant parameters, viz., their degrees of complexity and engineering difficulty, for example. Although a so-called quad chart is likely an oversimplification, a 2 x 2 array can be used to make a first-order characterization, as shown in Figure 1.

The x-axis depicts complicated, the simplest form of complexity, at the low-end on the left, and complex, representing the range of all higher forms of complexity on the right.The y-axis suggests how difficult it might be to engineer (or re-engineer) the system to be improved, using Conventional (classical or traditional) SE, at the low-end on the bottom, and Complex SE, representing all more sophisticated forms SE, on the top. This upper range is intended to cover system of systems (SoS) engineering (SoSE), enterprise systems engineering (ESE), as well as Complex SE (CSE).The distinctions among these various forms of SE may be explored by visiting other sections of the SEBoK. In summary, the SEBoK case study editors have placed each case study in one of these four quadrants to provide readers with a suggested characterization of their case study's complexity and difficulty. For sake of compactness the following abbreviations have been used:

• Business Transformation (Successful Business Transformation within a Russian Information Technology Company)
• NextGen ATC (Federal Aviation Administration Next Generation Air Transportation System)
• Saturn Mission (How Lack of Information Sharing Jeopardized the NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn)
• Hubble (Hubble Space Telescope Case Study)
• GPS and GPS II (Global Positioning System Case Study)
• Medical Radiator (Medical Radiation Case Study)
• FBI Case Files (FBI Virtual Case File System Case Study)
• Small Satellite MSTI (MSTI Case Study)
• Medical Infusion Pump (Next Generation Medical Infusion Pump Case Study)
• Incubator Maintainability Design (Design for Maintainability)
• Complex Adaptive Operations (Complex Adaptive Operating System)
• Taxi Scheduler (The Development of the First Real-Time Complex Adaptive Scheduler for a London Taxi Service)
• Project Management (The Development of a Real-Time Complex Adaptive Project Management Systems)
• SWFTS MBSE(Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems Case Study)

Value of Case Studies

Case studies have been used for decades in medicine, law, and business to help students learn fundamentals and to help practitioners improve their practice. A Matrix of Implementation Examples is used to show the alignment of systems engineering case studies to specific areas of the SEBoK. This matrix is intended to provide linkages between each implementation example to the discussion of the systems engineering principles illustrated. The selection of case studies cover a variety of sources, domains, and geographic locations. Both effective and ineffective use of systems engineering principles are illustrated.

The number of publicly available systems engineering case studies is growing. Case studies that highlight the aerospace domain are more prevalent, but there is a growing number of examples beyond this domain.

The United States Air Force Center for Systems Engineering (AF CSE) has developed a set of case studies "to facilitate learning by emphasizing the long-term consequences of the systems engineering/programmatic decisions on cost, schedule, and operational effectiveness." (USAF Center for Systems Engineering 2011) The AF CSE is using these cases to enhance SE curriculum. The cases are structured using the Friedman-Sage framework (Friedman and Sage 2003; Friedman and Sage 2004, 84-96), which decomposes a case into contractor, government, and shared responsibilities in the following nine concept areas:

• Requirements Definition and Management
• Systems Architecture Development
• System/Subsystem Design
• Verification/Validation
• Risk Management
• Systems Integration and Interfaces
• Life Cycle Support
• Deployment and Post Deployment
• System and Program Management

This framework forms the basis of the case study analysis carried out by the AF CSE. Two of these case studies are highlighted in this SEBoK section, the Hubble Space Telescope Case Study and the Global Positioning System Case Study .

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a catalog of more than fifty NASA-related case studies (NASA 2011). These case studies include insights about both program management and systems engineering. Varying in the level of detail, topics addressed, and source organization, these case studies are used to enhance learning at workshops, training, retreats, and conferences. The use of case studies is viewed as important by NASA since "organizational learning takes place when knowledge is shared in usable ways among organizational members. Knowledge is most usable when it is contextual" (NASA 2011). Case study teaching is a method for sharing contextual knowledge to enable reapplication of lessons learned. The MSTI Case Study is from this catalog.

Works Cited

Friedman, G.R., and A.P. Sage. 2003. Systems Engineering Concepts: Illustration Through Case Studies.

Friedman, G.R., and A.P. Sage. 2004. "Case Studies of Systems Engineering and Management in Systems Acquisition." Systems Engineering. 7 (1): 84-96.

NASA. 2011. A Catalog of NASA-Related Case Studies. Goddard Space Flight Center: Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Updated June 2011. Accessed September 2011. Available: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/pdf/450420main_NASA_Case_Study_Catalog.pdf .

United States Air Force (USAF) Center for Systems Engineering. 2011. Why Case Studies? . Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, USA: Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), US Air Force. Accessed September 2011. Available: http://www.afit.edu/cse/cases.cfm .

Primary References

Friedman, G., and A.P. Sage. 2004. " Case Studies of Systems Engineering and Management in Systems Acquisition ". Systems Engineering 7(1): 84-96.

Gorod, A., B.E. White, V. Ireland, S.J. Gandhi, and B.J. Sauser. 2014. Case Studies in System of Systems, Enterprise Systems, and Complex Systems Engineering . Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

NASA. A Catalog of NASA-Related Case Studies . Greenbelt, MD, USA: Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Updated June 2011. Accessed December 5 2014 at NASA http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/pdf/450420main_NASA_Case_Study_Catalog.pdf .

United States Air Force (USAF) Center for Systems Engineering. 2011. Why Case Studies? . Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, USA: Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT).

Additional References

Navigation menu.

Case topic suggestions

The Engineering Cases group believes that through cases, students will improve their ability to learn and retain concepts in their courses, on work terms and in their professional lives. One of the best means to create case studies is by converting them from student-generated work reports. As a result, it is in our best interest to ensure that work reports submitted to our group contain an adequate design process and topics that align with topics that professors have suggested would benefit from case studies. We also believe that students will benefit by having suggestions for work term report topics.

Engineering Cases welcomes any submitted work reports, regardless of topics; however, work reports that use one of the sample work report topics below would be very much appreciated! 

Sample work report topics

Mechanical Engineering

• Stress analysis of prismatic members in axial, shearing, torsional and flexural deformations
• Force analysis of structures and structural components
• Hydrostatics
• Flow similarity and dimensional analysis as applied to engineering problems in fluid mechanics
• Thermodynamics, forensics based
• Machine design
• Linear vibrations

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Simulation of Real Earthen Dams
• Slope stability, retaining walls or foundations
• Concrete flooring
• Waste to value-added product production using microorganisms
• Sustainability topics
• Geotechnical
• Structural Analysis 1
• Structure and properties of materials

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Software development life cycle
• Project scheduling
• Maintenance considerations
• Assembly language programming
• Peripherals
• Digital Circuits and systems
• Electronic circuits and devices
• Control systems
• Circuit analysis and design

Systems Design Engineering

• Design for manufacturing and assembly
• Safety and responsibility in engineering design
• Automatic Process Control and Instrumentation

Chemical Engineering

• Bioseparations/Bioprocessing
• Fermentation
• Non-steady state operation, rate data analysis and collection
• Non-isothermal reactor design, energy balances
• Fuel Cells , battery testing and battery design
• Heat exchangers - double pipe, shell-and-tube and plate
• Electrowinning
• Batch Distillation
• Microbe growth and control
• Bomb Calorimetry
• Gas Absorption
• Statistical analysis, design of experiments, probability
• Engineering design process or synthesis
• Material sciences
• Manufacturing processes
• Food process engineering
• Process safety
• Life cycle analysis

Software Engineering

• Software Requisition: Specification and Analysis
• Software Test/Quality Assurance and maintenance
• Computer networks and security

Nanotechnology Engineering

• Microfluidics
• Nanotechnology ethics , law, and sustainability
• Polymer selection and testing

Management Engineering

• Bullwhip effect and supply chain management
• Double, triple integral and ordinary differential equation
• Finite element methods
• Numerical methods
• Heat transfer/Energy Conversion
• Thermodynamics
• Fluid Mechanics

Submit your ideas for useful work report topics

If you have any topics that can be added to the list above, please Contact Us ! Thank you!

Related links

• Submit work term report
• Case writing opportunity
• Work report support
• Engineering competitions
• Professional Master of Engineering Design Diploma

Contact Waterloo Cases in Design Engineering Steve Lambert Tel: (519) 888-4728 Email: [email protected]

Contact us Website feedback  

• Contact Waterloo
• Maps & Directions
• Accessibility

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations .

Web Design Case Study: THT. Website Design for Engineering Service

Welcome to take a glance at one of our recent projects, created at the crossroads of the practical and creative, design and engineering. In this case study, we unveil the story of website design for THT, the company making electronics that breathe life into innovative products.

Client and Project

THT is a USA-based team that offers electrical engineering and firmware development and services that span from proof-of-concept prototyping to designs for mass production. As they describe themselves, they are committed to producing reliable technology that performs at the highest standard, with honest, well-organized, clearly documented, and trustworthy work. They back clients who they believe in and whose goals they can achieve.

The THT team approached us with a request for a website design to amplify their online presence, highlight the service’s benefits, tell about the projects that had already been accomplished, and enhance communication with their customers. We also implemented the website on Webflow .

Website Design

The general visual and interaction design for the THT website is based on the following points:

• the solid visual hierarchy that makes the web pages highly scannable and allows website visitors to quickly get into the essence of the service
• simple, elegant, and readable typography corresponding to the theme and not distracting visitors with decorative elements
• the deep dark color palette and the balanced usage of stylish gradients
• well-arranged content, allowing for quick skimming and uniting different sections into the integral user experience
• effective and consistent graphics performance and custom visual elements for the original presentation
• smooth, catchy web motion effects

Altogether, those factors do their best to make the website present the essence and benefits of the service, engage visitors, and create a quick and strong emotional connection.

The typography choice fell on Alliance, the sans serif typeface flexible for various goals and providing good legibility in both short and large texts.

And here’s a glance at the colors used for the website: deep, eye-pleasing, and providing a good background for various visuals and text blocks.

The home page of the website presents an overview of the services the company provides and the portfolio of completed projects. The hero section features a prominent custom illustration our team made to set the topic and activate instant visual connection to the theme of electronics, devices, and digital technologies even before the visitor reads the text. The image is supported with the blog tagline, a short, concise text block unveiling the main idea of the company activity, and a noticeable call-to-action button for those who want to connect the team right from the point.

Scrolling the page down, visitors can learn more about what the company can help with; all the services are well-organized in a clear, digestible list supported with neat line graphics. The following Portfolio section shows the cards with project previews. All preview cards are endowed with special custom illustrations in one style, which helps to reach visual consistency and integrity.

And here’s how web animation helps make the experience even more dynamic and impressive on the home page of the THT website.

This is a glance at the particular project page in the portfolio. It echoes the visual style set on the home page, with neatly arranged, hierarchic text blocks, illustrative and photo content, and supportive line graphics.

And here’s an example of the page presenting the tool dealing with different data. For the design here, we had to consider various types of infographics and stats that would look clear and consistent.

Another interesting design point to mention is the animation of the interactions with the tabs of different projects, imitating a sort of curtain moving up and opening an extensive preview of the project.

In the structure of the company website, a contact page is usually quite simple. Still, it has great importance as it sets the direct communication with the potential customer, so it’s crucial not to overdesign it to make the page fast to load, informative, and functional. That’s also the idea behind the contact page for the THT website: a contact form is added to the page to let the visitor quickly send the message right from there, or they could choose from other convenient methods like writing an email, giving a call, or arranging an online meeting.

All website pages are adapted to the efficient mobile experience to make the design work at its full and let the brand communicate successfully on any device.

After that our team implemented all the design solutions with Webflow, which ensured that designers monitored the slightest details of the development process.

New design case studies from tubik team are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches to some of the design projects.

Glup. Delivery App Branding and UX Design

Decriminalize Poverty. Storytelling Web Design on Social Issue

MOVA Brewery. Ecommerce Website Design for Beer Producer

HP23. Website and 3D Animation for Prostheses Producer

Magma Math. Web Design for Educational Platform

Nonconventional Show. Website Design for Podcast

BEGG. Brand Packaging and Web Design for Food Product Ecommerce

Crezco. Brand Identity and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Otozen. Mobile App Design for Safe Driving

Originally written for  Tubik Blog , graphic and video content by  tubik

Want to get emails about new posts?

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Evidence Review of the Adverse Effects of COVID-19 Vaccination and Intramuscular Vaccine Administration

Vaccines are a public health success story, as they have prevented or lessened the effects of many infectious diseases. To address concerns around potential vaccine injuries, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) administers the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which provide compensation to those who assert that they were injured by routine vaccines or medical countermeasures, respectively. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have contributed to the scientific basis for VICP compensation decisions for decades.

HRSA asked the National Academies to convene an expert committee to review the epidemiological, clinical, and biological evidence about the relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and specific adverse events, as well as intramuscular administration of vaccines and shoulder injuries. This report outlines the committee findings and conclusions.

Read Full Description

• Digital Resource: Evidence Review of the Adverse Effects of COVID-19 Vaccination
• Digital Resource: Evidence Review of Shoulder Injuries from Intramuscular Administration of Vaccines
• Press Release

Recent News

NAS Launches Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine

Science Academies Issue Statements to Inform G7 Talks

Supporting Family Caregivers in STEMM

A Vision for High-Quality Preschool for All

• Load More...

A NEW BI-OBJECTIVE MODEL TO OPTIMIZE SOLID TRANSPORTATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY TO FACILITATE CATASTROPHE VICTIMS: A CASE STUDY

• Jency Leona Edward Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.
• Palanivel Kaliyaperumal Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

This study addresses the crucial challenge of efficient resource allocation during emergencies, aiming to minimize loss of life and property. We analyzed a case study for the 2015 floods in Tamil Nadu, India, where local emergency centers in Chennai and surrounding cities distributed relief materials. Additionally, employing a Bi-objective Solid Transportation Problem (BOSTP) model, minimizes both cost and time of delivery. Further, the traditional methods like Row Maximum, Least Cost, and Vogel's Approximation are compared to BOSTP, which shows that Column Maximum yields an optimal result based on cost and time constraints. However, introduced a novel algorithm for BOSTP using trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers(TNN) to account for inherent uncertainties in logistics, specifically shipment cost and time. Lastly, performance analysis of the BOSTP model and sensitivity analysis under various scenarios demonstrate its effectiveness in enhancing rapid humanitarian assistance during emergencies. This case study contributes to developing efficient bi-objective models for future disaster response efforts.

How to Cite

• Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)

The Author(s) must formally transfer each article's copyright before publication in the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. Such transfer enables the Journal to defend itself against plagiarism and other forms of copyright infringement. Your cooperation is appreciated.

You agree that the copyright of your article to be published in the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING - THEORY, APPLICATIONS, AND PRACTICE is hereby transferred, throughout the World and for the full term and all extensions and renewals thereof, to INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING - THEORY, APPLICATIONS, AND PRACTICE.

The Author(s) reserve(s): (a) the trademark rights and patent rights, if any, and (b) the right to use all or part of the information contained in this article in future, non-commercial works of the Author's own, or, if the article is a "work-for-hire" and made within the scope of the Author's employment, the employer may use all or part of the information contained in this article for intra-company use, provided the usual acknowledgments are given regarding copyright notice and reference to the original publication.

The Author(s) warrant(s) that the article is Author's original work and has not been published before. If excerpts from copyrighted works are included, the Author will obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the article's sources.

The author also warrants that the article contains no libelous or unlawful statements and does not infringe on the rights of others. If the article was prepared jointly with other Author(s), the Author agrees to inform the co-Author(s) of the terms of the copyright transfer and to sign on their behalf; or in the case of a "work-for-hire," the employer or an authorized representative of the employer.

The journal does not provide the author copy of the final paper when it is published. The author(s) can make(s) a subscription to INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING - THEORY, APPLICATIONS, AND PRACTICE if they want to get the final paper that has already been published.

The journal is registered with the Library of Congress (ISSN # 1943-670X). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the journal.

The author reserves patent and trademark rights and the right to use all or part of the information contained in the article in future non-commercial works.

Current Issue

Information.

• For Readers
• For Authors
• For Librarians

Subscription

Login to access subscriber-only resources.

Make a Submission

Online ISSN 1943-670X

The International Journal of Industrial Engineering is a Non-Profit Organization under Section 501(c)(3).

The journal is registered with the Library of Congress and the Copyright Clearance Center. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the journal.

The International Journal of Industrial Engineering is abstracted by Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index, Scopus/ Engineering Index/Compendex, EIPAGE1, and CURRENT CONTENTS/ENGINEERING, COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY.