In order to fabricate high-performance thermal management materials with ultra-high thermal conductivities and low CTEs, we have recently initiated a series of investigations, where metal-matrix composites (MMCs) containing high thermal conductive fillers were uniquely fabricated. In our study, to avoid the damage of filler particle surfaces, spark plasma sintering (SPS) processing was used as a processing technique. In the present review, thermal properties of diamond particle dispersed MMCs fabricated using SPS process in our recent works are introduced in comparison with those produced using various fabrication techniques by other researchers.

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All machinery and mechanical systems consist of many parts. Mechanical parts contact each other and interfere mutually. Friction and wear are inevitable, and energy loss and surface damage occur as a result. Accordingly, in the design of a machine element and a system, control of friction and wear is a crucial issue to take into consideration. Lubrication using carbon-based hard films, such as DLC and diamond, has attracted attention as a method for avoiding the conventional lubricating technique. Recently many attempts have been made to fabricate functional coatings with good mechanical property using hard carbon coatings. This paper first presents a brief review of surface modification technology for a machine and structural material, and a novel concept of utilizing metal containing DLC (Me-DLC) as a functional coating and partly polished diamond films for super-low friction coating are proposed and discussed.

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Mechanical coating technique (MCT) as a novel film formation process was proposed and developed based on mechanical frictional wear and impacts among alumina balls, columns, disks and metal powder particles in the bowl of planetary ball mill or pot mill. Metal films of Ti, Cu, Ni, Fe and Zn on alumina balls were prepared by MCT. The formation process of the metal films in MCT includes the nucleation by adhesion, the formation and coalescence of discrete islands, formation and thickening of continuous coatings, exfoliation of continuous coatings. The influence effects of the film formation were investigated from views of physical, chemical, mechanical and process factors. Further, 2-stap MCT was developed based on MCT concept for preparing composite films on alumina balls. MCT is a simple, low cost and useful film formation process and can form metal and composite films on ceramics balls as the substrates.

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The measurement and modeling of unsteady fluid forces acting on robots in swimming motions are introduced in this paper. Two robots were developed for this purpose. One is an underwater robot arm for the fluid forces acting on limbs and the other is a swimmer mannequin for those acting on body trunk. For both cases, the fluid forces were modeled and formulated as the sum of the drag forces and the inertial force due to the added mass of fluid. The fluid force coefficients in the fluid force model were determined so that the simulated force became consistent with the measured one as well as possible. The simulated forces were found to consistent with the measured ones sufficiently both for the underwater robot arm and the swimmer mannequin. In particular, it was found that the determined fluid force model could estimate the fluid forces for the various different swimming motions.

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It is one of important issues in fluid engineering to measure drag acting on an obstacle placed in a uniform or shear flows. The similarity and friction laws can be proposed experimentally from the measured drag. The drag is measured with indirect or direct methods. The indirect method is based on similarity laws like the law of the wall. On the other hand, the direct method is measured with no assumption of the similarity laws. This paper will introduce the principles of the direct method for the wall shear stress acting on the plate and the drag acting on the obstacle placed in a boundary layer, and give measurement examples in a wind tunnel.

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Recently, micro gaseous flow has been a novel research filed along with the development in the micro technology. In the micro gaseous flow, the Knudsen number, which is a ratio of the mean free path to the characteristic length of the system, becomes large, and such a high Knudsen number flow should be investigated as a molecular flow. We organized a session meeting in the Japanese Society for Mechanical Engineers for the investigation on the micro gaseous flow. The closed discussions by the members gave the deep insight to the field, but much more interaction in the research network in future is expected for the further progress in the field. The recent developments in the measurement techniques for the micro gaseous flow in our group have been introduced.

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Nakamori et al. found experimentally that the friction between a partly polished diamond coating and a metal surface was drastically reduced to zero as relative speed was increased [Diamond Relat. Mater., 14, (2005), 2122]. It seems that the diamond coating took off the counter surface because sliding was noiseless in their experiment. We consider that microscale roughness of the partly polished diamond coating may cause high gas pressure between two sliding surfaces and realize the gas-film lubrication. We clarify the mechanism that causes the lift force by performing numerical simulations. It is found that this lift force becomes notable especially in micro-/nanoscale gas flow.

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Since gas flows in micro/nano devices are dominated by the interaction of gas molecules and solid surfaces, the detailed understanding of the scattering dynamics of gas molecules on surfaces is one of the critical issues for optimizing the performance of these devices. The molecular beam technique is a powerful tool to analyze gas耀urface interactions. In this paper, some of our studies on gas-surface interactions by means of the molecular beam technique are briefly presented. The first topic is the scattering of water molecules on graphite surface, where the relatively large adsorption energy has a significant impact on the scattering dynamics. The second topic is the application of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (VA-SWNTs) as surface modification material to enhance the energy accommodation of gas molecules on surfaces. The unique morphology of VA-SWNTs with high porosity allows gas molecules to penetrate into the films and realizes a large number of collisions with SWNTs.

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To investigate an influence of a glycocalyx surface layer covering over endothelial cells (ECs) on the flow field or flow through the layer, a high spatial resolution measurement technique was improved for three-dimensional velocity distributions close to a glycocalyx layer by utilizing a confocal micro-PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technique. The developed technique achieved to measure three-dimensional velocity distributions in a 177×177×3μm^3 region with in-plane resolution of 7 μm and with depth resolution of 0.5 μm. Three-dimensional velocity distribution close to the layer of living ECs cultured in microchannel was measured. The results suggested that the developed technique was useful for investigation of velocity field close to the layer.

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This paper deals with a mathematical model to predict transit time of a neutrophil through a narrow alveolar capillary segment. A previously presented model to predict the transit time was based on aspiration of passive cells into blunt-ended micropipettes taking into account the effects of driving force of the cell and the minimum radius of the capillary on the transit time. In addition to those factors, initial cell shape and inlet curvature of the capillary could also influence passage and retention characteristics of neutrophils in the capillaries. In this paper, the neutrophil was modeled by a sphere of a Maxwell fluid encapsulated by a thin elastic cortical membrane, and the capillary segment was modeled by an axisymmetric arc-shaped constriction in a cylindrical tube. A new model to predict the transit time based on the numerical simulation of passage of the neutrophil model through the constriction was introduced.

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In the manuscript, the current proceedings of the computational fluid dynamic analysis and quantitative flow visualization are introduced as important evaluation tools to grasp the blood flow state inside a developing blood pump in order to optimize the inside geometry of the blood pump. Especially, the flow analysis as for the pump pressure-flow property, the hemolytic property, the anti-thrombogenetic property, and the impeller stability are described which are important for the turbo-type blood pump development.

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A computer simulation method is proposed for thrombus formation in single ventricle. Blood components are modeled by an assembly of computed particles. The blood flow mechanics is solved by the MPS method. A spring force is used to express a thrombus formation due to aggregation of blood cells. Two-dimensional models of blood flow channel are created for atrio-pulmonary connection (APC) and total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC). Numerical simulations indicate that thrombus formation is affected by blood flow behaviors in ventricle, such as stagnation and recirculation.

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When blood comes in contact with artificial systems it tends to clot more. Hence, blood clotting is the major issue in extracorporeal circulation. Due to this, the patients take regular anticoagulation medicine. The frequent use of such a medicine results to other consequences. Due to this, the optimum use of medicine is desirable. To address this issue, we have made an assessment of instrumentation systems based on electrical impedance measurement with the aim of developing a sensor to monitor the blood and detect the thrombogenic activities at the early stage. The experimental results obtained by monitoring the bovine blood are presented. It was understood that electrical resistivity can be a suitable parameter to detect embolus. And, change in capacitance was more specific to understand the thrombogenic process.

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Hydrogen(H_2)/air mixtures have a wide explosive range from lower limit to upper limit. However, since the H_2/air mixtures have high burning velocity, it often causes inconvenient aspects such as rapid pressure rise in combustion phenomena. To use hydrogen safely and effectively, it is important to control the ignition process in spark-ignition engines since the ignition process is the initial process of combustion phenomena in spark-ignition engines. In this study, ignition of hydrogen which is directly injected into air by using laser induced breakdown (laser ignition) has been experimentally investigated. Results shows that combustion of the direct injection of hydrogen to air with laser ignition is effective way to inhibit rapid pressure rise compared with H_2/air premixed combustion with laser ignition. Laser ignition in the early stage of injection is applicable to wide range of excess air ratio compared to laser ignition in the late stage of injection. The reason of this tendency is that H_2 and air mix toward the lean premixed condition in the late stage of injection.

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To ignite fuel spray with a laser beam directly, it is necessary to investigate the characteristics of laser-induced breakdown in fuel spray. In this present study, the effects of incident energy and spray characteristics on the breakdown and ignition characteristics were investigated experimentally. Laser-induced breakdown ignition experiments was conducted in ethanol spray by using the third harmonic of the Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (wavelength λ=355 nm, pulse width is about 6 ns and maximum output energy is about 375 mJ/pulse) as a laser source. Probability of breakdown occurrence and ignition for different incident energy and droplet number density were obtained. And to clarify the ignition mechanism, the Schlieren images of the plasma and flame propagation process were taken. It found that there is a large gap between the required incident energy for breakdown and ignition in ethanol spray. And plasma is generated by the multiple points in ethanol spray. In case of ignition success, flame kernels ware formed around each plasma.

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This study aims to develop the innovative plasma combustion system to improve fuel economy and achieve the higher efficiency without any modification of current engine configuration. The microwave plasma ignition system was developed and applied to practical multi-cylinder engine. The relationship between initial combustion period and IMEP was investigated. The initial combustion period became longer and its fluctuation became larger when mixture became leaner. The slow and unstable initial combustion lead to large fluctuation of IMEP, and determined the lean limit. The initial combustion period was shortened, fluctuation of IMEP was decreased and lean limit was extended when microwave plasma was applied. The microwave plasma enhanced initial combustion and realized the stable ignition under lean condition.

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Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and a data mining technique were applied to the multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a hybrid rocket. In this study, a single-stage sounding rocket and a multi-stage launch vehicle were designed. MOGA was applied to solve the multi-objective problem using real-number cording and the Pareto ranking method. Performances of the rocket engine and the launch vehicle were empirically estimated. Many non-dominated solutions were obtained using MOGA, and a trade-off was observed between the two objective functions. To better understand the design problem, the MOGA results were visualized using a scatter plot matrix (SPM) and a parallel coordinate plot (PCP).

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In this study, multiobjective design exploration for a rocket launch site is conducted using evolutionary computation with large eddy simulation to understand the acoustic characteristics associated with various launch sites and find design information such as trade-off relation among design objectives. The launch site is described by curved surface. The flat plate inclined with 45 degree is considered as the reference configuration. The objective functions of multiobjective aero-acoustic design optimization are, 1) minimization of averaged sound pressure level near the payload fairing, 2) minimization of maximum pressure on the curved surface of the rocket launch site, and 3) minimization of the change of the curved surface from the reference configuration. The total number of evaluation in multiobjective evolutionary computation is 2500. The analysis of non-dominated solutions clearly show that there are various trade-off relations and correlations among the objective functions.

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Recently, various industries have developed electro magnetic wave devices for commercial use. In the automobile industry, the electromagnetic wave technology is widely applied to wireless communication technologies such as ETC, GPS, VICS and digital terrestrial broadcasting and autonomous sensors such as millimeter-wave radar, tire pressure monitoring system and light sensor. A structural optimization method is expected for a functionality improvement of electromagnetic wave device however some problems concerning optimization method lead to wrong solution in the case of the electromagnetic analysis. This research deals with a structural optimization method for the electromagnetic analysis and some numerical examples included from radio-frequency devices to optical devices are presented.

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In this study, the shape optimization of film cooling hole of turbine blade as the application of TDM (Total Design Management), which is the optimal design method in order to explore the optimal design efficiently and make clear and sustain designer's intention, is introduced. As for the parameterization method of the shape of cooling hole, the POD (Proper Orthogonal Decomposition) is applied. POD can represent the arbitrary shape as the combination of the basis vector of principal components of prepared base designs. In the optimization process, the film cooling efficiency, which is chose as the objective function, is maximized under the constraint of the permissible maximum Mises stress around cooling hole. The optimal design is extracted by following the filtering method of TDM. As a result of the optimization, the superiority of the film cooling efficiency of the optimal design is confirmed by the CFD analysis.

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After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, redesign of regional energy systems is needed for envisioning a sustainable society. However, one critical difficulty of designing the systems stems from their complexity - regional energy systems encompass not only technological components but many social factors, which involve people's lifestyles, political measures, and economic situations. This paper introduces a scenario approach to designing such multifaceted systems. Emphasis in this paper is on diffusion of a variety of emerging energy technologies, such as photovoltaics (PV) and electric vehicles (EV), since these technologies would greatly affect future energy demand and supply. As a case study, a diffusion scenario of PV and EV in Toyonaka City, Osaka, Japan in 2030 is illustrated.

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Machine manufacturer often purchases the certified safety components when the safety function is involved during system design phase. The Safety Function (SF) can be expressed simply as "I", "L" and "O" according to EN ISO 13849-1. Each single word denotes as follows; I=INPUT, L=Logic and O=OUTPUT. In order to design SF the Risk Assessment (RA) has to be done to define each SF. This means the single SF has its own "I+L+O" architecture. Or the system may have several SFs then each SF should be analyzed independently. When it's necessary to select the functional safety component, there was no enough information so far. However the Machine Designer has to know what the functional safety components are and what kind of standards to be applied to that functional safety component. The Notified Body in EU answers this question with a published article from BGIA (IFA: The IFA is an institute for research and testing of the German Social Accident Insurance in Germany).

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In our country, seemingly although safety is used together with the words of relief like "safety and relief", it is a tendency peculiar to our country which other countries do not have. The risk is concept related to the contract between the first person (donor of benefit and convenience) and the second person (enjoyer of benefit and convenience). Nevertheless, why is it at that a lot of accidents being sacrificed for an irrelevant third person are? The nuclear accident in Fukushima plants rolled a lot of irrelevant people. Groundless "Safety and Relief" is compelled, and it has rolled it in the large-scale accident that can say it is fatal residents. In this lecture, present state of safety engineering for dealing with such the critical situation are discussed and the newly proposed concept of critical interlock system is described.

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We conducted radio astronomy missions from space. We often use parabola antenna for radio telescopes. Most of radio telescopes are built on ground, but we need space observation for precise measurements or for getting longer baselines than the Earth of interferometry. Gain of the antenna is one of important parameter to achieve enough sensitivity, and to get enough gain, we need to care the surface accuracy of the antenna. Other parameters such as the signal loss by antenna, sidelobe level, the characteristics of polarization, and pointing accuracy are important. In the space environment, we can get better condition for the background emission, but we have bad condition of thermal and radiation environment. Long term variation of parameters of materials and the structure may be a problem. The measurement of surface accuracy and correction of the surface by actuators are possible solution to solve the problem.

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For future space sciences, there is an increase of the demand of large and precise space structures such as JWST, ASTRO-H and so on. To realize such ultra-large and highly precise space structures, the conventional design concept and development process should be changed drastically. Not only novel materials with high shape stability, but also smart structures which can change their characteristics are promising candidates. In this paper, advanced techniques of structures and materials including smart space structures are summarized.

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In the future space science missions, the "Smart Actuators" will be considered as one of the breakthrough technologies. In this paper, some examples of current actuator technologies for the space observation equipments are presented, such as the tip-tilt mirror for the space telescope, and the mirror figure control actuators for the large telescope on ground. Some issues on developing the smart actuators for future space systems are also mentioned

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To realize high precision large space structures, smart space structures which measure and correct their configurations in orbit have been studied. In the studies piezoelectric elements are often used as sensors and actuators because they have no mechanical parts and relatively high electro-mechanical conversion efficiency. Since these elements are also exposed under space environment in some cases, it is important to discuss issues to be occurred there and measures against them. In this paper, two of them, suppression of thermal expansion in the piezoelectric elements and shape retainment technique with less/no electric power, are introduced.

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The patent system is expected to promote development of technologies. However, the rules governing it can be misused to obtain patents that only provide obstacles against legitimate activities of others. Such patents protect no new technology at all. They simply prohibit others from practicing existing common technologies. Nevertheless, it often happens that the present legal system does not provide an efficient way to have them invalidated. This paper shows how such patents are created and why they have adverse effects against development of new technologies.

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This paper explores problems concerning copyright legislation from the point of information ethics. The concept of copyright is ethically justified by two social functions. First, the copyright system prevents free riders, who produce pirated editions of works to retain market order. Second, it prevents the loss of monetary incentives for people to create and distribute works by prohibiting the production of pirated editions. Recently, Japan's copyright reforms strengthened the regulation to make the range of private uses of copyrighted works narrower in the type of uses. The strengthening of copyright may dwarf other social values, such as public access to information, free speech, and freedom to learn. However, if creators and distributers are rational with respect to economics and seek to maximize their benefits from their works, the copyright system's second function may justify their desires. The further strengthening of copyright justified by the second function of the copyright system will probably have strong affection on the fair use of copyrighted works. Therefore, if we need to balance the copyright system with other social values, we should pay more attention to social benefits instead of the claims of creators and distributors regarding their interests.

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In the tissue engineering approach for regeneration of osteocondral tissues such as bone and cartilage, artificially regenerated tissues are generally constructed using scaffolds and stem cells. In this study, a variety of porous composite scaffolds were developed for bone tissue engineering. The composite scaffolds have been developed by combining bio-polymers and bioceramics. Drug release function was also introduced into one of the scaffold to accelerate rate of bone formation. Effects of culture of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) on the mechanical properties of the composite scaffolds were also examined by correlating them with proliferation, differentiation ECM formation. A two phase gel/porous form scaffold has been fabricated for cartilage tissue engineering to improve the mechanical characteristics of hydrogel used for cartilage regeneration. For osteocondral tissue engineering involving regeneration of layered tissue such as cartilage/cancellous bone has also been considered and a dual layer regenerated tissue was constructed by stacking a cartilage layer with collagen gel and MSCs and a bone layer with a collagen/β-TCP composite scaffold and MSCs.

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A method for quantitative evaluation of gait pathology in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) was presented. Our method utilized a miniature three-dimensional inertial sensor attaching on the upper trunk. The six LSS subjects (age 66±3 yr.) measured before surgery and after surgery at 3 months have participated in our experiment. The gait ability was examined by the six minutes walking test shuttling between thirty meters strait corridor in a hospital. Firstly, gait factors were detected by the sensor output, and then three-dimensional rotation angles of the upper body were calculated. To extract the time-variable characteristics brought by expression of pain or intermittent claudication, spectral analysis by STFT was employed. Experimental results showed that postoperative subjects were improved mainly in keeping upper body steadiness and walking smoothness. The proposed method may useful in quantifying changes of walking parameters for LSS patients.

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Cells have been researched using chemical reactions of proteins in the biochemical field for years. In this review, I introduce an approach to understand structure and function of cells in the view of mechanical dynamics. As cells consist of cytoskeletons and focal adhesions as frame and support structures respectively, the mechanical characteristics of cells can be measured and modeled as one of structural systems. Using the mechanical approach along with the biochemical approach, we can understand the whole mechanism of cell response to mechanical stimulation.

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This paper presents advanced computer simulation techniques for nonlinear fluid-structure interaction problems. An interface-tracking method based on an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) finite element mesh technique and an interface-capturing method based on an extended finite element method (X-FEM) and Lagrange-multiplier method are presented, with several applications associated with material and engineering research divisions. The applications are also associated with and inspire to several medical applications.

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In recent years, large-scale wind-farms are built as one of the pillars of renewable energy. In this paper discusses the standardization work of the wind-turbine by ISO/TC108 Mechanical vibration, shock and condition monitoring to which the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers corresponds.

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On geothermal energy utilization, standardization on subsurface system technology would be difficult because of regional characteristics, although most of the technical difficulty in geothermal utilization lies on subsurface systems. However for power generation by small-scale and low enthalpy resources, standardization on surface system would be effective because a small thermal loss would largely influence onto the performance of the power generation system. Also for geothermal heat pump system, standardization on a whole system, not only for a machine, would be useful. Both power generation and heat pump systems need more actual data for any standardization.

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This paper provides the summary of the author's studies that have been designed for understanding the mechanism of freezing injury of cells. The studies include: (1) an experiment that used a perfusion microscope to examine osmotic response and subsequent injury of isolated cells in suspension, (2) a pseudo-freezing experiment that was designed to expose cells without the presence of ice to changes of temperature and concentration of solutes similar to those during a freeze-thaw process, (3) a freeze-thaw experiment to compare with the pseudo-freezing experiment, and (4) a cell deformation experiment that mimicked the situation that cells are compressed and deformed between ice crystals during freezing. From these experiment, hypotheses were proposed on the mechanism of cell damage due to concentration of electrolytes in the extracellular solution, the main mechanism of freezing damage to cells, and a complex effect of mechanical stress and elevated concentration of electrolytes on cells. Osmotic properties and response of adhered cells were also discussed based on a real-time 3D observation of cells to osmotic challenges.

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The interaction between monocytes and endothelial cells is crucial in early atherogenesis, and the involved endothelial cell micromechanics may provide us with important aspects of atherogenesis. We have elucidated that the interaction of the monocytes to the endothelial cells reduced the adhesiveness to the substrate and increased the deformability of endothelial cells. Moreover, we have shown that monocyte transmigration alters endothelial junctional organization, i.e. PECAM-1 up-regulation and VE-cadherin down-regulation. It is suggested that PECAM-1 plays a major role in mechanotransduction in endothelial cells. Therefore, there is possibility that monocytes adhesion and migration themselves play as mechanical stress for endothelial cells.

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The bacterial flagellar motor is a reversible rotary machine that rotates a left-handed helical filament, allowing bacteria to swim toward a more favorable environment. The direction of rotation reverses from counterclockwise (CCW) to clockwise (CW), and vice versa, in response to input from the chemotaxis signaling circuit. CW rotation is normally caused by binding of the phosphorylated response regulator CheY (CheY-P), and strains lacking CheY are typically locked in CCW rotation. The detailed mechanism of switching remains unresolved because it is technically difficult to regulate the level of CheY-P within the concentration range that produces flagellar reversals. Here, we demonstrate that high hydrostatic pressure can induce CW rotation even in the absence of CheY-P. The rotation of single flagellar motors in Escherichia coli cells with the cheY gene deleted was monitored at various pressures and temperatures. Application of >120 MPa pressure induced a reversal from CCW to CW at 20℃, although at that temperature, no motor rotated CW at ambient pressure (0.1 MPa). At lower temperatures, pressure-induced changes in direction were observed at pressures of <120 MPa. CW rotation increased with pressure in a sigmoidal fashion, as it does in response to increasing concentrations of CheY-P. Application of pressure generally promotes the formation of clusters of ordered water molecules on the surfaces of proteins. It is possible that hydration of the switch complex at high pressure induces structural changes similar to those caused by the binding of CheY-P.

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A hypoxic microenvironment affects cell fate and regulates various physiological and pathological phenomena. A microfluidic device that enables precise control of oxygen tension by supplying gas of a predefined oxygen concentration was designed for three-dimensional cell cultures. Numerical simulations were performed to investigate changes of oxygen tension in the microfluidic device in response to variation of the media and gas flow rates. Oxygen tension created with the appropriate flow rates of gas and media based on the simulation results was validated by using a ruthenium-coated oxygen-sensing glass cover slip. Moreover, usability of the device in cellular experiments was investigated by observing the migration of breast cancer cells under controlled oxygen tension. The computational results revealed that there was an optimum combination of flow rates of media and gas for control of oxygen tension. The results of validation experiment well agreed with the corresponding computational results, showing the establishment of low uniform oxygen tension (<3%) or an oxygen gradient. The cellular experiment using the device showed that there was enhanced migration of breast cancer cells under a hypoxic condition in comparison with a normoxic condition. The present microfluidic device is a useful tool to investigate cellular responses to hypoxia.

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Activity of education for engineering ethics in Hitachi Group changed from preventive ethics to the aspirational ethics in 2010 and has been growing up about education contents. Hitachi has solved many various problems concerned with social innovation business to realize the sustainable society and management. Therefore the aspirational ethics is necessary. A point to expect of a student is to utilize and to apply the knowledge as well as the acquisition and understanding of the knowledge. Furthermore, the communication skills is important, too. Technical capabilities and quality to realize them will be cultivated by the experience, think and act by oneself, resolve the problem. Activity of education for engineering ethics in Hitachi Group evolves with a customer viewpoint, diversification of the business, the diversification of the product, globalization based on the idea of cotributing to society through our technology development.

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It has been about 2.5 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Plant Accident happened in 2011. Some newly published books still continue to investigate what had happened in East Japan, but the enough volume of the lessons have already been made public. Next, these lessons will be transmitted to the future engineer generation, and should be made good use for the loss reduction of a future disaster/accident. The lessons of the past disasters, for examples, Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster in 1995, helped to reduce the loss of East Japan Earthquake Disaster at the emergency hospitals. We mechanical engineers have proposed many lessons about the machines, but we, who designed the nuclear plants especially, lost the Japanese people's confidence unfortunately. We should explain the all-inclusive conclusions of a long-term (around 100 years) investigation like historians, and will embed the lessons into the safety machine design.

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It is important for product designer and material designer to get the overview and the forecast of the property and the influence of the designing product by computer simulations. In order to support product designer and material designer, multi-scale product design system is proposed. Concept of multi-scale product design system is an expansion of concept of current CAD/CAE system. Multi-scale product design system aims to design multi-scale products from micro/nano scale level to human scale level continuously. Multi-scale product design system consists of multi-scale spatial model and multi-scale simulation modules. Multi-scale spatial model is the model of the physical space. Multi-scale simulation modules are implemented by FEM and MD (molecular dynamics). Multi-scale product design system is implemented using MPI-2.

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This paper describes about the assessment of transportation policies using a traffic simulator. For the comprehensive assessment, we need to evaluate transportation policies from the viewpoints of traffic, environmental and economic impacts. Assuming the multilateral evaluation of the traffic system by a traffic simulator, the simulator is required to output the realistic traffic conditions and the detailed information about the behaviors of trip makers. In this research, we applied the intelligent-multi-agent-based traffic simulator, which is able to deal with the detailed interaction of each private cars, buses and pedestrians, to evaluate the tram railway extension plan in Okayama-city. Through some simulations under the assumptions that the private-car users are reduced when the railway is extended, we confirmed the impacts of the extension plan.

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We investigate running stability of the high-speed-moving vehicle subjected to the various seismic excitation. The analytical model of the vehicle consists of one body, two trucks and four wheelsets, and has a total of 21 degree of freedom. Some springs of vehicles called stoppers are modeled as a nonlinear spring in order to reduce relative displacements. The equations of motion are derived from the Lagrange equation. We use the possibility of the rollover of the vehicle as evaluation index in order to evaluate running stability of the high-speed-moving vehicle. The vehicle is excited by inputting the various seismic waves. We focus on the effect of the maximum acceleration and predominant period of the seismic waves. The maximum acceleration and predominant period of the seismic input are varied. The response behaviors of the vehicle are simulated with the modified seismic input.

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