Experimental Mirce Mechanics
The development of science started when people began to study phenomena not merely observing them. People developed instruments and learned to trust their readings, rather than to rely on their own perceptions. They recorded the results of their measurements in the form of numbers. Supplied with these numbers they began to seek relationships between them and to write down those relationships in the form of formulas. Then the formulas became the only things they came to trust when they began to predict things that they even could not physically experience.
A system is any collection of components grouped together to perform at least one function with a measurable performance. Hence, each system is associated with function, performance and in most cases a set of instructions related to the operational, maintenance and support related issues, jointly defining the functionality of the system.
However, at the same time, known or unknown to the user, a system posses capacity to maintain functionality during its life, know as functionability. Unlike functionality, which is a pretty much time-independent property of a system, functionability is very much a time and environment (natural and human) dependent property of a system. While a large number of scientific disciplines deal with the functionality of a system (fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, electronics, metallurgy, and others), a scientific treatment of the functionability of a system is almost nonexistent. Hence, the scientific studies of the motion of functionability through the life of a system constitute the Mirce Mechanics. Like any other scientific discipline it embraces the observation, understanding, description and prediction of the motion of the functionability through the life of a system.
Motion is one of the most complex concepts of science. The images it creates in our minds are as diverse as the rustling of leaves and the movement of planets. Even the most exotic pictures of motion, however, have something in common – the displacement of some objects in relation to others with respect to the passage of time. Adding the concept of trajectory to this makes the concept of motion more concrete. The trajectory of the motion of a particle x(t) is said to be specified if at each instant of time t it is possible to indicate the value of x. To achieve that it is necessary to either measure the coordinates xi and ti or calculate them. The latter is only possible if the physical laws of the motion of the particle are known.
Consequently, the main objectives of the Experimental Mirce Mechanics, EMM, are focused on scientifically measuring the trajectory of the motion of functionability through the life of a system to understand its shape, causing mechanisms, and time-dependence, whereas the main objective of the Theoretical Mirce Mechanics, TMM, are to determine the laws of motion that describe, and hence enable calculations of, the motion of functionability through time
The state of a system in which it is able to deliver functionality will be called the state of functioning, denoted as SoFu. Clearly, a system starts its life in the SoFu, otherwise it would not have been a system. However, irrespective of how perfect the design of a system may be, or the technology of its production or the materials from which it is made, during its operation certain irreversible changes will occur. These changes are the result of processes such as corrosion, abrasion, accumulation of deformations, distortion, overheating, fatigue, diffusion of one material into another, and similar. Often these processes superimpose on each other; they interact with each other and cause changes in the condition of a system, as result of which, its functionality will change. The deviation of the characteristics of the system from the accepted nominal values or range of values, or total absence of functionality, is defined as a failure. Regardless of the reasons for its occurrence, a failure will cause the transition of a system from the state of functioning to a new state, known as the State of Failure, SoFa.
For some systems transition to the state of failure means retirement, for example rockets, satellites and similar. Conversely, there are a large number of systems whose functionability can be restored. In order to restore the functionability of a system it is necessary to perform specified activities known as maintenance tasks. The most common restoration activities are cleaning, adjustment, lubrication, painting, calibration, replacement, repair, refurbishment, renewal, and so on; very often it is necessary to perform more than one activity in order to restore the functionability of a system. Apart from the maintenance activities caused by failure during operation, a system may require some activities to be performed, simply to retain it in a state of functioning. Generally speaking these activities are less complex than those needed for the restoration of functionability, and are typified by cleaning, adjustment, checking, and inspection. The set of activities performed in order to restore to, or retain in, the SoFu is called a maintenance task.
It is necessary to stress that the maintenance tasks cannot be performed without appropriate resources such as spares, material, trained personnel, tools, equipment, manuals, facilities, software, etc. As the main task of these resources is to support the maintenance task we shall call them maintenance support resources, MSR. The set of all activities (such as engineering and administrative), which have to be performed in order to provide all required support resources would be called the support task.
Thus, the functionability of a restorable system that fluctuates between SoFu and SoFa until its retirement, establishes a time-dependent pattern, known as the functionability profile (it maps states of the system during its life). Thus, at any instant of time a system under consideration, from the point of view of functionability, could be in one of the two possible states:
· State of Functioning, SoFu (numerically denoted as 1)
· State of Failure, SoFa. (numerically denoted as 0)
The role of the Experimental Mirce Mechanics is to determine the time dependent shape of the functionability profile, Fu(t), by observing the behaviour of systems during their lives. Generally speaking experiments performed on a large number of individual systems of the same type, conducted under non-changeable conditions, produced a different functionability profile for each trial.
These experiments had pointed out the fundamental difference between the concepts of functionality and functionability. While all individual systems of the same type are identical, from the point of view of functionality (in sense Ford Escort is Ford Escort, …, is Ford Escort, from function, performance, physical dimensions and attributes point of view. ), they are very different from the functionability point of view. This confirmed that the motion of functionability through the life of a system does not have a uniquely defined functionability profile that is applicable to each individual system. Thus, at each instant of time individual systems could be in one of the two possible states.
Based on the above the following truths of the Experimental Mirce Mechanics have been deduced:
- The motion of functionability through the life of each individual system is discrete and irregular function of time
- The motion of functionability through the life of a system, Fu(t), is continuous and statistically regular function of time.
However, from the mathematical point of view the cause of statistical behaviour is irrelevant, but the scientific understanding of the:
- Mechanisms of the motion
- Causes of variability
- Pattern of the motion in time
is the main reason of existence of the Experimental Mirce Mechanics.
In order to study the causes of the motion of functionability through the life of a system a large number of functionability phenomena that cause the transition to:
-
The State of Failure, such as: material deficiencies, production-assembly-installation errors, ageing processes, operator and maintenance errors, foreign object damage, no fault found events, storage and transport related phenomena, fatigue cracks, impact of solar radiation, sand, wind, ice on system functionability, interactions between components and many, many more have been observed. Experimental data collected are subjected to the rigours of scientific analysis with the objective of determining their mechanisms (such as: thermal ageing, actinic degradation, thermal stress, pitting, acid reaction, hot spot creation, clogging by snow, warping, abrasive wear, the wind direction change, suncups formation on the blue ice runway, thermal buckling, photo-oxidation and similar).
- The State of Functioning, such as component replacement, partial repair, module replacement, as-good-as-new repairs, modifications, as-bad-as-old repairs, group replacement, shop replacement, field replacement and similar have been studied. Data collected are subjected to the rigours of scientific analysis with the objective of determining the impact of the type, scope, depth and frequency of maintenance task of the motion of functionability in one hand and the impact of the human physiology, anthropometrical, psychological, social, economical factors of the other.
To fully understand the mechanisms, variability and pattern of these phenomena the research performed in the EMM is ranging between:
· 10-10 metre (Atomic System – to deal with vacancies, fatigue, creep, corrosion, etc.)
· 10+10 metre (Solar System – to deal with humidity, wind, ice, solar radiation, etc,).
This range is the minimum sufficient “physical scale” which enables the understanding of the mechanics of the motion of functionability through the life of a system. In other words, this is the physical range within which functionability related phenomena take place and it should be studied over this range in order to be fully understood.n order to study the causes of the motion of functionability through the life of a system
Polly Vacher MBE, GFMA has made considerable contribution to the Experimental Mirce Mechanics during her, world record breaking, solo flight around the World via Poles in 2003/04. She was recorded around 20,000 functionability governing parameters during the flight. The data collected regarding the state of the aircraft, pilot and enviromentre are continuously analased and used by the students of the Akademy.
"Voyage of the Ice" is experimental project launched by the Akademy to monitor the global environmental changes by collecting and analysing the data on Polly’s route in perpetuity. The objective is to continue to collect the environmental data at the places and at the times where Polly was in 2003/04 during her "Voyage to the Ice" flight. This unbiased scientific approach should provide the truthful picture of the changes in the global climate conditions. Should you or your organisation like to be involved with this long term, global project as a representative or contributor from your geographical location please contact Dr J.Knezevic for further details (phone + 44 (0) 1395 232 653, fax + 44 (0) 1395 233 899, or email JK@mirceakademy.com ).