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Bringing together diverse areas of a university means having to work with several different methods and frameworks for measuring and assuring quality and identifying key performance indicators. The Business and Strategic Planning area of Library and Student Support at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been involved in such a case study, and this paper aims to present the findings of this work, which may be of interest to performance measurement practitioners.

This paper applies a case study approach, in that the background of the institution and change management programme will be clearly presented in order that the subsequent overview of the performance management work can be placed into context. The newly‐formed department already had several quality assurance and user satisfaction measurement instruments which were being used within the constituent parts of the service area (i.e. LibQUAL, SCONUL benchmarking exercises, Matrix assessment, enrolment surveys) as well as the results of the annual National Student Survey. The work in question has allowed for an investigation into how to establish a framework for inputting measurement and key performance data from all of these instruments and being able to respond to them as a single department. Having consulted some of the university's external corporate partners (namely Shop Direct and Merseytravel), the resulting framework now incorporates embedding departmental values and behaviours, and identifying particular moments of truth within the student lifecycle, where Library and Student Support has a particular impact on the student experience. By identifying these “moments of truth” the department is better placed to measure its impact and subsequently assure quality. The paper will present the experience of Library and Student Support in their efforts to find a single framework, made up of constituent methods and instruments, by which it can measure and assure quality.

The findings of the paper bring together the method outlined above and allow for the dissemination of the first year's work of the Library and Student Support Quality Assurance Framework. At the time of writing, this is a work in progress, as the first year's data, analysis and resulting quality actions and responses are for the academic year 2010‐2011. This paper presents an opportunity to find out how the framework was developed, constructed and implemented, how effective it has been and what further development needs to happen in order for the framework to continue to be effective.

Super‐convergence of university support departments is becoming increasingly more common, and existing quality and performance measurement channels now appear less and less meaningful within this new paradigm. This case study should present itself as one of the first studies of a “whole service” approach to quality assurance within this new order, and will therefore be of great interest and value to anyone else currently working within the business, planning and quality areas of super‐convergence.

The purpose of this paper is to give some insight into current evidence about the value of converging library and information technology departments into single organisational units.

A narrative account of attempts to merge libraries, IT departments and other campus support services, with analysis supported by a selected, representative number of published case studies. A conclusion is offered that emphasises the practical benefits of convergence at the level of the working library professional and everyday library user.

The recent history of convergence has moved through three phases: an early period of optimistic and energetic commitment to the idea of merging IT and library services, gave way to an interim stage of reflection and reconsideration during which some degree of “deconvergence” took place. After this pause, a new dynamic was created, associated both with the trend towards “super‐convergence”, and also with new, more pragmatic ideas about how to bring workers from different professional traditions together.

The paper attempts to give some highly contemporary insights into the latest thinking and developments on the topic in question, and emphasises the importance of relating abstract management strategies to practical organisational outcomes.

This study aims to propose a general and efficient adaptive strategy with local mesh refinement for two-dimensional (2D) finite element (FE) analysis based on the element energy projection (EEP) technique.

In view of the inflexibility of the existing global dimension-by-dimension (D-by-D) recovery method via EEP technique, in which displacements are recovered through element strips, an improved element D-by-D recovery strategy was proposed, which enables the EEP recovery of super-convergent displacements to be implemented mostly on a single element. Accordingly, a posteriori error estimate in maximum norm was established and an EEP-based adaptive FE strategy of h-version with local mesh refinement was developed.

Representative numerical examples, including stress concentration and singularity problems, were analyzed; the results of which show that the adaptively generated meshes reasonably reflect the local difficulties inherent in the physical problems and the proposed adaptive analysis can produce FE displacement solutions satisfying the user-specified tolerances in maximum norm with an almost optimal adaptive convergence rate.

The proposed element D-by-D recovery method is a more efficient and flexible displacement recovery method, which is implemented mostly on a single element. The EEP-based adaptive FE analysis can produce displacement solutions satisfying the specified tolerances in maximum norm with an almost optimal convergence rate and thus can be expected to apply to other 2D problems.

This paper aims to propose a new adaptive strategy for two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear finite element (FE) analysis of the minimal surface problem (MSP) based on the element energy projection (EEP) technique.

By linearizing nonlinear problems into a series of linear problems via the Newton method, the EEP technique, which is an effective and reliable point-wise super-convergent displacement recovery strategy for linear FE analysis, can be directly incorporated into the solution procedure. Accordingly, a posteriori error estimate in maximum norm was established and an adaptive 2D nonlinear FE strategy of h-version mesh refinement was developed.

Three classical known surfaces, including a singularity problem, were analysed. Moreover, an example whose analytic solution is unavailable was considered and a comparison was made between present results and those computed by the MATLAB PDE toolbox. The results show that the adaptively-generated meshes reflect the difficulties inherent in the problems and the proposed adaptive analysis can produce FE solutions satisfying the user-preset error tolerance in maximum norm with a fair adaptive convergence rate.

The EEP technique for linear FE analysis was extended to the nonlinear procedure of MSP and can be expected to apply to other 2D nonlinear problems. The employment of the maximum norm makes point-wisely error control on the sought surfaces possible and makes the proposed method distinguished from other adaptive FE analyses.

This paper aims to investigate, a new optimization algorithm for complex orbit transfer missions with low‐thrust propulsion system, which minimizes the drawbacks of traditional optimization methods, such as bad convergence, difficulty of initial guesses and local optimality.

First, the trajectory optimization problem comes down to a nonlinear constraint parameter optimization by using the concept of traditional hybrid method. Then, one utilizes genetic algorithm (GA) to solve this parameter optimization problem after treating the constraints with the simulated annealing (SA) and random penalty function. Finally, one makes use of localized optimization to improve the precision of the final solutions.

This algorithm not only keeps the advantages of traditional hybrid method such as high precision and smooth solutions, but also inherits the merits of GA which could avoid initial guess work and obtain a globally optimal solution.

Further, research is required to reduce the computational complexity when the transfer trajectory is very complex and/or has many adjustable variables.

By using this method, the globally optimal solutions of some complex missions, which could not be obtained by traditional method, could be found.

This method combines the GA with traditional hybrid method, and utilizes SA and random penalty functions to treat with constraints, and then gives out a super convergence way to find the globally optimal low‐thrust transfer orbit.

This paper seeks to examine the development of the on‐board guidance law for multi‐revolutions orbit transfer spacecraft with low‐thrust propulsion systems.

In the research, first, a set of equinoctial elements is utilized to avoid the singularities in dynamical equation of classical orbit elements. A thruster switch law is derived by analyzing the efficiency of the changing of each orbit elements. Second, by using the theory of Lyapunov feedback control, analytic expressions of thrust angles are derived. Finally, the weights of the Lyapunov function are adjusted by hybrid genetic algorithm to improve the performance of the guidance law.

First, the dynamical equations of classical orbit elements are always singularity during the orbit transfer. By using modified equinoctial elements, these singularities could be avoided. Second, the trajectory is sensitive to the weights in Lyapunov function. With reasonable weights, the key parameters under the control of the guidance law presented in this paper are very close to that of optimal trajectory.

In further research, some dynamical weights methods will be used in the control law to improve the performance index, and approach the optimal solution.

The guidance law presented in this paper could be easily used as an on‐board algorithm for the multi‐revolutions orbit transfer or stationkeeping. Furthermore, it could also be utilized as an initial design method for low‐thrust orbit transfer.

Providing a low‐thrust guidance law by combining the concept of Lyapunov feedback control with hybrid genetic algorithm. This method has a super convergence and a low‐computational cost.

This study aimed to overcome the challenging issues involved in providing high-precision eigensolutions. The accurate prediction of the buckling load bearing capacity under different crack damage locations, sizes and numbers, and analysing the influence mechanism of crack damage on buckling instability have become the needs of theoretical research and engineering practice. Accordingly, a finite element method was developed and applied to solve the elastic buckling load and buckling mode of curved beams with crack damage. However, the accuracy of the solution depends on the quality of mesh, and the solution inevitably introduces errors due to mesh. Therefore, the adaptive mesh refinement method can effectively optimise the mesh distribution and obtain high-precision solutions.

For the elastic buckling of circular curved beams with cracks, the section damage defect analogy scheme of a circular arc curved beam crack was established to simulate the crack size (depth), position and number. The h-version finite element mesh adaptive analysis method of the variable section Euler–Bernoulli beam was introduced to solve the elastic buckling problem of circular arc curved beams with crack damage. The optimised mesh and high-precision buckling load and buckling mode solutions satisfying the preset error tolerance were obtained.

The results of testing typical examples show that (1) the established section damage defect analogy scheme of circular arc curved beam crack can effectively realise the simulation of crack size (depth), position and number. The solution strictly satisfies the preset error tolerance; (2) the non-uniform mesh refinement in the algorithm can be adapted to solve the arbitrary order frequencies and modes of cracked cylindrical shells under the conditions of different ring wave numbers, crack positions and crack depths; and (3) the change in the buckling mode caused by crack damage is applicable to the study of elastic buckling under various curved beam angles and crack damage distribution conditions.

This study can provide a novel strategy for the adaptive mesh refinement for finite element analysis of elastic buckling of circular arc curved beams with crack damage. The adaptive mesh refinement method established in this study is fundamentally different from the conventional finite element method which employs the user experience to densify the meshes near the crack. It can automatically and flexibly generate a set of optimised local meshes by iteratively dividing the fine mesh near the crack, which can ensure the high accuracy of the buckling loads and modes. The micro-crack in curved beams is also characterised by weakening the cross-sectional stiffness to realise the characterisation of locations, depths and distributions of multiple crack damage, which can effectively analyse the disturbance behaviour of different forms of micro-cracks on the dynamic behaviour of beams.

An original finite element scheme for advection‐diffusion‐reaction problems is presented. The new method, called spotted Petrov‐Galerkin (SPG), is a quadratic Petrov‐Galerkin (PG) formulation developed for the solution of equations where either reaction (associated to zero‐order derivatives of the unknown) and/or advection (proportional to first‐order derivatives) dominates on diffusion (associated to second‐order derivatives). The addressed issues are turbulence and advective‐reactive features in modelling turbomachinery flows.

The present work addresses the definition of a new PG stabilization scheme for the reactive flow limit, formulated on a quadratic finite element space of approximation. We advocate the use of a higher order stabilized formulation that guarantees the best compromise between solution stability and accuracy. The formulation is first presented for linear scalar one‐dimensional advective‐diffusive‐reactive problems and then extended to quadrangular Q2 elements.

The proposed advective‐diffusive‐reactive PG formulation improves the solution accuracy with respect to a standard streamline driven stabilization schemes, e.g. the streamline upwind or Galerkin, in that it properly accounts for the boundary layer region flow phenomena in presence of non‐equilibrium effects.

The numerical method here proposed has been designed for second‐order quadrangular finite‐elements. In particular, the Reynolds‐Averaged Navier‐Stokes equations with a non‐linear turbulence closure have been modelled using the stable mixed element pair Q2‐Q1.

This paper investigated the predicting capabilities of a finite element method stabilized formulation developed for the purpose of solving advection‐reaction‐diffusion problems. The new method, called SPG, demonstrates its suitability in solving the typical equations of turbulence eddy viscosity models.

The purpose of this paper is to present a numerically adaptive finite element (FE) method for accurate, efficient and reliable eigensolutions of regular second- and fourth-order Sturm–Liouville (SL) problems with variable coefficients.

After the conventional FE solution for an eigenpair (i.e. eigenvalue and eigenfunction) of a particular order has been obtained on a given mesh, a novel strategy is introduced, in which the FE solution of the eigenproblem is equivalently viewed as the FE solution of an associated linear problem. This strategy allows the element energy projection (EEP) technique for linear problems to calculate the super-convergent FE solutions for eigenfunctions anywhere on any element. These EEP super-convergent solutions are used to estimate the FE solution errors and to guide mesh refinements, until the accuracy matches user-preset error tolerance on both eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.

Numerical results for a number of representative and challenging SL problems are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy and reliability of the proposed method.

The method is limited to regular SL problems, but it can also solve some singular SL problems in an indirect way.

Comprehensive utilization of the EEP technique yields a simple, efficient and reliable adaptive FE procedure that finds sufficiently fine meshes for preset error tolerances on eigenvalues and eigenfunctions to be achieved, even on problems which proved troublesome to competing methods. The method can readily be extended to vector SL problems.