Search results for: flexible path

Authors: Mohamed Dhaoui, Hakim Gabtni

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The migration of hydrocarbons is a fairly complicated process that depends on several parameters, both structural and sedimentological. In this study, we will try to determine secondary migration paths which convey hydrocarbon from their main source rock to the largest reservoir of the Paleozoic petroleum system of the Tunisian part of Ghadames basin. In fact, The Silurian source rock is the main source rock of the Paleozoic petroleum system of the Ghadames basin. However, the most solicited reservoir in this area is the Triassic reservoir TAGI (Trias Argilo-Gréseux Inférieur). Several geochemical studies have confirmed that oil products TAGI come mainly from the Tannezuft Silurian source rock. That being said that secondary migration occurs through the fault system which affects the post-Silurian series. Our study is based on analysis and interpretation of gravity data. The gravity modeling was conducted in the northern part of Ghadames basin and the Telemzane uplift. We noted that there is a close relationship between the location of producing oil fields and gravity gradients which separate the positive and negative gravity anomalies. In fact, the analysis and transformation of the Bouguer anomaly map, and the residual gravity map allowed as understanding the architecture of the Precambrian in the study area, thereafter gravimetric models were established allowed to determine the probable migration path.

Keywords: basement, Ghadames, gravity, hydrocarbon, migration path

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Authors: Mohammad R. Bhuyan, Mohammad J. Khattak

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Deterioration of flexible pavements due to crack reflection from its soil-cement base layer is a major concern around the globe. The service life of flexible pavement diminishes significantly because of the reflective cracks. Highway agencies are struggling for decades to prevent or mitigate these cracks in order to increase pavement service lives. The root cause of reflective cracks is the shrinkage crack which occurs in the soil-cement bases during the cement hydration process. The primary factor that causes the shrinkage is the cement content of the soil-cement mixture. With the increase of cement content, the soil-cement base gains strength and durability, which is necessary to withstand the traffic loads. But at the same time, higher cement content creates more shrinkage resulting in more reflective cracks in pavements. Historically, various states of USA have used the soil-cement bases for constructing flexile pavements. State of Louisiana (USA) had been using 8 to 10 percent of cement content to manufacture the soil-cement bases. Such traditional soil-cement bases yield 2.0 MPa (300 psi) 7-day compressive strength and are termed as cement stabilized design (CSD). As these CSD bases generate significant reflective cracks, another design of soil-cement base has been utilized by adding 4 to 6 percent of cement content called cement treated design (CTD), which yields 1.0 MPa (150 psi) 7-day compressive strength. The reduction of cement content in the CTD base is expected to minimize shrinkage cracks thus increasing pavement service lives. Hence, this research study evaluates the long-term field performance of CTD bases with respect to CSD bases used in flexible pavements. Pavement Management System of the state of Louisiana was utilized to select flexible pavement projects with CSD and CTD bases that had good historical record and time-series distress performance data. It should be noted that the state collects roughness and distress data for 1/10th mile section every 2-year period. In total, 120 CSD and CTD projects were analyzed in this research, where more than 145 miles (CTD) and 175 miles (CSD) of roadways data were accepted for performance evaluation and benefit-cost analyses. Here, the service life extension and area based on distress performance were considered as benefits. It was found that CTD bases increased 1 to 5 years of pavement service lives based on transverse cracking as compared to CSD bases. On the other hand, the service lives based on longitudinal and alligator cracking, rutting and roughness index remain the same. Hence, CTD bases provide some service life extension (2.6 years, on average) to the controlling distress; transverse cracking, but it was inexpensive due to its lesser cement content. Consequently, CTD bases become 20% more cost-effective than the traditional CSD bases, when both bases were compared by net benefit-cost ratio obtained from all distress types.

Keywords: cement treated base, cement stabilized base, reflective cracking , service life, flexible pavement

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Authors: T. Spiegel, J. Siegmann, C. F. Durach

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Challenges resulting from an international and dynamic business environment are increasingly being passed on from manufacturing companies to external service providers. Especially providers of complex, customer-specific industry services have to cope with continuously changing requirements. This is particularly true for contract logistics service providers. They are forced to develop efficient and highly flexible structures and strategies to meet their customer’s needs. One core element they have to focus on is the reorganization of their service development and sales process. Based on an action research approach, this study develops and tests a concept to streamline tender management for contract logistics service providers. The concept of modularized service architecture is deployed in order to derive a practice-oriented approach for the modularization of complex service portfolios and the design of customized quotes. These findings are evaluated regarding their applicability in other service sectors and practical recommendations are given.

Keywords: contract logistics, modularization, service development, tender management

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Authors: Abdallah Mohamed Kamel Mohamed Ali, Samah Saad Zahran, Mohamed Hamed Rashad

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Background: Flexible flatfoot (FFF) has been considered as a risk factor for several lower limb injuries and mechanical low back pain. This was attributed to the dysfunction of the lumbopelvic-hip complex musculature. Objective: To investigate the influence of FFF on electromyographic activities of erector spinae and multifidus. Methods: A cross-section study was held between an FFF group (20 subjects) and a normal foot group (20 subjects). A surface electromyography was used to assess the electromyographic activity of erector spinae and multifidus. Group differences were assessed by the T-test. Results: There was a significant increase in EMG activities of erector spinae and multifidus in the FFF group compared with the normal group. Conclusion: There is an increase in EMG activities in erector spinae and multifidus in FFF subjects compared with normal subjects.

Keywords: electromyography, flatfoot, low back pain, paraspinal muscles

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Authors: Indu Chandran, Shubham Sharma, Rohan Mehta, Vipin Kizheppatt

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Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly being explored as the most promising solution to disaster monitoring, assessment, and recovery. Current relief operations heavily rely on intelligent robot swarms to capture the damage caused, provide timely rescue, and create road maps for the victims. To perform these time-critical missions, efficient path planning that ensures quick coverage of the area is vital. This study aims to develop a technically balanced approach to provide maximum coverage of the affected area in a minimum time using the optimal number of UAVs. A coverage trajectory is designed through area decomposition and task assignment. To perform efficient and autonomous coverage mission, solution to a TSP-based optimization problem using meta-heuristic approaches is designed to allocate waypoints to the UAVs of different flight capacities. The study exploits multi-agent simulations like PX4-SITL and QGroundcontrol through the ROS framework and visualizes the dynamics of UAV deployment to different search paths in a 3D Gazebo environment. Through detailed theoretical analysis and simulation tests, we illustrate the optimality and efficiency of the proposed methodologies.

Keywords: area coverage, coverage path planning, heuristic algorithm, mission monitoring, optimization, task assignment, unmanned aerial vehicles

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Authors: Ruey-Chi Wang, Po-Hsiang Huang, Ping-Chang Chuang, Shu-Jen Chen

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High-performance Li: CuO/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) flexible electrodes for supercapacitors were fabricated via a low-temperature and low-cost route. To increase energy density while maintaining high power density and long-term cyclability, Li was doped to increase the electrical conductivity of CuO particles between RGO flakes. Electrochemical measurements show that the electrical conductivity, specific capacitance, energy density, and rate capability were all enhanced by Li incorporation. The optimized Li:CuO/RGO electrodes show a high energy density of 179.9 Wh/kg and a power density of 900.0 W/kg at a current density of 1 A/g. Cyclic life tests show excellent stability over 10,000 cycles with a capacitance retention of 93.2%. Li doping improves the electrochemical performance of CuO, making CuO a promising pseudocapacitive material for fabricating low-cost excellent supercapacitors.

Keywords: supercapacitor, CuO, RGO, lithium

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Authors: Abubaker A. Yousif, Muhamad S. Yasir

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The Effectiveness of lower doses of high-LET radiations is not accurately determined by using energy-based physical parameters such as absorbed dose and radio-sensitivity parameters. Therefore, an attempt has been carried out in this research to propose alternative parameter that capable to quantify the effectiveness of these high LET radiations at lower doses regions. The linear energy transfer and mean free path are employed to achieve this objective. A new mathematical form of the effectiveness of high-LET radiations at lower doses region has been formulated. Based on this parameter, the optimized effectiveness of high-LET radiations occurs when the energy of charged particles is deposited at spacing of 2 nm for primary ionization.

Keywords: effectiveness, low dose, radiation mean free path, linear energy transfer

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Authors: A. Khosrozadeh, M. A. Darabi, M. Xing, Q. Wang

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Fabrication of a high-performance supercapacitor (SC) using a flexible cellulose-based composite film of polyaniline (PANI), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and silver nanowires (AgNWs) is reported. The flexibility, high capacitive behaviour, and cyclic stability of the entire device make it a good candidate for wearable SCs. The results show that a capacitance as high as 73.4 F/g (1.6 F/cm2) at a discharge rate of 1.1 A/g is achieved by the device. In addition, the SC demonstrates a power density up to 468.8 W/kg and an energy density up to 5.1 wh/kg. The flexibility of the composite film is attributed to the binding effect of cellulose fibers as well as reinforcing effect of AgNWs. The excellent electrochemical performance of the device is found to be owing to the synergistic effect between PANI/RGO/AgNWs ternary in a cushiony cellulose matrix and porous structure of the composite.

Keywords: cellulose, polyaniline, reduced graphene oxide, silver, super capacitor

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Authors: S. Teksin, S. Yayla

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The aim of the present study was to investigate details of flow structure in downstream of a circular cylinder base mounted on a flat surface in a rectangular duct with the dimensions of 8000 x 1000 x 750 mm in deep water flow for the Reynolds number 2500, 5000 and 7500. A flexible strip was attached to behind the cylinder and compared the bare body. Also, it was analyzed that how boundary layer affects the structure of flow around the cylinder. Diameter of the cylinder was 60 mm and the length of the flexible splitter plate which had a certain modulus of elasticity was 150 mm (L/D=2.5). Time-averaged velocity vectors, vortex contours, streamwise and transverse velocity components were investigated via Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Velocity vectors and vortex contours were displayed through the sections in which boundary layer effect was not present. On the other hand, streamwise and transverse velocity components were monitored for both cases, i.e. with and without boundary layer effect. Experiment results showed that the vortex formation occured in a larger area for L/D=2.5 and the point where the vortex was maximum from the base of the cylinder was shifted. Streamwise and transverse velocity component contours were symmetrical with reference to the center of the cylinder for all cases. All Froud numbers based on the Reynolds numbers were quite smaller than 1. The flow characteristics of velocity component values of attached circular cylinder arrangement decreased approximately twenty five percent comparing to bare cylinder case.

Keywords: partical image velocimetry, elastic plate, cylinder, flow structure

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Authors: Lim Kar Sing, Siti Nur Afifah Azraai, Norhazilan Md Noor, Nordin Yahaya

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Polymeric composites are being increasingly used as repair material for repairing critical infrastructures such as building, bridge, pressure vessel, piping and pipeline. Technique in repairing damaged pipes is one of the major concerns of pipeline owners. Considerable researches have been carried out on the repair of corroded pipes using composite materials. This article attempts a short review of the subject matter to provide insight into various techniques used in repairing corroded pipes, focusing on a wide range of composite repair systems. These systems including pre-cured layered, flexible wet lay-up, pre-impregnated, split composite sleeve and flexible tape systems. Both advantages and limitations of these repair systems were highlighted. Critical technical aspects have been discussed through the current standards and practices. Research gaps and future study scopes in achieving more effective design philosophy are also presented.

Keywords: composite materials, pipeline, repair technique, polymers

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Authors: Natina Yaduma, Allan Williams, Sangwon Park, Andrew Lockwood

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This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of productivity in hotels. Controlling for the institutional environment, by focussing on a single firm, it analyses data on actual hours worked and outputs, on a weekly basis, over an 8 year period. The unusually disaggregated data allows the paper to examine not only inter-establishment, but also intra-establishment (departmental) variations in productivity, and to compare financial versus physical measures. The findings emphasise the complexity of productivity findings, sometimes contrasting evidence for establishments versus departments, and the positive but scale and measure-specific contributions of both the employment of migrants and flexible working, especially the utilisation of zero hours contracts.

Keywords: labour productivity, physical productivity, financial productivity, numerical flexibility, functional flexibility, migrant employment, cero-contract employment

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Authors: Joseph Marfo Boaheng, Daniel Ansong, Eugenia Amporfo

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Health Insurance is proposed to provide financial protection against catastrophic health care cost arising from disease. Ghana has had a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since 2003 with the current enrolment/retention rate of 36%. The main goal of the scheme is to provide equity in the health sector as well as ensuring affordable health care for the poor. However, the current payment system is not flexible to attract significant proportion of the poor informal sector onto the scheme. Looking at the extensive use of mobiles in the Ghana where about 29,220,602.00 registered mobile phone lines are actively in used as of June 2014, paying health insurance premium through mobile phone could be feasible to attract larger proportion of the informal sector onto the scheme. Methodology: The quantitative cross-sectional survey was used to solicit the required information from 877 respondents living in Kumasi, the second capital city of Ghana. The magnitude of the effect of Pro-rata system (flexible payment terms) on NHIS enrollment rate was estimated with binary logistic regression model. Results: The odds for an individual to enroll onto NHIS with mobile phone increases about 2 times more when payment of insurance premium is on pro-rata basis ie. flexible payment terms (p=0.008, CI=1.212-3.565). Conclusion: The study advocates the National Health Insurance Authority consider this alternative payment system that has the potential of attracting a greater proportion of the informal sector to be enrolled or retained onto the scheme.

Keywords: enrollment, health insurance, mobile phone, pro-rata

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Authors: Kourosh Modarresi

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The abundance of media channels and devices has given users a variety of options to extract, discover, and explore information in the digital world. Since, often, there is a long and complicated path that a typical user may venture before taking any (significant) action (such as purchasing goods and services), it is critical to know how each node (media channel) in the path of user has contributed to the final action. In this work, the significance of each media channel is computed using statistical analysis and machine learning techniques. More specifically, “Regularized Singular Value Decomposition”, and “Sparse Principal Component” has been used to compute the significance of each channel toward the final action. The results of this work are a considerable improvement compared to the present approaches.

Keywords: multimedia attribution, sparse principal component, regularization, singular value decomposition, feature significance, machine learning, linear systems, variable shrinkage

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Authors: Said Benaissa, David Plets, Emmeric Tanghe, Jens Trogh, Luc Martens, Leen Vandaele, Annelies Van Nuffel, Frank A. M. Tuyttens, Bart Sonck, Wout Joseph

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The herd monitoring and managing - in particular the detection of ‘attention animals’ that require care, treatment or assistance is crucial for effective reproduction status, health, and overall well-being of dairy cows. In large sized farms, traditional methods based on direct observation or analysis of video recordings become labour-intensive and time-consuming. Thus, automatic monitoring systems using sensors have become increasingly important to continuously and accurately track the health status of dairy cows. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and internet-of-things (IoT) can be effectively used in health tracking of dairy cows to facilitate herd management and enhance the cow welfare. Since on-cow measuring devices are energy-constrained, a proper characterization of the off-body wireless channel between the on-cow sensor nodes and the back-end base station is required for a power-optimized deployment of these networks in barns. The aim of this study was to characterize the off-body wireless channel in indoor (barns) environment at 868 MHz using LoRa nodes. LoRa is an emerging wireless technology mainly targeted at WSNs and IoT networks. Both large scale fading (i.e., path loss) and temporal fading were investigated. The obtained path loss values as a function of the transmitter-receiver separation were well fitted by a lognormal path loss model. The path loss showed an additional increase of 4 dB when the wireless node was actually worn by the cow. The temporal fading due to movement of other cows was well described by Rician distributions with a K-factor of 8.5 dB. Based on this characterization, network planning and energy consumption optimization of the on-body wireless nodes could be performed, which enables the deployment of reliable dairy cow monitoring systems.

Keywords: channel, channel modelling, cow monitoring, dairy cows, health monitoring, IoT, LoRa, off-body propagation, PLF, propagation

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Authors: N. Paparisteidi, D. Rodamitou

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This article focuses on the skills development and path planning of students studying computer science in EPITECH: french private institute of Higher Education. The researchers examine students’ points of view and experience in a blended learning model based on a skills development curriculum. The study is based on the collection of four main categories of data: semi-participant observation, distribution of questionnaires, interviews, and analysis of internal school databases. The findings seem to indicate that a skills-based program on active learning enables students to develop their learning strategies as well as their personal skills and to actively engage in the creation of their career path and contribute to providing additional information to curricula planners and decision-makers about learning design in higher education.

Keywords: active learning, blended learning, higher education, skills development

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Authors: Jeff Letcher, Dennis Tierney, Haider Raad

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Antennas are devices for transmitting and/or receiving signals which make them a necessary component of any wireless system. In this paper, a thermal deposition technique is utilized as a method to fabricate antenna structures on substrates. Thin-film deposition is achieved by evaporating a source material (metals in our case) in a vacuum which allows vapor particles to travel directly to the target substrate which is encased with a mask that outlines the desired structure. The material then condenses back to solid state. This method is used in comparison to screen printing, chemical etching, and ink jet printing to indicate advantages and disadvantages to the method. The antenna created undergoes various testing of frequency ranges, conductivity, and a series of flexing to indicate the effectiveness of the thermal deposition technique. A single band antenna that is operated at 2.45 GHz intended for wearable and flexible applications was successfully fabricated through this method and tested. It is concluded that thermal deposition presents a feasible technique of producing such antennas.

Keywords: thermal deposition, wearable antennas, bluetooth technology, flexible electronics

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Authors: Debananda Mohapatra, Subramanya Badrayyana, Smrutiranjan Parida

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Recognizing the upcoming era of carbon nanostructures and their revolutionary applications, we investigated the formation and supercapacitor application of highly pure and hydrophilic carbon nano-onions (CNOs) by economical one-step flame-synthesis procedure. The facile and scalable method uses easily available organic carbon source such as clarified butter, restricting the use of any catalyst, sophisticated instrumentation, high vacuum and post processing purification procedure. The active material was conformally coated onto a locally available cotton wipe by “sonicating and drying” process to obtain novel, lightweight, inexpensive, flexible, binder-free electrodes with strong adhesion between nanoparticles and porous wipe. This interesting electrode with CNO as the active material delivers a specific capacitance of 102.16 F/g, the energy density of 14.18 Wh/kg and power density of 2448 W/kg which are the highest values reported so far in symmetrical two electrode cell configuration with 1M Na2SO4 as an electrolyte. Incorporation of CuO nanoparticles to these functionalized CNOs by one-step hydrothermal method add up to a significant specific capacitance of 420 F/g with deliverable energy and power density at 58.33 Wh/kg and 4228 W/kg, respectively. The free standing CNOs, as well as CNO-CuO composite electrode, showed an excellent cyclic performance and stability retaining 95 and 90% initial capacitance even after 5000 charge-discharge cycles at a current density of 5 A/g. This work presents a new platform for high performance supercapacitors for next generation wearable electronic devices.

Keywords: binder-free, flame synthesis, flexible, carbon nano-onion

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Authors: Sharifullah Ahmed

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Residual settlement of cohesionless or non-plastic soil of different strength underlying highway embankment overlain by stronger soil layer highway embankment is studied. A parametric study is carried out for different height of embankment and for different ESAL factor. The sum of elastic settlements of cohesionless subsoil due to axle induced stress and due to self-weight of pavement layers is termed as the residual settlement. The values of residual settlement (Sr) for different heights of road embankment (He) are obtained and presented as design charts for different SPT Value (N60) and ESAL factor. For rigid pavement and flexible pavement in approach to bridge or culvert, the tolerable residual settlement is 0.100m. This limit is taken as 0.200m for flexible pavement in general sections of highway without approach to bridge or culvert. A simplified guideline is developed for design of highway embankment underlain by very loose to loose cohesionless subsoil overlain by a stronger soil layer for limiting value of the residual settlement. In the current research study range of ESAL factor is 1-10 and range of SPT value (N60) is 1-10. That is found that, ground improvement is not required if the overlying stronger layer is minimum 1.5m and 4.0m for general road section of flexible pavement except bridge or culvert approach and for rigid pavement or flexible pavement in bridge or culvert approach. Tables and charts are included in the prepared guideline to obtain minimum allowable height of highway embankment to limit the residual settlement with in mentioned tolerable limit. Allowable values of the embankment height (He) are obtained corresponding to tolerable or limiting level of the residual settlement of loose subsoil for different SPT value, thickness of stronger layer (d) and ESAL factor. The developed guideline is may be issued to be used in assessment of the necessity of ground improvement in case of cohesionless subsoil underlying highway embankment overlain by stronger subsoil layer for limiting residual settlement. The ground improvement is only to be required if the residual settlement of subsoil is more than tolerable limit.

Keywords: axle pressure, equivalent single axle load, ground improvement, highway embankment, tolerable residual settlement

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Authors: Mahtab Makaremi Masouleh, Günter Wozniak

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This research is part of an interdisciplinary project, promoting the design of a light temporary installable textile defence system against flood. In case river water levels increase abruptly especially in winter time, one can expect massive extra load on a textile protective structure in term of impact as a result of floating debris and even tree trunks. Estimation of this impulsive force on such structures is of a great importance, as it can ensure the reliability of the design in critical cases. This fact provides the motivation for the numerical analysis of a fluid structure interaction application, comprising flexible slender shaped and free-surface water flow, where an accelerated heavy flotsam tends to approach the membrane. In this context, the analysis on both the behavior of the flexible membrane and its interaction with moving flotsam is conducted by finite elements based solvers of the explicit solver and implicit Abacus solver available as products of SIMULIA software. On the other hand, a study on how free surface water flow behaves in response to moving structures, has been investigated using the finite volume solver of Star CCM+ from Siemens PLM Software. An automatic communication tool (CSE, SIMULIA Co-Simulation Engine) and the implementation of an effective partitioned strategy in form of an implicit coupling algorithm makes it possible for partitioned domains to be interconnected powerfully. The applied procedure ensures stability and convergence in the solution of these complicated issues, albeit with high computational cost; however, the other complexity of this study stems from mesh criterion in the fluid domain, where the two structures approach each other. This contribution presents the approaches for the establishment of a convergent numerical solution and compares the results with experimental findings.

Keywords: co-simulation, flexible thin structure, fluid-structure interaction, implicit coupling algorithm, moving flotsam

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Authors: Shih-Pin Chen, Shih-Syuan You

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This study proposes a regression model with flexible spreads for fuzzy input-output data to cope with the situation that the existing measures cannot reflect the actual estimation error. The main idea is that a dissemblance index (DI) is carefully identified and defined for precisely measuring the actual estimation error. Moreover, the graded mean integration (GMI) representation is adopted for determining more representative numeric regression coefficients. Notably, to comprehensively compare the performance of the proposed model with other ones, three different criteria are adopted. The results from commonly used test numerical examples and an application to Taiwan's business monitoring indicator illustrate that the proposed dissemblance index method not only produces valid fuzzy regression models for fuzzy input-output data, but also has satisfactory and stable performance in terms of the total estimation error based on these three criteria.

Keywords: dissemblance index, forecasting, fuzzy sets, linear regression

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Authors: Ali Mohammadi

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One of the concerns that employers and contractors have in creating long tunnels is that when the excavation is completed, the tunnel will be exited in the correct position according to designed, the deviation of the tunnel from its path can have many costs for the employer and the contractor, lack of correct calculations by the surveying engineer or the employer and contractors lack of importance to the surveying team in guiding the tunnel can cause the tunnel to deviate from its path and this deviation becomes a disaster. But employers are able to make the right decisions so that the tunnel is guided with the highest precision if they consider some points. We are investigating two tunnels with lengths of 12 and 18 kilometers that were dug by Tunnel boring machine machines to transfer water, how the contractor’s decision to control the 12 kilometer tunnel caused the most accuracy of one centimeter to the next part of the tunnel will be connected. We will also investigate the reasons for the deviation of axis in the 18 km tunnel about 20 meters. Also we review the calculations of surveyor engineers in both tunnels and what challenges there will be in the calculations and teach how to solve these challenges. Surveying calculations are the most important part in controlling long tunnels.

Keywords: UTM, localization, scale factor, traverse

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Authors: J. K. Lee, S. L. Lee

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Due to the improvement in performance of computer hardware and the development of operating systems, a multi-tasking for several programs has become one of the basic functions to computer users. It is natural for computer users to want more functional, convenient, and visual GUI functions (Graphic User Interface). In this paper, a 3D virtual desktop system was proposed to meet users’ requirements for cloud environments such as a virtual desktop function in the Windows environment. The proposed system uses the handles of the windows to hide or restore several windows. It connects the list of task spaces using the circular double linked list to manage the handles. Each handle list is registered in the corresponding task space being executed. The 3D virtual desktop is efficient and flexible in handling the numbers of task spaces and can help users to work under more comfortable environments. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (NRF-2015R1D1A1A01057680).

Keywords: virtual desktop, GUI, cloud, virtualization

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Authors: Luciano Roberto Fernandez-Sola, Cesar Augusto Arredondo-Velez, Miguel Angel Jaimes-Tellez

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This paper explores the modifications on peak acceleration, velocity and displacement profiles over the structure due to dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI). A shear beam model is used for the structure. Soil-foundation flexibility (inertial interaction) is considered by a set of springs and dashpots at the structure base. Kinematic interaction is considered using transfer functions. Impedance functions are computed using simplified expressions for rigid foundations. The research studies the influence of the slenderness ratio on the value of the peak floor response. It is shown that the modifications of peak floor responses are not the same for acceleration, velocity and displacement. This is opposite to the hypothesis used by methods included in several building codes. Results show that modifications produced by DSSI on different response quantities are not equal.

Keywords: peak floor intensities, dynamic soil-structure interaction, buildings with flexible base, kinematic and inertial interaction

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Authors: Elina Bakhtieva

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The variety of available digital tools, strategies and activities might confuse and disorient even an experienced marketer. This applies in particular to B2B companies, which are usually less flexible in uptaking of digital technology than B2C companies. B2B companies are lacking a framework that corresponds to the specifics of the B2B business, and which helps to evaluate a company’s capabilities and to choose an appropriate path. A B2B digital marketing maturity model helps to fill this gap. However, modern marketing offers no widely approved digital marketing maturity model, and thus, some marketing institutions provide their own tools. The purpose of this paper is building an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of existing models. The current study provides an analytical review of the existing digital marketing maturity models with open access. The results of the research are twofold. First, the provided SWOT analysis outlines the main advantages and disadvantages of existing models. Secondly, the strengths of existing digital marketing maturity models, helps to identify the main characteristics and the structure of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model. The research findings indicate that only one out of three analyzed models could be used as a separate tool. This study is among the first examining the use of maturity models in digital marketing. It helps businesses to choose between the existing digital marketing models, the most effective one. Moreover, it creates a base for future research on digital marketing maturity models. This study contributes to the emerging B2B digital marketing literature by providing a SWOT analysis of the existing digital marketing maturity models and suggesting a structure and main characteristics of an optimized B2B digital marketing maturity model.

Keywords: B2B digital marketing strategy, digital marketing, digital marketing maturity model, SWOT analysis

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Authors: K. Meera Saheb, K. Krishna Bhaskar

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Complex structures used in many fields of engineering are made up of simple structural elements like beams, plates etc. These structural elements, sometimes carry concentrated masses at discrete points, and when subjected to severe dynamic environment tend to vibrate with large amplitudes. The frequency amplitude relationship is very much essential in determining the response of these structural elements subjected to the dynamic loads. For Timoshenko beams, the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia are to be considered to evaluate the fundamental linear and nonlinear frequencies. A commonly used method for solving vibration problem is energy method, or a finite element analogue of the same. In the present Coupled Displacement Field method the number of undetermined coefficients is reduced to half when compared to the famous Rayleigh Ritz method, which significantly simplifies the procedure to solve the vibration problem. This is accomplished by using a coupling equation derived from the static equilibrium of the shear flexible structural element. The prime objective of the present paper here is to study, in detail, the effect of a central concentrated mass on the large amplitude free vibrations of uniform shear flexible beams. Accurate closed form expressions for linear frequency parameter for uniform shear flexible beams with a central concentrated mass was developed and the results are presented in digital form.

Keywords: coupled displacement field, coupling equation, large amplitude vibrations, moderately thick plates

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Authors: Caner Koc, Dilara Gerdan Koc, Emrah Saka, H. Ibrahim Karagol

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The use of pesticides in agricultural activities is the most harmful to the environment and farmers' health, and it also has the greatest input prices, along with fertilizers. In this study, an electric, electrostatically charged, autonomous agricultural robot was developed, modeled, and prototyped and manufactured. It allows for sensitive pesticide applications with variable levels, has controllable spray nozzles, and uses camera distance sensors to detect and spray into tree canopies. The created prototype was produced with flexibility in mind. Two stages of prototype manufacture were completed. The initial stage involved designing and producing the flexible primary body of the autonomous vehicle. Detachable hanger assemblies are employed so that the main body robot can perform a variety of agricultural tasks. The design of the spraying devices and their fitting to the autonomous vehicle was completed as the second stage of the prototype. The built prototype spraying robot's itinerary was planned using the free, open-source program Mission Planner. PX4, telemetry, and RTK GPS are used to maneuver the autonomous car along the designated path. To avoid potential obstructions, the robot uses ultrasonic and lidar sensors. The developed autonomous vehicle's energy needs are intended to be met entirely by electric batteries. In the event that the batteries run out of power, the sockets are set up to be recharged both by using the generator and the main power source through the specifically constructed panel.

Keywords: autonomous agricultural robot, pesticide, smart farming, spraying, variable rate application

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Authors: Reza Rezaeipour Honarmandzad

Abstract:

In this paper we propose an ANN for detection and localization of fatigue damage in aircraft structures. We used network of piezoelectric transducers for Lamb-wave measurements in order to calculate damage indices. Data gathered by the sensors was given to neural network classifier. A set of neural network electors of different architecture cooperates to achieve consensus concerning the state of each monitored path. Sensed signal variations in the ROI, detected by the networks at each path, were used to assess the state of the structure as well as to localize detected damage and to filter out ambient changes. The classifier has been extensively tested on large data sets acquired in the tests of specimens with artificially introduced notches as well as the results of numerous fatigue experiments. Effect of the classifier structure and test data used for training on the results was evaluated.

Keywords: ANN, fatigue damage, aircraft structures, piezoelectric transducers, lamb-wave measurements

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Authors: I. Toumi, Y. Abed, A. Bouafia

Abstract:

This paper presents a methodology for identifying the cohesive soil parameters that takes into account different constitutive equations. The procedure, applied to identify the parameters of generalized Prager model associated to the Drucker & Prager failure criterion from a pressuremeter expansion curve, is based on an inverse analysis approach, which consists of minimizing the function representing the difference between the experimental curve and the simulated curve using a simplex algorithm. The model response on pressuremeter path and its identification from experimental data lead to the determination of the friction angle, the cohesion and the Young modulus. Some parameters effects on the simulated curves and stresses path around pressuremeter probe are presented. Comparisons between the parameters determined with the proposed method and those obtained by other means are also presented.

Keywords: cohesive soils, cavity expansion, pressuremeter test, finite element method, optimization procedure, simplex algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 294

Authors: F. Rahimi Dehgolan, S. E. Khadem, S. Bab, M. Najafee

Abstract:

Nowadays, using rotating systems like shafts and disks in industrial machines have been increased constantly. Dynamic stability is one of the most important factors in designing rotating systems. In this study, linear frequencies and stability of a coupled continuous flexible rotor-disk-blades system are studied. The Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is utilized to model the blade and shaft. The equations of motion are extracted using the extended Hamilton principle. The equations of motion have been simplified using the Coleman and complex transformations method. The natural frequencies of the linear part of the system are extracted, and the effects of various system parameters on the natural frequencies and decay rates (stability condition) are clarified. It can be seen that the centrifugal stiffening effect applied to the blades is the most important parameter for stability of the considered rotating system. This result highlights the importance of considering this stiffing effect in blades equation.

Keywords: rotating shaft, flexible blades, centrifugal stiffness, stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Joseph G. Grzywacz, Azza O. Abdelmoneium, Abdallah M. Badahdah

Abstract:

Qatar provides an interesting context for studying family-friendly policies for working adults because it is governed by monarchy and Sharia law provides the foundation for legislation. This study considers gender variation in the perceived importance of and satisfaction with 12 family-friendly benefits (e.g., paid parental leave, flexible work hours, onsite childcare). Data were from a 2017 national sample of native Qatari adults. The perceived importance of family-friendly benefits was comparable for women and men for 7 of 12 benefits. Men rated paid paternity leave higher than women, but women rated telecommuting, dedicated breastfeeding room, onsite childcare, and opportunities to job share higher than men. Women and men reported similar experiences for 9 of 12 family-friendly benefits, but men’s expectations were better met than women’s for flexible work arrangements, telecommuting, and financial support for athletic clubs.

Keywords: culture, family-friendly benefits, gender, work-family

Procedia PDF Downloads 225