Search results for: safety evaluation system

Authors: Mohammad Javad Mollakazemi, Farhad Asadi

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In this paper a real-time obstacle avoidance approach for both autonomous and non-autonomous dynamical systems (DS) is presented. In this approach the original dynamics of the controller which allow us to determine safety margin can be modulated. Different common types of DS increase the robot’s reactiveness in the face of uncertainty in the localization of the obstacle especially when robot moves very fast in changeable complex environments. The method is validated by simulation and influence of different autonomous and non-autonomous DS such as important characteristics of limit cycles and unstable DS. Furthermore, the position of different obstacles in complex environment is explained. Finally, the verification of avoidance trajectories is described through different parameters such as safety factor.

Keywords: limit cycles, nonlinear dynamical system, real time obstacle avoidance, safety margin

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Authors: Djeamsly Salomon

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Background: Epidemiological surveillance is a dynamic national system used to observe all aspects of the evolution of priority health problems, through: collection, analysis, systematic interpretation of information, and dissemination of results with necessary recommendations. The study was conducted to assess the mandatory disease surveillance system in the Sud Department. Methods: A study was conducted from March to May 2021 with key players involved in surveillance at the level of health institutions in the department . The CDC's 2021 updated guideline was used to evaluate the system. We collected information about the operation, attributes, and usefulness of the surveillance system using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Epi-Info7.2 and Excel 2016 were used to generate the mean, frequencies and proportions. Results: Of 30 participants, 23 (77%) were women. The average age was 39 years[30-56]. 25 (83%) had training in epidemiological surveillance. (50%) of the forms checked were signed by the supervisor. Collection tools were available at (80%). Knowledge of at least 7 notifiable diseases was high (100%). Among the respondents, 29 declared that the collection tools were simple, 27 had already filled in a notification form. The maximum time taken to fill out a form was 10 minutes. The feedback between the different levels was done at (60%). Conclusion: The surveillance system is useful, simple, acceptable, representative, flexible, stable and responsive. The data generated was of high quality. However, it is threatened by the lack of supervision of sentinel sites, lack of investigation and weak feedback. This evaluation demonstrated the urgent need to improve supervision in the sites and to feedback information. Strengthen epidemiological surveillance.

Keywords: evaluation, notifiable diseases, surveillance, system

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, V. Avramea

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Planning for natural disasters and emergencies is something every school or educational institution must consider, regardless of its size or location. Preparedness is the key to save lives if a disaster strikes. School disaster management mirrors individual and family disaster prevention, and wider community disaster prevention efforts. This paper presents the usage of E-PreS System as a helpful, managerial tool during the school earthquake drill, in order to support schools in developing effective disaster and emergency plans specific to their local needs. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The main outcomes of E-PreS project are the development of E-PreS web platform that host the needed data of school emergency planning; the development of E-PreS System; the implementation of disaster drills using E-PreS System in educational premises and local schools; and the evaluation of E-PreS System. Taking into consideration that every disaster drill aims to test and valid school plan and procedures; clarify and train personnel in roles and responsibilities; improve interagency coordination; identify gaps in resources; improve individual performance; and identify opportunities for improvement, E-PreS Project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC).

Keywords: disaster drills, earthquake preparedness, E-PreS System, school emergency plans

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Authors: Alisawi Alaa T., Collins P. E. F.

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The analysis and evaluation of slope stability and landslide hazards are landslide hazards are critically important in civil engineering projects and broader considerations of safety. The level of slope stability risk should be identified due to its significant and direct financial and safety effects. Slope stability hazard analysis is performed considering static and/or dynamic loading circumstances. To reduce and/or prevent the failure hazard caused by landslides, a sophisticated and practical hazard analysis method using advanced constitutive modeling should be developed and linked to an effective solution that corresponds to the specific type of slope stability and landslides failure risk. Previous studies on slope stability analysis methods identify the failure mechanism and its corresponding solution. The commonly used approaches include used approaches include limit equilibrium methods, empirical approaches for rock slopes (e.g., slope mass rating and Q-slope), finite element or finite difference methods, and district element codes. This study presents an overview and evaluation of these analysis techniques. Contemporary source materials are used to examine these various methods on the basis of hypotheses, the factor of safety estimation, soil types, load conditions, and analysis conditions and limitations. Limit equilibrium methods play a key role in assessing the level of slope stability hazard. The slope stability safety level can be defined by identifying the equilibrium of the shear stress and shear strength. The slope is considered stable when the movement resistance forces are greater than those that drive the movement with a factor of safety (ratio of the resistance of the resistance of the driving forces) that is greater than 1.00. However, popular and practical methods, including limit equilibrium approaches, are not effective when the slope experiences complex failure mechanisms, such as progressive failure, liquefaction, internal deformation, or creep. The present study represents the first episode of an ongoing project that involves the identification of the types of landslides hazards, assessment of the level of slope stability hazard, development of a sophisticated and practical hazard analysis method, linkage of the failure type of specific landslides conditions to the appropriate solution and application of an advanced computational method for mapping the slope stability properties in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere through geographical information system (GIS) and inverse distance weighted spatial interpolation(IDW) technique. This study investigates and assesses the different assesses the different analysis and solution techniques to enhance the knowledge on the mechanism of slope stability and landslides hazard analysis and determine the available solutions for each potential landslide failure risk.

Keywords: slope stability, finite element analysis, hazard analysis, landslides hazard

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Authors: Hasnizan Aksah, Adi Irfan Che Ani

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Refurbished historic government buildings should perform as intended to support the organization’s goals that enhance occupant satisfaction. However, these buildings may have issues associated with functional performance evaluation. The aim of this study is to develop a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) sustainability assessment tool for functional performance evaluation of refurbished historic government buildings. Developing an assessment tool requires a strategic methodology for a logical and cohesive tool that incorporating relevant theories and practical experiences. In this study, mixed method approaches use to collect all necessary data to achieve the objectives of this study. The design of sampling involves are interviews and survey questionnaires to relevant professionals in order to evaluate the criteria and problem encircled in functional performance evaluation. Then, the involvement of expert panels is required in establishing the assessment tool. During the process of investigation on the functional performance criteria, it was discovered that is seen to be critical in aspects of comfort, safety, and services. The proposed assessment tool has a significant role in providing opportunities for the improvement of building performance especially on functional performance for the future historic government building refurbishment project. It is hoped that the tool developed from this study will give benefits to related professionals, public agencies, local municipality, and relevant interested parties in historic building management.

Keywords: refurbished historic government buildings, functional performance, Post Occupancy Evaluation, sustainability

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Authors: Omer Salih Dawood Omer, Safa Eltayeb, Imtithal A. Saeed

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This research aimed to provide a convenient and secure web-based environment for students to practice Structured Query Language (SQL) through online assignments, enabling them to enhance their performance with immediate feedback from an automatically evaluating system. Additionally, the system allows students to take exams online with automatic performance evaluation. Our methodology consists of four phases: firstly,execution and comparison of student answers with model answers; secondly, direct comparison without execution which is useful for database-altering queries; thirdly, matching student answers with historically evaluated answers; and finally, manual evaluation by the teacher if prior phases fail. Applied practically, the methodology achieved excellent

Keywords: SQL assessment, online assessment, e-learning, e-exams

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Authors: Ivana Barišić, Ivanka Netinger Grubeša, Ines Barjaktarić

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Road performance and traffic safety are highly influenced by improper water drainage system performance, particularly within intersection areas. So, the aim of the presented paper is the evaluation of pervious concrete made with two types and two aggregate fractions for potential utilization in intersection drainage areas. Although the studied pervious concrete mixtures achieved proper drainage but lower strength characteristics, this pervious concrete has a good potential for enhancing pavement drainage systems if it is embedded on limited intersection areas.

Keywords: drainage, intersection, pervious concrete, road

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Authors: Murat Durucu

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Glaucoma is a condition of irreversible blindness, early diagnosis and appropriate interventions to make the patients able to see longer time. In this study, it addressed that the importance of developing a decision support system for glaucoma diagnosis. Glaucoma occurs when pressure happens around the eyes it causes some damage to the optic nerves and deterioration of vision. There are different levels ranging blindness of glaucoma disease. The diagnosis at an early stage allows a chance for therapies that slows the progression of the disease. In recent years, imaging technology from Heidelberg Retinal Tomography (HRT), Stereoscopic Disc Photo (SDP) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) have been used for the diagnosis of glaucoma. This better accuracy and faster imaging techniques in response technique of OCT have become the most common method used by experts. Although OCT images or HRT precision and quickness, especially in the early stages, there are still difficulties and mistakes are occurred in diagnosis of glaucoma. It is difficult to obtain objective results on diagnosis and placement process of the doctor's. It seems very important to develop an objective decision support system for diagnosis and level the glaucoma disease for patients. By using OCT images and pattern recognition systems, it is possible to develop a support system for doctors to make their decisions on glaucoma. Thus, in this recent study, we develop an evaluation and support system to the usage of doctors. Pattern recognition system based computer software would help the doctors to make an objective evaluation for their patients. It is intended that after development and evaluation processes of the software, the system is planning to be serve for the usage of doctors in different hospitals.

Keywords: decision support system, glaucoma, image processing, pattern recognition

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Authors: Amira Zrelli, Tahar Ezzedine

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Routing protocol may enhance the lifetime of sensor network, it has a highly importance, especially in wireless sensor network (WSN). Therefore, routing protocol has a big effect in these networks, thus the choice of routing protocol must be studied before setting up our network. In this work, we implement the routing protocol collect tree protocol (CTP) which is one of the hierarchic protocols used in structural health monitoring (SHM). Therefore, to evaluate the performance of this protocol, we choice to work with Contiki system and Cooja simulator. By throughput and RSSI evaluation of each node, we will deduce about the utility of CTP in structural monitoring system.

Keywords: CTP, WSN, SHM, routing protocol

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Authors: K. E. Daryani, H. Mohamad

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Uncertainties in the geo-structure analysis and design have a significant impact on the safety of slopes. Traditionally, uncertainties in the geotechnical design are addressed by incorporating a conservative factor of safety in the analytical model. In this paper, a risk-based approach is adopted to assess the influence of the geotechnical variable uncertainties on the stability of infinite slopes in cohesionless soils using the “partial factor of safety on shear strength” approach as stated in Eurocode 7. Analyses conducted using Monte Carlo simulation show that the same partial factor can have very different levels of risk depending on the degree of uncertainty of the mean values of the soil friction angle and void ratio.

Keywords: Safety, Probability of Failure, Reliability, Infinite Slopes, Sand.

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Authors: Ching-Sung Wang, Teng-Wei Wang, Zhen-Ting Zheng

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This study mainly concerns a safety device designed for child care. When children are out of sight or the caregivers cannot always pay attention to the situation, through the functions of this device, caregivers can immediately be informed to make sure that the children do not get lost or hurt, and thus, ensure their safety. Starting from this concept, a device is produced based on the relatively low-cost Bluetooth piconet system and a three-axis gyroscope sensor. This device can transmit data to a mobile phone app through Bluetooth, in order that the user can learn the situation at any time. By simply clipping the device in a pocket or on the waist, after switching on/starting the device, it will send data to the phone to detect the child’s fall and distance. Once the child is beyond the angle or distance set by the app, it will issue a warning to inform the phone owner.

Keywords: children care, piconet system, three-axis gyroscope, distance detection, falls detection

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Authors: Lara Hanna-Wakim, Carine El Sokhn

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The perception of the consumer in food safety plays an important role in reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases. Studies show that young adults aged between 18 and 25 years are more prone to foodborne illnesses than adults because of their lack of food safety knowledge. The aim of this study was to measure the degree of university students' awareness in food safety, as well as to explore whether there is a relationship or not between the demographic characteristics of university students and their knowledge and practices. A valid questionnaire divided into three parts was distributed to 938 university students, aged between 18-25 years, living alone or with their parents, from different majors and years of study. The data collected was analyzed using the SPSS program. The total scores of the students surveyed were 47.95% on their food safety knowledge and 56.45% on their practices in the matter. The final score of the food safety perception of university students in both genders was 52.2%. Female students scored higher (63.14%) than male students (39.69%), and students majoring in health related fields (67.45%) scored higher than those majoring in areas not related to public health (49.21%). These results showed an overall low level of food safety perception of university students. Educational interventions are needed to improve their food safety knowledge and practices as they will be responsible for their own family one day.

Keywords: food safety, gender, perception, practices, knowledge, lebanese university students

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Authors: Silvius Stanciu

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Romanian food products sold on European markets have been accused of several non-conformities of quality and safety. Most products incriminated last period were those of animal origin, especially meat and meat products. The study proposed an analysis of the notifications made by network members through Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed on products originating in Romania. As a source of information, the Rapid Alert System portal and the official communications of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority were used. The research results showed that nearly a quarter of network notifications were rejected and were withdrawn by the European Authority. Although national authorities present these issues as success stories of national quality policies, the large number of notifications related to the volume of exported products is worrying. The paper is of practical and applicative importance for both the business environment and the academic environment, laying the basis for a wider research on the quality differences between Romanian and imported products.

Keywords: food, quality, RASFF, Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, Romania

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Authors: Yun-na Wu, Zhen Wang

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Due to the economic downturn and the deterioration of the living environment, the development of residential buildings as high energy consuming building is gradually changing from “extensive” to green building in China. So, the evaluation system of green building is continuously improved, but the current evaluation work has the following problems: (1) There are differences in the cost of the actual investment and the purchasing power of residents, also construction target of green residential building is single and lacks multi-objective performance development. (2) Green building evaluation lacks regional characteristics and cannot reflect the different regional residents demand. (3) In the process of determining the criteria weight, the experts’ judgment matrix is difficult to meet the requirement of consistency. Therefore, to solve those problems, questionnaires which are about the green residential building for Ningxia area are distributed, and the results of questionnaires can feedback the purchasing power of residents and the acceptance of the green building cost. Secondly, combined with the geographical features of Ningxia minority areas, the evaluation criteria system of green residential building is constructed. Finally, using the improved group AHP method and the grey clustering method, the criteria weight is determined, and a real case is evaluated, which is located in Xing Qing district, Ningxia. A conclusion can be obtained that the professional evaluation for this project and good social recognition is basically the same.

Keywords: evaluation, green residential building, grey clustering method, group AHP

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Alhasan Hakami, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver

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This study considers the problem of calculating safety stocks in disaster situations inventory systems that face demand uncertainties. Safety stocks are essential to make the supply chain, which is controlled by forecasts of customer needs, in response to demand uncertainties and to reach predefined goal service levels. To solve the problem of uncertainties due to the disaster situations affecting the industry sector, the concept of Emergency Safety Stock (ESS) was proposed. While there exists a huge body of literature on determining safety stock levels, this literature does not address the problem arising due to the disaster and dealing with the situations. In this paper, the problem of improving the Order Quantity Model to deal with uncertainty of demand due to disasters is managed by incorporating a new idea called ESS which is based on the probability of disaster occurrence and uses probability matrix calculated from the historical data.

Keywords: Emergency Safety Stocks, safety stocks, Order Quantity Model, supply chain

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: K. S. Vedasingha, K. K. M. T. Perera, K. I. Hathurusinghe, H. W. I. Akalanka, Nelum Chathuranga Amarasena, Nalaka R. Dissanayake

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Railways provide the most convenient and economically beneficial mode of transportation, and it has been the most popular transportation method among all. According to the past analyzed data, it reveals a considerable number of accidents which occurred at railways and caused damages to not only precious lives but also to the economy of the countries. There are some major issues which need to be addressed in railways of South Asian countries since they fall under the developing category. The goal of this research is to minimize the influencing aspect of railway level crossing accidents by developing the “railway process automation system”, as there are high-risk areas that are prone to accidents, and safety at these places is of utmost significance. This paper describes the implementation methodology and the success of the study. The main purpose of the system is to ensure human safety by using the Internet of Things (IoT) and image processing techniques. The system can detect the current location of the train and close the railway gate automatically. And it is possible to do the above-mentioned process through a decision-making system by using past data. The specialty is both processes working parallel. As usual, if the system fails to close the railway gate due to technical or a network failure, the proposed system can identify the current location and close the railway gate through a decision-making system, which is a revolutionary feature. The proposed system introduces further two features to reduce the causes of railway accidents. Railway track crack detection and motion detection are those features which play a significant role in reducing the risk of railway accidents. Moreover, the system is capable of detecting rule violations at a level crossing by using sensors. The proposed system is implemented through a prototype, and it is tested with real-world scenarios to gain the above 90% of accuracy.

Keywords: crack detection, decision-making, image processing, Internet of Things, motion detection, prototype, sensors

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Authors: Nipawan Tharasak, Sajeewan Darbavasu

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This research aims 1) to study the opinion, problems and obstacles to internal educational quality assurance system for individual and the university levels, 2) to propose an approach to the development of quality assurance system of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. A study of problems and obstacles to internal educational quality assurance system of the university conducted with sample group consisting of staff and quality assurance committee members of the year 2010. There were 152 respondents. 5 executives were interviewed. Tool used in the research was document analysis. The structure of the interview questions and questionnaires with 5-rate scale. Reliability was 0.981. Data analysis were percentage, mean and standard deviation with content analysis. Results can be divided into 3 main points: (1) The implementation of the internal quality assurance system of the university. It was found that in overall, input, process and output factors received high scores. Each item is considered, the preparation, planning, monitoring and evaluation. The results of evaluation to improve the reporting and improvement according to an evaluation received high scores. However, the process received an average score. (2) Problems and obstacles. It was found that the personnel responsible for the duty still lack understanding of indicators and criteria of the quality assurance. (3) Development approach: -Staff should be encouraged to develop a better understanding of the quality assurance system. -Database system for quality assurance should be developed. -The results and suggestions should be applied in the next year development planning.

Keywords: development system, internal quality assurance, education, educational quality assurance

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Authors: Janusz Getta, Zhaoxi Pan

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Performance-based quality evaluation of database conceptual schemas is an important aspect of database design process. It is evident that different conceptual schemas provide different logical schemas and performance of user applications strongly depends on logical and physical database structures. This work presents the entire process of performance-based quality evaluation of conceptual schemas. First, we show format. Then, the paper proposes a new specification of object algebra for representation of conceptual level database applications. Transformation of conceptual schemas and expression of object algebra into implementation schema and implementation in a particular database system allows for precise estimation of the processing costs of database applications and as a consequence for precise evaluation of performance-based quality of conceptual schemas. Then we describe an experiment as a proof of concept for the evaluation procedure presented in the paper.

Keywords: conceptual schema, implementation schema, logical schema, object algebra, performance evaluation, query processing

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Authors: Ran Etgar, Yuval Cohen, Erel Avineri

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One of the major challenges of transportation in medium sized inner-cities (such as Tel-Aviv) is the last-mile solution. Personal rapid transit (PRT) seems like an applicable candidate for this, as it combines the benefits of personal (car) travel with the operational benefits of transit. However, the investment required for large area PRT grid is significant and there is a need to economically justify such investment by correctly evaluating the grid capacity. PRT main elements are small automated vehicles (sometimes referred to as podcars) operating on a network of specially built guideways. The research is looking at a specific concept of elevated PRT system. Literature review has revealed the drawbacks PRT modelling and simulation approaches, mainly due to the lack of consideration of technical and operational features of the system (such as headways, acceleration, safety issues); the detailed design of infrastructure (guideways, stations, and docks); the stochastic and sessional characteristics of demand; and safety regulations – all of them have a strong effect on the system performance. A highly detailed model of the system, developed in this research, is applying a discrete event simulation combined with an agent-based approach, to represent the system elements and the podecars movement logic. Applying a case study approach, the simulation model is used to study the capacity of the system, the expected throughput of the system, the utilization, and the level of service (journey time, waiting time, etc.).

Keywords: capacity, productivity measurement, PRT, simulation, transportation

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Authors: J. Waldon

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The civil aviation industry plays a crucial role in global transportation, connecting people and goods across the world. Ensuring the safety and security of passengers, crew, and aircraft is of paramount importance. This paper aims to address the aspect of training and human factors, amongst others, necessary for enhancing civil aviation safety and security. In this context, we are focusing on the level of attention exhibited in the checking of luggage and travel credentials, with the aim to identify areas of improvement and avoid compromising security and safety at the Nsimalen Airport Yaoundé, Cameroon. We found that there is a lack of proper awareness among both travelers and some staff on the safety and security of goods and passengers. We suggest that improved training and handling, and sensitization in the form of legible billboards are important. Thus, we recommend refresher courses like this one for staff to keep abreast with the fast-changing security landscape in air transport as well as proper sensitization, including health-related issues. In conclusion, we established that the human factors, as well as the frequency of training and refresher courses, have a positive outlook on safety and security in air transport.

Keywords: safety, security, passengers, cargo

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Authors: Tadewos Awugchew Wudineh

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Health and safety issues have always been a major problem and concern in the building construction industry. The health and safety regulations are stated to eliminate the potential hazards and to reduce the consequential risks. However, the importance of the regulations seems to be overlooked in building construction sites of Hawassa City. Accordingly, many companies don’t follow the regulations as construction workers are more likely to be injured and killed by construction accident than any other type of employment. This paper aimed to identify factors that affect the implementation of construction health and safety regulations, their effects and mitigation measures in building construction project sites of Hawassa City. To reach this objective, a review of literature as well as the Ethiopian construction health and safety regulations have been undertaken. Mainly a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was distributed, and statistical analysis was used to summarize, interpret the data, and to find the significances of the responses. In addition, interviews were carried out. Accordingly, the findings indicate that the top factors which affect the implementation of CHS regulations are, availability and development of a clear health and safety policy, health and safety inspections by top management, conducting health and safety training and orientation, provision of healthy and safe working environment and employment of trained safety officers. The study revealed that implementation or non-implementation of CHS regulations have effects on the worker’s productivity, job satisfaction, rate of accidents, and cost greatly. Thus, the suggestion to minimize the impact on worker’s job performance are, developing of a clear health and safety policy, management commitment towards implementation of health and safety regulations, health and safety education and training and conducting regular health and safety inspections. It was concluded from the study that good implementation of health and safety regulations are the results from administrative and management commitment which calls for more attention to be paid to improve the implementation of CHS regulations in building construction sites of Hawassa City.

Keywords: construction health and safety regulations, effects, factors, mitigation

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Authors: Saleh Mobasseri, Mohammad Mobasseri

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The article refers to the history of the rise of brake system and described it’s importance in passenger’s lives. The disc brake system performance and ABS are also compared with each other by the kinetic and kinematic analysis of the braking system,and evaluate the impact of each parameters is checked on the vehicle stopping distance. Anti−lock braking system (ABS) is one of the most important features that affect on vehicle safety and for this reason much efforts have been made to improve this system. The objectives of the anti−lock system (ABS) are as follows: Preventing the wheels from locking, achieving maximum technical momentum in terms of braking,stability,reducing stopping distances. In this paper,we study the comparative of ABS brake and disc brake.

Keywords: anti−lock braking System (ABS), stopping distances, booster, car stability, force exerted on the brake pedal

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Authors: U. Chattaraj, D. Meena

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Growth of traffic brings various negative effects, such as road accidents. To avoid such problems, a model is developed for the purpose of highway safety. In such areas, fuzzy logic is the most well-known simulation in the larger field. A model is accomplished for hilly and steep terrain based on Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), for which output is super elevation and input data is horizontal radius, vertical gradient, accident rate (AR). This result shows that the system can be efficaciously applied as for highway safety tool distinguishing hazards components correlated to the characteristics of the highway and has a great influence to the making of decision for accident precaution in transportation models. From this model, a positive relationship between geometric elements, accident rate, and super elevation is also identified.

Keywords: accident rate, fuzzy inference system, fuzzy logic, gradient, radius, super elevation

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Authors: Ankita Jadon, Sidi Souvi, Nathalie Girault, Denis Petitprez

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Safety requirements for Generation IV nuclear reactor designs, especially the new generation sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFR) require a risk-informed approach to model severe accidents (SA) and their consequences in case of outside release. In SFRs, aerosols are produced during a core disruptive accident when primary system sodium is ejected into the containment and burn in contact with the air; producing sodium aerosols. One of the key aspects of safety evaluation is the in-containment sodium aerosol behavior and their interaction with fission products. The study of the effects of sodium fires is essential for safety evaluation as the fire can both thermally damage the containment vessel and cause an overpressurization risk. Besides, during the fire, airborne fission product first dissolved in the primary sodium can be aerosolized or, as it can be the case for fission products, released under the gaseous form. The objective of this work is to study the interactions between sodium aerosols and fission products (Iodine, toxic and volatile, being the primary concern). Sodium fires resulting from an SA would produce aerosols consisting of sodium peroxides, hydroxides, carbonates, and bicarbonates. In addition to being toxic (in oxide form), this aerosol will then become radioactive. If such aerosols are leaked into the environment, they can pose a danger to the ecosystem. Depending on the chemical affinity of these chemical forms with fission products, the radiological consequences of an SA leading to containment leak tightness loss will also be affected. This work is split into two phases. Firstly, a method to theoretically understand the kinetics and thermodynamics of the heterogeneous reaction between sodium aerosols and fission products: I2 and HI are proposed. Ab-initio, density functional theory (DFT) calculations using Vienna ab-initio simulation package are carried out to develop an understanding of the surfaces of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) aerosols and hence provide insight on its affinity towards iodine species. A comprehensive study of I2 and HI adsorption, as well as bicarbonate formation on the calculated lowest energy surface of Na2CO3, was performed which provided adsorption energies and description of the optimized configuration of adsorbate on the stable surface. Secondly, the heterogeneous reaction between (I2)g and Na2CO3 aerosols were investigated experimentally. To study this, (I2)g was generated by heating a permeation tube containing solid I2, and, passing it through a reaction chamber containing Na2CO3 aerosol deposit. The concentration of iodine was then measured at the exit of the reaction chamber. Preliminary observations indicate that there is an effective uptake of (I2)g on Na2CO3 surface, as suggested by our theoretical chemistry calculations. This work is the first step in addressing the gaps in knowledge of in-containment and atmospheric source term which are essential aspects of safety evaluation of SFR SA. In particular, this study is aimed to determine and characterize the radiological and chemical source term. These results will then provide useful insights for the developments of new models to be implemented in integrated computer simulation tool to analyze and evaluate SFR safety designs.

Keywords: iodine adsorption, sodium aerosols, sodium cooled reactor, DFT calculations, sodium carbonate

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Authors: Zhi Liu, Hui Jiang, Jin Li, Kunhao Chen, Langfang Zhang

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Fast acquisition of the seismic information and accurate assessment of the earthquake disaster is the key problem for emergency rescue after a destructive earthquake. In order to meet the requirements of the earthquake emergency response and rescue for the cities and counties, a quasi real-time comprehensive evaluation system for earthquake disaster is developed. Based on monitoring data of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) strong motion network, structure database of a county area and the real-time disaster information by the mobile terminal after an earthquake, fragility analysis method and dynamic correction algorithm are synthetically obtained in the developed system. Real-time evaluation of the seismic disaster in the county region is finally realized to provide scientific basis for seismic emergency command, rescue and assistant decision.

Keywords: quasi real-time, earthquake disaster data collection, MEMS accelerometer, dynamic correction, comprehensive evaluation

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Authors: Soheir Weheida, Amal E. Shehata, Samira E. Aboalizm

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The aim of this study was to examine the effect of surgical safety checklist on surgical team’s knowledge and performance in operating room. Subjects: A convenience sample 151 (48 head nurse, 45 nurse, 37 surgeon and 21 anesthesiologist) which available in operating room at two different hospitals was included in the study. Setting: The study was carried out at operating room in Menoufia University and Shebin Elkom Teaching Hospitals, Egypt. Tools: I: Surgical safety: Surgical team knowledge assessment structure interview schedule. II: WHO surgical safety observational Checklist. III: Post Surgery Culture Survey scale. Results: There was statistical significant improvement of knowledge mean score and performance about surgical safety especially in post and follow up than pre intervention, before patients entering the operating, before induction of anesthesia, skin incision and post skin closure and before patient leaves operating room, P values (P < 0.001). Improvement of communication post intervention than pre intervention between surgical team’s (4.74 ± 0.540). About two thirds (73.5 %) of studied sample strongly agreed on surgical safety in operating room. Conclusions: Implementation of surgical safety checklist has a positive effect on improving knowledge, performance and communication between surgical teams and these seems to have a positive effect on improve patient safety in the operating room.

Keywords: knowledge, operating room, performance, surgical safety checklist

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Authors: Naser Kazemi Eilaki, Carolyn Ahmer, Ilona Heldal, Bjarne Christian Hagen

Abstract:

Older people and people with disabilities are recognized as at-risk groups when it comes to egress and travel from hazard zone to safe places. One's disability can negatively influence her or his escape time, and this becomes even more important when people from this target group live alone. This research deals with the fire safety of mentioned people's buildings by means of probabilistic methods. For this purpose, fire safety is addressed by modeling the egress of our target group from a hazardous zone to a safe zone. A common type of detached house with a prevalent plan has been chosen for safety analysis, and a limit state function has been developed according to the time-line evacuation model, which is based on a two-zone and smoke development model. An analytical computer model (B-Risk) is used to consider smoke development. Since most of the involved parameters in the fire development model pose uncertainty, an appropriate probability distribution function has been considered for each one of the variables with indeterministic nature. To achieve safety and reliability for the at-risk groups, the fire safety index method has been chosen to define the probability of failure (causalities) and safety index (beta index). An improved harmony search meta-heuristic optimization algorithm has been used to define the beta index. Sensitivity analysis has been done to define the most important and effective parameters for the fire safety of the at-risk group. Results showed an area of openings and intervals to egress exits are more important in buildings, and the safety of people would improve with increasing dimensions of occupant space (building). Fire growth is more critical compared to other parameters in the home without a detector and fire distinguishing system, but in a home equipped with these facilities, it is less important. Type of disabilities has a great effect on the safety level of people who live in the same home layout, and people with visual impairment encounter more risk of capturing compared to visual and movement disabilities.

Keywords: fire safety, at-risk groups, zone model, egress time, uncertainty

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Sung Uk Ryu, Byoung Gook Jeon, Sung-Jae Yi, Dong-Jin Euh

Abstract:

In such passive safety injection systems in the nuclear power plant as Core Makeup Tank (CMT) and Hybrid Safety Injection Tank, various thermal-hydraulic phenomena including the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal stratification of coolant occur. These phenomena are also closely related to the performance of the system. Depending on the condensation rate of the steam injected to the tank, the injection of the coolant and pressure equalizing timings of the tank are decided. The steam injected to the tank from the upper nozzle penetrates the coolant and induces a direct contact condensation. In the present study, the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal mixing between the steam and coolant were examined by using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. Especially, by altering the size of the nozzle from which the steam is injected, the influence of steam injection velocity on the thermal mixing with coolant and condensation shall be comprehended, while also investigating the influence of condensation on the pressure variation inside the tank. Even though the amounts of steam inserted were the same in three different nozzle size conditions, it was found that the velocity of pressure rise becomes lower as the steam injection area decreases. Also, as the steam injection area increases, the thickness of the zone within which the coolant’s temperature decreases. Thereby, the amount of steam condensed by the direct contact condensation also decreases. The results derived from the present study can be utilized for the detailed design of a passive safety injection system, as well as for modeling the direct contact condensation triggered by the steam jet’s penetration into the coolant.

Keywords: passive safety injection systems, steam penetration, direct contact condensation, particle image velocimetry

Procedia PDF Downloads 383

Authors: Wan Noorul Hafilah Binti Wan Ariffin

Abstract:

Dam safety management is the crucial infrastructure as dam failure has a catastrophic effect on the community. Dam safety management is the effective framework of key actions and activities for the dam owner to manage the safety of the dam for its entire life cycle. However, maintaining dam safety is a challenging task as there are changes in current dam states. These changes introduce new risks to the dam's safety, which had not been considered when the dam was designed. A new framework has to be developed to adapt to the changes in the dam risk and make the dams resilient. This study proposes a risk-based decision-making adaptation framework for dam safety management. The research focuses on climate change's impact on hydrological situations as it causes floods and damages the dam structure. The risk analysis framework is adopted to improve the dam management strategies. The proposed study encompasses four phases. To start with, measuring the effect by assessing the impact of climate change on embankment dam, the second phase is to analyze the potential embankment dam failures. The third is analyzing the different components of risks related to the dam and, finally, developing a robust decision-making framework.

Keywords: climate change, embankment dam, failure, risk-informed decision making

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Mehdi Bakhtiarzadeh, Reza Efatnejad, Kambiz Rezapour Rezapour

Abstract:

Due to the limited resources of fossil fuels and their harmful effects on the environment and human health, research on renewable energy applications in industrial and scientific communities has become particularly important. Only one percent of freshwater resources are available for use in the domestic, agricultural, and industrial sectors. On the other hand, the rapid growth of industry and the increase of population in most countries of the world, including Iran, have led to an increase in demand for freshwater. Among renewable energies, there is the potential of solar energy in Iran. As a result, solar distillation systems can be used as a solution to supply fresh water in remote rural areas. Therefore, in the present study, a solar water desalination device was designed and manufactured using two heat exchangers and a photovoltaic system. Its evaluation was done during September and October of 2020. During the evaluation of the device, environmental variables such as total solar radiation, ambient temperature and cooling tower temperature were recorded at intervals of one hour from 9 am to 5 pm. The effect of these variables on solar concentrator performance, heat exchanger, and daily freshwater production was evaluated. The results showed that using two heat exchangers and a photovoltaic system has led to the daily production of 5 liters of fresh water and 46% economic efficiency.

Keywords: solar water desalination, heat exchanger, photovoltaic system, technical and economic evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 155