Search results for: transformer failures

Authors: Jianning Tang, Trevor Hocksun Kwan, Xiaofeng Wu

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With the increasing demand for space use in multiple sectors (navigation, telecommunication, imagery, etc.), the deployment and maintenance demand of satellites are growing. Considering the high launching cost and the restrictions on weight and size of the payload when using launch vehicle, the technique of on-orbit manufacturing has obtained more attention because of its significant potential to support future space missions. 3D printing is the most promising manufacturing technology that could be applied in space. However, due to the lack of autonomous quality assessment, the operation of conventional 3D printers still relies on human presence to supervise the printing process. This paper is proposed to develop an automatic 3D reconstruction system aiming at detecting failures on the 3D printed objects through application of point cloud technology. Based on the data obtained from the point cloud, the 3D printer could locate the failure and repair the failure. The system will increase automation and provide 3D printing with more feasibilities for space use without human interference.

Keywords: 3D printing, quality assessment, point cloud, on-orbit manufacturing

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Authors: Anne C. Okwedadi, Samson Ng’ambi, Ian Jefferson

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Collapsible soils go through radical rearrangement of their particles when triggered by water, stress or/and vibration, causing loss of volume. This loss of volume in soil as seen in foundation failures has caused millions of dollars’ worth of damages to public facilities and infrastructure and so has an adverse effect on the society and people. Despite these consequences and the several studies that are available, more research is still required in the study of soil collapsibility. Discerning the pedogenesis (formation) of soils and investigating the combined effects of the different geological soil properties is key to elucidating and quantifying soils collapsibility. This study presents a novel laboratory testing regime that would be undertaken on soil samples where the effects of soil type, compactive variables (moisture content, density, void ratio, degree of saturation) and loading are analyzed. It is anticipated that results obtained would be useful in mapping the trend of the combined effect thus the basis for evaluating soil collapsibility or collapse potentials encountered in construction with volume loss problems attributed to collapse.

Keywords: collapsible soil, geomorphological process, soil collapsibility properties, soil test

Procedia PDF Downloads 445

Authors: Rashid Farooq, Abdul Razzaq Ghumman, Hashim Nisar Hashmi

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Bridge piers often fail all over the world and the whole structure may be endangered due to scouring phenomena. Scouring has been linked to catastrophic failures that lead into the loss of human lives. Various techniques have been employed to extenuate the scouring process in order to assist the bridge designs. Pier modifications plays vital role to control scouring at the vicinity of the pier. This experimental study aims at monitoring the effectiveness of pier modification and temporal development of scour depth around a bridge pier by providing a collar, a cable or openings under the same flow conditions. Provision of a collar around the octagonal pier reduced more scour depth than that for other two configurations. Providing a collar around the octagonal pier found to be the best in reducing scour. The scour depth in front of pier was found to be 19.5% less than that at the octagonal pier without any modifications. Similarly, the scour depth around the octagonal pier having provision of a cable was less than that at pier with provision of openings. The scour depth around an octagonal pier was also compared with a plain circular pier and found to be 9.1% less.

Keywords: Scour, octagonal pier, collar, cable

Procedia PDF Downloads 240

Authors: Alalddin Al-Tarawneh

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In its literal translation, the Qur’an is frequently subject to misinterpretation as a result of failures to deliver its meaning into any language. This paper relies on the genuine aspect that the Qur’an is an oral performance in its nature; and the objective of any Qur’an translation is to deliver its meaning in English. Therefore, it approaches the translation of the Qur’an beyond the usual formal linguistic approach in order to include an extra-textual factor. This factor is the recitation or oral performance of the Qur’an, that is, tajweed as it is termed in Arabic. The translations used in this paper to apply the suggested approach were carefully chosen to be representative of the problems that exist in many Qur’an translations. These translations are The Meaning of the Holy Quran: Translation and Commentary by Ali (1989), The Meaning of the Glorious Koran by Pickthall (1997/1930), and The Quran: Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings by Sahih (2010). Through the examples cited in this paper, it is suggested that the agents involved in producing a ‘translation’ of the Holy Qur’an have to take into account its oral aspect which yields additional senses and meanings that are not being captured by adhering to the words of the ‘written’ discourse. This paper attempts in its translation into English.

Keywords: oral performance, tajweed, Qur'an translation, recitation

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Authors: Ifedapo Francis Awolowo

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The unrelenting series of embarrassing audit failures should stimulate a paradigm shift in accounting. And in this age of information revolution, there is need for a constant improvement on the products or services one offers to the market in order to be relevant. This study explores the perceptions of external auditors, forensic accountants and accounting academics on whether a paradigm shift to forensic accounting can reduce financial statement frauds. Through Neo-empiricism/inductive analytical approach, findings reveal that a paradigm shift to forensic accounting might be the right step in the right direction in order to increase the chances of fraud prevention and detection in the financial statement. This research has implication on accounting education on the need to incorporate forensic accounting into present day accounting curriculum. Accounting professional bodies, accounting standard setters and accounting firms all have roles to play in incorporating forensic accounting education into accounting curriculum. Particularly, there is need to alter the ISA 240 to make the prevention and detection of frauds the responsibilities of bot those charged with the management and governance of companies and statutory auditors.

Keywords: financial statement fraud, forensic accounting, fraud prevention and detection, auditing, audit expectation gap, corporate governance

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Debajyoti Mukherjee, Arathy B. S., Arpita Sahu, Saranga P. Pogula

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A functional model to mimic the functional correctness of a neural network compute accelerator IP is very crucial for design validation. Neural network workloads are based on a Brain Floating Point (BF-16) data type. The major challenge we were facing was the incompatibility of GCC compilers to the BF-16 datatype, which we addressed with a native BF-16 generator integrated into our functional model. Moreover, working with big GEMM (General Matrix Multiplication) or SpMM (Sparse Matrix Multiplication) Work Loads (Dense or Sparse) and debugging the failures related to data integrity is highly painstaking. In this paper, we are addressing the quality challenge of such a complex neural network accelerator design by proposing a functional model-based scoreboard or software model using SystemC. The proposed functional model executes the assembly code based on the ISA of the processor IP, decodes all instructions, and executes as expected to be done by the DUT. The said model would give a lot of visibility and debug capability in the DUT, bringing up micro-steps of execution.

Keywords: ISA, neural network, Brain Float-16, DUT

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Authors: Vijay Vir Singh

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This work is focused studying the Linux operating system connected in a LAN (local area network). The STAR topology (to be called subsystem-1) and BUS topology (to be called subsystem-2) are taken into account, which are placed at two different locations and connected to a server through a hub. In the both topologies BUS topology and STAR topology, we have assumed n clients. The system has two types of failures i.e. partial failure and complete failure. Further, the partial failure has been categorized as minor and major partial failure. It is assumed that the minor partial failure degrades the sub-systems and the major partial failure make the subsystem break down mode. The system may completely fail due to failure of server hacking and blocking etc. The system is studied using supplementary variable technique and Laplace transform by using different types of failure and two types of repair. The various measures of reliability for example, availability of system, reliability of system, MTTF, profit function for different parametric values have been discussed.

Keywords: star topology, bus topology, blocking, hacking, Linux operating system, Gumbel-Hougaard family copula, supplementary variable

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Authors: Arniyati Ahmad, Christopher Johnson, Timothy Storer

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Cyber exercises used to assess the preparedness of a community against cyber crises, technology failures and critical information infrastructure (CII) incidents. The cyber exercises also called cyber crisis exercise or cyber drill, involved partnerships or collaboration of public and private agencies from several sectors. This study investigates organisation cyber resilience (OCR) of participation sectors in cyber exercise called X Maya in Malaysia. This study used a principal based cyber resilience survey called C-Suite Executive checklist developed by World Economic Forum in 2012. To ensure suitability of the survey to investigate the OCR, the reliability test was conducted on C-Suite Executive checklist items. The research further investigates the differences of OCR in ten Critical National Infrastructure Information (CNII) sectors participated in the cyber exercise. The One Way ANOVA test result showed a statistically significant difference of OCR among ten CNII sectors participated in the cyber exercise.

Keywords: critical information infrastructure, cyber resilience, organisation cyber resilience, reliability test

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Authors: Brandon To, Yong S. Park

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As more battery electric vehicles are being introduced into the automobile industry, continuous advancements are constantly made in the electric vehicle space. Improvements in lithium-ion battery technology allow electric vehicles to be capable of traveling long distances. The batteries are capable of being charged faster, allowing for a sufficient range in shorter amounts of time. With increased reliance on battery technology and the changes in vehicle power trains, new challenges arise from this. Resulting electric vehicle fires caused by collisions are potentially more dangerous than those of the typical internal combustion engine. To further reduce the battery failures involved with side collisions, this project intends to reinforce an existing battery pack of an electric vehicle with honeycomb structures such that intrusion into the batteries can be minimized with weight restrictions in place. Honeycomb structures of hexagonal geometry are implemented into the side extrusions of the battery pack. With the use of explicit dynamics simulations performed in ANSYS, quantitative results such as deformation, strain, and stress are used to compare the performance of the battery pack with and without the implemented honeycomb structures.

Keywords: battery pack, electric vehicle, honeycomb, side impact

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Authors: Wan Noorul Hafilah Binti Wan Ariffin

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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

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Authors: Toktam Khatibi

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Self-supervised learning (SSL) includes machine learning models that are trained on one aspect and/or one part of the input to learn other aspects and/or part of it. SSL models are divided into two different categories, including pre-text task-based models and contrastive learning ones. Pre-text tasks are some auxiliary tasks learning pseudo-labels, and the trained models are further fine-tuned for downstream tasks. However, one important disadvantage of SSL using pre-text task solving is defining an appropriate pre-text task for each image dataset with a variety of image modalities. Therefore, it is required to design an appropriate pretext task automatically for each dataset and each downstream task. To the best of our knowledge, the automatic designing of pretext tasks for image analysis has not been considered yet. In this paper, we present a framework based on In-context learning that describes each task based on its input and output data using a pre-trained image transformer. Our proposed method combines the input image and its learned description for optimizing the pre-text task design and its hyper-parameters using Meta-learning models. The representations learned from the pre-text tasks are fine-tuned for solving the downstream tasks. We demonstrate that our proposed framework outperforms the compared ones on unseen tasks and image modalities in addition to its superior performance for previously known tasks and datasets.

Keywords: in-context learning (ICL), meta learning, self-supervised learning (SSL), vision-language domain, transformers

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Authors: Giovanni Forte, Melania De Falco, Antonio Santo

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On 24th August 2016, central Italy was affected by a Mw 6.0 earthquake, representing the main shock of a long seismic sequence, which had a second shock Mw 6.6 on 26th October and lasts still nowadays. After the event, several field survey were carried out in the affected areas, which is made of historical masonry buildings. The post event reconnaissance missions were aimed at collecting information on the damage states of the buildings, the triggering of the landslides and the relationships with site effects. In this paper, the data collected after the event are analyzed considering the role of the geological and geomorphological setting and the ground motion scenario. The buildings displayed an uneven damage distribution, which was affected by both topographic and stratigraphic amplification. As pertains the landslides, which were the most recurrent among the ground failures, consisted mainly of rock falls and subordinately of translational slides. Finally, the collected knowledge showed a strong contribution of the local geological and geomorphological site condition on the resulting damage.

Keywords: Amatrice earthquake, damage states, landslides, site effects

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Authors: Cristiane Hengler Corrêa Bernardo

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The communication is an essential part of the process that characterizes scientific research. It should be present in every stage of research in a systemic way. However, this process is not always efficient and effective. Reports of researchers focused on agribusiness point to difficulties in communicating with farmers that negatively impact on research results and may cause distortions and even quite significant inconsistencies. This research aims at identifying the main noise and barriers in communication between agribusiness researchers and farmers. It discusses the possibility of creating a specific strategy to correct or minimize such failures. The main research question: what features of the communication process will be decisive for the communication between agribusiness researcher and farmer occur with greater efficiency? It is expected that the research will result in processes that may correct or minimize such problems, promoting dialogues more efficient knowledge. The research will adopt a qualitative approach, using action research as a form of investigative action for social and educational nature, aiming at promoting understanding and interaction between researchers and members of the investigated situations. To collect and analyze data to document analysis will be used; questionnaires and interviews and content analysis.

Keywords: agribusiness farmers, researchers, science communication, analysis

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Authors: Ather Saeed, Arif Khan, Jeffrey Gosper

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Sensor devices are prone to errors and sudden node failures, which are difficult to detect in a timely manner when deployed in real-time, hazardous, large-scale harsh environments and in medical emergencies. Therefore, the loss of data can be life-threatening when the sensed phenomenon is not disseminated due to sudden node failure, battery depletion or temporary malfunctioning. We introduce a set of partial differential equations for localizing faults, similar to Green’s and Maxwell’s equations used in Electrostatics and Electromagnetism. We introduce a node organization and clustering scheme for self-stabilizing sensor networks. Green’s theorem is applied to regions where the curve is closed and continuously differentiable to ensure network connectivity. Experimental results show that the proposed GTFD (Green’s Theorem fault-detection and Self-stabilization) protocol not only detects faulty nodes but also accurately generates network stability graphs where urgent intervention is required for dynamically self-stabilizing the network.

Keywords: Green’s Theorem, self-stabilization, fault-localization, RSSI, WSN, clustering

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Authors: Fabio Rodriguez Sanchez, Josef Bruers, Iciar Arteagoitia, Carlos Rodriguez Andres

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Background: Oral implants are a routine treatment to replace lost teeth. Although they have a high rate of success, implant failures do occur. Perioperative antibiotics have been suggested to prevent postoperative infections and dental implant failures, but they remain a controversial treatment among healthy patients. The objective of this study was to determine whether antibiotic prophylaxis is a common treatment in the Netherlands among general dentists, maxillofacial-surgeons, periodontists and implantologists in conjunction with oral implant surgery among healthy patients and to assess the nature of antibiotics prescriptions in order to evaluate whether any consensus has been reached and the current recommendations are being followed. Methodology: Observational cross-sectional study based on a web-survey reported according to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. A validated questionnaire, developed by Deeb et al. (2015), was translated and slightly adjusted to circumstances in the Netherlands. It was used with the explicit permission of the authors. This questionnaire contained both close-ended and some open-ended questions in relation to the following topics: demographics, qualification, antibiotic type, prescription-duration and dosage. An email was sent February 2018 to a sample of 600 general dentists and all 302 oral implantologists, periodontists and maxillofacial surgeons who were recognized by the Dutch Association of Oral Implantology (NVOI) as oral health care providers placing oral implants. The email included a brief introduction about the study objectives and a link to the web questionnaire, which could be filled in anonymously. Overall, 902 questionnaires were sent. However, 29 questionnaires were not correctly received due to an incorrect email address. So a total number of 873 professionals were reached. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS (IBM Corp., released 2012, Armonk, NY). Results: The questionnaire was sent back by a total number of 218 participants (response rate=24.2%), 45 female (20.8%) and 171 male (79.2%). Two respondents were excluded from the study group because they were not currently working as oral health providers. Overall 151 (69.9%) placed oral implants on regular basis. Approximately 79 (52.7%) of these participants prescribed antibiotics only in determined situations, 66 (44.0%) prescribed antibiotics always and 5 dentists (3.3%) did not prescribe antibiotics at all when placing oral implants. Overall, 83 participants who prescribed antibiotics, did so both pre- and postoperatively (58.5%), 12 exclusively postoperative (8.5%), and 47 followed an exclusive preoperative regime (33.1%). A single dose of 2,000 mg amoxicillin orally 1-hour prior treatment was the most prescribed preoperative regimen. The most frequent prescribed postoperative regimen was 500 mg amoxicillin three times daily for 7 days after surgery. On average, oral health professionals prescribed 6,923 mg antibiotics in conjunction with oral implant surgery, varying from 500 to 14,600 mg. Conclusions: Antibiotic prophylaxis in conjunction with oral implant surgery is prescribed in the Netherlands on a rather large scale. Dutch professionals might prescribe antibiotics more cautiously than in other countries and there seems to be a lower range on the different antibiotic types and regimens being prescribed. Anyway, recommendations based on last-published evidence are frequently not being followed.

Keywords: clinical decision making, infection control, antibiotic prophylaxis, dental implants

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Authors: Marina Franulovic, Robert Basan, Bozidar Krizan

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Constitutive modelling of material behaviour is becoming increasingly important in prediction of possible failures in highly loaded engineering components, and consequently, optimization of their design. In order to account for large number of phenomena that occur in the material during operation, such as kinematic hardening effect in low cycle fatigue behaviour of steels, complex nonlinear material models are used ever more frequently, despite of the complexity of determination of their parameters. As a method for the determination of these parameters, genetic algorithm is good choice because of its capability to provide very good approximation of the solution in systems with large number of unknown variables. For the application of genetic algorithm to parameter identification, inverse analysis must be primarily defined. It is used as a tool to fine-tune calculated stress-strain values with experimental ones. In order to choose proper objective function for inverse analysis among already existent and newly developed functions, the research is performed to investigate its influence on material behaviour modelling.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, kinematic hardening, material model, objective function

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Authors: Yas Barzegaar, Atrin Barzegar

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The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent system to analyze the risk level of wheat flour product manufacturing system. The model consists of five Fuzzy Inference Systems in two different layers to analyse the risk of a wheat flour product manufacturing system. The first layer of the model consists of four Fuzzy Inference Systems with three criteria. The output of each one of the Physical, Chemical, Biological and Environmental Failures will be the input of the final manufacturing systems. The proposed model based on Mamdani Fuzzy Inference Systems gives a performance ranking of wheat flour products manufacturing systems. The first step is obtaining data to identify the failure modes from expert’s opinions. The second step is the fuzzification process to convert crisp input to a fuzzy set., then the IF-then fuzzy rule applied through inference engine, and in the final step, the defuzzification process is applied to convert the fuzzy output into real numbers.

Keywords: failure modes, fuzzy rules, fuzzy inference system, risk assessment

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Authors: Nicolas Spitz, Nicolas Coniglio, Mohamed El Mansori, Alex Montagne, Sabeur Mezghani

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Nowadays buildings' construction is performed by pouring concrete into molds referred to as formworks that are usually prefabricated metallic modules. Defects such as stripping may possibly form during the removal of the formwork if the interfacial bonding between the concrete and the formwork is high. A new pull-off tensile test was developed in our laboratory to simulate small-scale formwork removals. The concrete-to-formwork adherence force was measured on bare and coated formworks with different surface signatures. The used concrete was a mixture largely used on building sites and contains CEM I Portland cement and calcareous filler. The concrete surface appearance and the type of failures at the concrete-formwork interface have been investigated. The originality of this near-to-surface test was to compare the laboratory-measured adherence forces to the on-site observations. Based upon the small-scale laboratory test results, functional formwork specifications with low adherence to concrete was proposed in terms of superficial signature characteristics.

Keywords: concrete-formwork adherence, interfacial bonding, skin formwork functionality, small-scale pull-off tensile test

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Authors: Fazia Rahmoune, Sofiane Ziani

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Retrial queueing systems have been extensively used to stochastically model many problems arising in computer networks, telecommunication, telephone systems, among others. In this work, we consider a $M/G/1$ retrial queue with an unreliable server with random vacations and two types of primary customers, persistent and impatient. This model involves the unreliability of the server, which can be subject to physical breakdowns and takes into account the correctives maintenances for restoring the service when a failure occurs. On the other hand, we consider random vacations, which can model the preventives maintenances for improving system performances and preventing breakdowns. We give the necessary and sufficient stability condition of the system. Then, we obtain the joint probability distribution of the server state and the number of customers in orbit and derive the more useful performance measures analytically. Moreover, we also analyze the busy period of the system. Finally, we derive the stability condition and the generating function of the stationary distribution of the number of customers in the system when there is no vacations and impatient customers, and when there is no vacations, server failures and impatient customers.

Keywords: modeling, retrial queue, unreliable server, vacation, stochastic analysis

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Authors: Salah Al-Enezi, Rashed Al-Zufairi, Naseer Ahmad

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A Thermo-mechanical technique was developed to determine softening point temperature/glass transition temperature (Tg) of polystyrene exposed to high pressures. The design utilizes the ability of carbon dioxide to lower the glass transition temperature of polymers and acts as plasticizer. In this apparatus, the sorption of carbon dioxide to induce softening of polymers as a function of temperature/pressure is performed and the extent of softening is measured in three-point-flexural-bending mode. The polymer strip was placed in the cell in contact with the linear variable differential transformer (LVDT). CO₂ was pumped into the cell from a supply cylinder to reach high pressure. The results clearly showed that full softening point of the samples, accompanied by a large deformation on the polymer strip. The deflection curves are initially relatively flat and then undergo a dramatic increase as the temperature is elevated. It was found that increasing the pressure of CO₂ causes the temperature curves to shift from higher to lower by increment of about 45 K, over the pressure range of 0-120 bars. The obtained experimental Tg values were validated with the values reported in the literature. Finally, it is concluded that the defection model fits consistently to the generated experimental results, which attempts to describe in more detail how the central deflection of a thin polymer strip affected by the CO₂ diffusions in the polymeric samples.

Keywords: softening, high-pressure, polystyrene, CO₂ diffusions

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Authors: K. C. Apil, Keshab Sharma, Bigul Pokharel

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Kathmandu Valley, capital city of Nepal houses numerous historical monuments as well as religious structures which are as old as from the 4th century A.D. The city alone is home to seven UNESCO’s world heritage sites including various public squares and religious sanctums which are often regarded as living heritages by various historians and archeological explorers. Recently on April 25, 2015, the capital city including other nearby locations was struck with Gorkha earthquake of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8, followed by the strongest aftershock of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.3 on May 12. This study reports structural failures and collapse of heritage structures in Kathmandu Valley during the earthquake and presents preliminary findings as to the causes of failures and collapses. Field reconnaissance was carried immediately after the main shock and the aftershock, in major heritage sites: UNESCO world heritage sites, a number of temples and historic buildings in Kathmandu Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, and Bhaktapur Durbar Square. Despite such catastrophe, a significant number of heritage structures stood high, performing very well during the earthquake. Preliminary reports from archeological department suggest that 721 of such structures were severely affected, whereas numbers within the valley only were 444 including 76 structures which were completely collapsed. This study presents recorded accelerograms and geology of Kathmandu Valley. Structural typology and architecture of the heritage structures in Kathmandu Valley are briefly described. Case histories of damaged heritage structures, the patterns, and the failure mechanisms are also discussed in this paper. It was observed that performance of heritage structures was influenced by the multiple factors such as structural and architecture typology, configuration, and structural deficiency, local ground site effects and ground motion characteristics, age and maintenance level, material quality etc. Most of such heritage structures are of masonry type using bricks and earth-mortar as a bonding agent. The walls' resistance is mainly compressive, thus capable of withstanding vertical static gravitational load but not horizontal dynamic seismic load. There was no definitive pattern of damage to heritage structures as most of them behaved as a composite structure. Some structures were extensively damaged in some locations, while structures with similar configuration at nearby location had little or no damage. Out of major heritage structures, Dome, Pagoda (2, 3 or 5 tiered temples) and Shikhara structures were studied with similar variables. Studying varying degrees of damages in such structures, it was found that Shikhara structures were most vulnerable one where Dome structures were found to be the most stable one, followed by Pagoda structures. The seismic performance of the masonry-timber and stone masonry structures were slightly better than that of the masonry structures. Regular maintenance and periodic seismic retrofitting seems to have played pivotal role in strengthening seismic performance of the structure. The study also recommends some key functions to strengthen the seismic performance of such structures through study based on structural analysis, building material behavior and retrofitting details. The result also recognises the importance of documentation of traditional knowledge and its revised transformation in modern technology.

Keywords: Gorkha earthquake, field observation, heritage structure, seismic performance, masonry building

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Jalal M. Abdallah

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There is a great problem in testing and investigations the reliability of different type of transformers insulation materials. It summarized in how to create and simulate the real conditions of working transformer and testing its insulation materials for Partial Discharge PD, typically as in the working mode. A lot of tests may give untrue results as the physical behavior of the insulation material differs under tests from its working condition. In this work, the real working conditions were simulated, and a large number of specimens have been tested. The investigations first stage, begin with choosing samples of different types of insulation materials (papers, pressboards, etc.). The second stage, the samples were dried in ovens at 105 C⁰and 0.01bar for 48 hours, and then impregnated with dried and gasless oil (the water content less than 6 ppm.) at 105 C⁰and 0.01bar for 48 hours, after so specimen cooling at room pressure and temperature for 24 hours. The third stage is investigating PD for the samples using ICM PD measuring device. After that, a continuous test on oil-impregnated insulation materials (paper, pressboards) was developed, and the phase resolved partial discharge pattern of PD signals was measured. The important of this work in providing the industrial sector with trusted high accurate measuring results based on real simulated working conditions. All the PD patterns (results) associated with a discharge produced in well-controlled laboratory condition. They compared with other previous and other laboratory results. In addition, the influence of different temperatures condition on the partial discharge activities was studied.

Keywords: transformers, insulation materials, voids, partial discharge

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Debajyoti Mukherjee, Arathy B. S., Arpita Sahu, Saranga P. Pogula

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A Functional Model to mimic the functional correctness of a Neural Network Compute Accelerator IP is very crucial for design validation. Neural network workloads are based on a Brain Floating Point (BF-16) data type. The major challenge we were facing was the incompatibility of gcc compilers to BF-16 datatype, which we addressed with a native BF-16 generator integrated to our functional model. Moreover, working with big GEMM (General Matrix Multiplication) or SpMM (Sparse Matrix Multiplication) Work Loads (Dense or Sparse) and debugging the failures related to data integrity is highly painstaking. In this paper, we are addressing the quality challenge of such a complex Neural Network Accelerator design by proposing a Functional Model-based scoreboard or Software model using SystemC. The proposed Functional Model executes the assembly code based on the ISA of the processor IP, decodes all instructions, and executes as expected to be done by the DUT. The said model would give a lot of visibility and debug capability in the DUT bringing up micro-steps of execution.

Keywords: ISA (instruction set architecture), NN (neural network), TLM (transaction-level modeling), GEMM (general matrix multiplication)

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: M. Cangi, T. Dolar, C. Ersoy, Y. E. Aydogdu, A. I. Aydeniz, A. Mugan

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The drum is one of the critical parts in a washing machine in which the clothes are washed and spin by the rotational movement. It is activated by the drum shaft which is attached to an electric motor and subjected to dynamic loading. Being one of the critical components, failures of the drum require costly repairs of dynamic components. In this study, tolerance bands between the drum shaft and its two bearings were examined to develop a relationship between the fatigue life of the shaft and the interaction tolerances. Optimization of tolerance bands was completed in consideration of the fatigue life of the shaft as the cost function. The following methodology is followed: multibody dynamic model of a washing machine was constructed and used to calculate dynamic loading on the components. Then, these forces were used in finite element analyses to calculate the stress field in critical components which was used for fatigue life predictions. The factors affecting the fatigue life were examined to find optimum tolerance grade for a given test condition. Numerical results were verified by experimental observations.

Keywords: fatigue life, finite element analysis, tolerance analysis, optimization

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Authors: Muhammad Awais

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Study on the nesting biology of the House Crow Corvus splendens was conducted at Hazara University, Garden Campus (125 acres), Mansehra during the 2013 breeding season (June to September). Details about nest locations, tree characteristics, nest and egg characteristics were recorded. Mean nest density of House Crow was 2.4 nests/ acre. Mean tree and nest height were 14.8±6.30 and 11.8±5.42m. Mean tree canopy spread 9.5±2.48m. Mean maximum and minimum nest diameters were 42.3±2.08 and 39.0±1.73cm respectively while maximum and minimum diameters of nest cup were 15.6±1.52 and 13.3±1.15cm respectively. Nest depth and nest cup depth were measured 19.3±2.08 and 8.3±1.15cm respectively. Mean nest weight was 1.4±0.24 kg. Mean clutch size was 4.0 (ranged 1–6). Mean egg length was 38.6±0.69mm, breadth 26.0±0.69mm, egg volume 13.3±0.83cm3 and egg shape index 1.42±0.83. Mean egg weight was 12.3±0.70g. Egg and nest success was calculated 55.1% and 69.0%. Hatchlings and fledglings produced per nest were 2.20 and 1.44 respectively. Main reasons for reproductive failures were unhatched eggs, poor nest construction, bad weather conditions and observer’s disturbance.

Keywords: breeding, Corvus splendens, fledglings, Hazara university, house crow, Mansehra, populus orientalis

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Authors: Muhammad Naveed Iftikhar, Farah Khalid

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Global best practices as ordained by international organizations comprise a broader top-down approach to development problems, without taking into account country-specific factors. The political economy of each country is extremely different and the failure of several attempts of international organizations to implement global best practice models in developing countries each with its unique set of variables, goes on to show that this is not the most efficient solution to development problems. This paper is a humble attempt at shedding light on some specific examples of failures of the global best practices. Pakistan has its unique set of problems and unless those are added to the broader equation of development, country-specific reform and growth will continue to pose a challenge to reform programs initiated by international organizations. The three case studies presented in this paper are just a few prominent examples of failure of the global best practice, top-down, universalistic approach to development as ordained by international organizations. Development and reform can only be achieved if local dynamics are given their due importance. The modus operandi of international organizations needs to be tailored according to each country’s unique politico-economic environment.

Keywords: best practice, development, context

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Authors: Ahmed Noor Al-Qayyim

Abstract:

During the past decades, the bridge structures are considered very important portions of transportation networks, due to the fast urban sprawling. With the failure of bridges that under operating conditions lead to focus on updating the default bridge inspection methodology. The structures health monitoring (SHM) using the vibration response appeared as a promising method to evaluate the condition of structures. The rapid development in the sensors technology and the condition assessment techniques based on the vibration-based damage detection made the SHM an efficient and economical ways to assess the bridges. SHM is set to assess state and expects probable failures of designated bridges. In this paper, a presentation for Frequency Response function method that uses the captured vibration test information of structures to evaluate the structure condition. Furthermore, the main steps of the assessment of bridge using the vibration information are presented. The Frequency Response function method is applied to the experimental data of a full-scale bridge.

Keywords: bridge assessment, health monitoring, damage detection, frequency response function (FRF), signal processing, structure identification

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Authors: Arūnas Burinskas

Abstract:

Although Europe is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0, many believe that this will increase the flexibility of production, the mass adaptation of products to consumers and the speed of their service; it will also improve product quality and dramatically increase productivity. However, as expected, all the benefits of Industry 4.0 face many of the inevitable changes and challenges they pose. One of them is the inevitable transformation of current competition and business models. This article examines the possible results of competitive conversion from the classic Bertrand and Cournot models to qualitatively new competition based on innovation. Ability to deliver a new product quickly and the possibility to produce the individual design (through flexible and quickly configurable factories) by reducing equipment failures and increasing process automation and control is highly important. This study shows that the ongoing transformation of the competition model is changing the game. This, together with the creation of complex value networks, means huge investments that make it particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the ongoing digitalization of data raises new concerns regarding legal obligations, intellectual property, and security.

Keywords: Bertrand and Cournot Competition, competition model, industry 4.0, industrial organisation, monopolistic competition

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Authors: L. Sudbury-Riley, P. Hunter-Jones, L. Menzies, M. Pyrah, H. Knight

Abstract:

Just as manufacturing firms aim for zero defects, service providers strive to avoid service failures where customer expectations are not met. However, because services comprise unique human interactions, service failures are almost inevitable. Consequently, firms focus on service recovery strategies to fix problems and retain their customers for the future. Because a hospice offers care to terminally ill patients, it may not get the opportunity to correct a service failure. This situation makes the identification of what hospice users really need and want, and to ascertain perceptions of the hospice’s service delivery from the user’s perspective, even more important than for other service providers. A well-documented and fundamental barrier to improving end-of-life care is a lack of service quality measurement tools that capture the experiences of user’s from their own perspective. In palliative care, many quantitative measures are used and these focus on issues such as how quickly patients are assessed, whether they receive information leaflets, whether a discussion about their emotional needs is documented, and so on. Consequently, quality of service from the user’s perspective is overlooked. The current study was designed to overcome these limitations by adapting service blueprinting - never before used in the hospice sector - in order to undertake a ‘deep-dive’ to examine the impact of hospice services upon different users. Service blueprinting is a customer-focused approach for service innovation and improvement, where the ‘onstage’ visible service user and provider interactions must be supported by the ‘backstage’ employee actions and support processes. The study was conducted in conjunction with East Cheshire Hospice in England. The Hospice provides specialist palliative care for patients with progressive life-limiting illnesses, offering services to patients, carers and families via inpatient and outpatient units. Using service blueprinting to identify every service touchpoint, in-depth qualitative interviews with 38 in-patients, outpatients, visitors and bereaved families enabled a ‘deep-dive’ to uncover perceptions of the whole service experience among these diverse users. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and thematic analysis of over 104,000 words of data revealed many excellent aspects of Hospice service. Staff frequently exceed people’s expectations. Striking gratifying comparisons to hospitals emerged. The Hospice makes people feel safe. Nevertheless, the technique uncovered many areas for improvement, including serendipity of referrals processes, the need for better communications with external agencies, improvements amid the daunting arrival and admissions process, a desperate need for more depression counselling, clarity of communication pertaining to actual end of life, and shortcomings in systems dealing with bereaved families. The study reveals that the adapted service blueprinting tool has major advantages of alternative quantitative evaluation techniques, including uncovering the complex nature of service user’s experiences in health-care service systems, highlighting more fully the interconnected configurations within the system and making greater sense of the impact of the service upon different service users. Unlike other tools, this in-depth examination reveals areas for improvement, many of which have already been implemented by the Hospice. The technique has potential to improve experiences of palliative and end-of-life care among patients and their families.

Keywords: hospices, end-of-life-care, service blueprinting, service delivery

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Authors: Abirham Simeneh Ayalew, Seada Hussen Adem, Frie Ayalew Yimam

Abstract:

Battery energy storage has a great role on storing energy harnessed from different alternative resources and greatly benefit the power sector by supply energy back to the system during outage and regular operation in power sectors. Most of the study shows that there is an exponential increase in the quantity of lithium - ion battery energy storage system due to their power density, economical aspects and its performance. But this lithium ion battery failures resulted in fire and explosion due to its having flammable electrolytes (chemicals) which can create those hazards. Hazards happen in these energy storage system lead to minimize battery life spans or efficiency. Identifying the real cause of these hazards and its mitigation techniques can be the solution to improve the efficiency of battery technologies and the electrode materials should have high electrical conductivity, large surface area, stable structure and low resistance. This paper asses the real causes of chemical hazards, its impact on efficiency, proposed solution for mitigating those hazards associated with efficiency improvement and summery of researchers new finding related to the field.

Keywords: battery energy storage, battery energy storage efficiency, chemical hazards, lithium ion battery

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