Search results for: process modeling advancements

Authors: Dheyaa Wajid Abbood, Eitizaz Awad Jasim

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The aim of this investigation is to confirm the activity of a sludge recycling process in trickling filter filled with limestone as an alternative biological process over conventional high-cost treatment process with regard to toxic matter reduction from marginal water. The combination system of stepped cascade weir with limestone trickling filter has been designed and constructed in the environmental hydraulic laboratory, Al-Mustansiriya University, College of Engineering. A set of experiments has been conducted during the period from August 2013 to July 2014. Seven days of continuous operation with different continuous flow rates (0.4m3/hr, 0.5 m3/hr, 0.6 m3/hr, 0.7m3/hr,0.8 m3/hr, 0.9 m3/hr, and 1m3/hr) after ten days of acclimatization experiments were carried out. Results indicate that the concentrations of toxic matter were decreasing with increasing of operation time, sludge recirculation ratio, and flow rate. The toxic matter measured includes (Mineral oils, Petroleum products, Phenols, Biocides, Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and Surfactants) which are used in these experiments were ranged between (0.074 nm-0.156 nm). Results indicated that the overall reduction efficiency after 4, 28, 52, 76, 100, 124, and 148 hours of operation were (55%, 48%, 42%, 50%, 59%, 61%, and 64%) when the combination of stepped cascade weir with limestone trickling filter is used.

Keywords: toxic matter, marginal water, trickling filter, stepped cascade weir, removal efficiency

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Authors: Francielle A. Vargas, Thiago A. S. Pardo

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According to the standard philosophical definition, lying is saying something that you believe to be false with the intent to deceive. For deception detection, the FBI trains its agents in a technique named statement analysis, which attempts to detect deception based on parts of speech (i.e., linguistics style). This method is employed in interrogations, where the suspects are first asked to make a written statement. In this poster, we model false statements using linguistics style. In order to achieve this, we methodically analyze linguistic features in a corpus of fake news in the Portuguese language. The results show that they present substantial lexical, syntactic and semantic variations, as well as punctuation and emotion distinctions.

Keywords: deception detection, linguistics style, computational linguistics, natural language processing

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Authors: Nasser Y. Mahamoud, Pierre Dehombreux, Hassan E. Robleh

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Industrial companies may be confronted with questions about their choice of maintenance policy. This choice must be guided by several numbers of decision criteria or objectives related to their production or service activities but also to their level of development and their investment prospects. A decision-support methodology to choose a maintenance policy (corrective, systematic or conditional preventive, predictive, opportunistic or not) is proposed to facilitate this choice using the main categories of the most important decision criteria. The different steps of this methodology are illustrated using theoretical case: identification of the different maintenance alternatives, determining the structure of the most important categories of the decision criteria, assessing the different maintenance policies on to the criteria by using an ordinal preference relation, and finally ranking the different maintenance policies.

Keywords: maintenance policy, decision criteria, decision-making process, AHP

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Authors: Ezman Fitriansyah, Lestari Diah Restu, Wawan

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Adaro coal mine in South Kalimantan-Indonesia maintains catchment area of approximately 15,000 Ha for its mine operation. As an open pit surface coal mine with high erosion rate, the mine water in Adaro coal mine contains high TSS that needs to be treated before being released to rivers. For the treatment process, Adaro operates 21 Settling Ponds equipped with combination of physical and chemical system to separate solids and water to ensure the discharged water complied with regional environmental quality standards. However, the sludge created from the sedimentation process reduces the settling ponds capacity gradually. Therefore regular maintenance activities are required to recover and maintain the ponds' capacity. Trucking system and direct dredging had been the most common method to handle sludge in Adaro. But the main problem in applying these two methods is excessive area required for drying pond construction. To solve this problem, Adaro implements an alternative method called Geotube®. The principle of Geotube® method is the sludge contained in the Settling Ponds is pumped into Geotube® containers which have been designed to release water and retain mud flocks. During the pumping process, an amount of flocculants chemicals are injected into the sludge to form bigger mud flocks. Due to the difference in particle size, the mud flocks are settled in the container whilst the water continues to flow out through the container’s pores. Compared to the trucking system and direct dredging method, this method provides three advantages: space required to operate, increasing of overburden waste dump volume, and increasing of water treatment process speed and quality. Based on the evaluation result, Geotube® method only needs 1:8 of space required by the other methods. From the geotechnical assessment result conducted by Adaro, the potential loss of waste dump volume capacity prior to implementation of the Geotube® method was 26.7%. The water treatment process of TSS in well maintained ponds is 16% more optimum.

Keywords: geotube, mine water, settling pond, sludge handling, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Pooja Kumbhare

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Water is an important resource for the survival of life. The inadequate availability of surface water makes people depend on ground water for fulfilling their needs. However, ground water is generally too hard to satisfy the requirements for domestic as well as industrial applications. Removal of hardness involves various techniques such as lime soda process, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, nano-filtration, distillation, and, evaporation, etc. These techniques have individual problems such as high annual operating cost, sediment formation on membrane, sludge disposal problem, etc. Electrocoagulation (EC) is being explored as modern and cost-effective technology to cope up with the growing demand of high water quality at the consumer end. In general, earlier studies on electrocoagulation for hardness removal are found to deploy batch processes. As batch processes are always inappropriate to deal with large volume of water to be treated, it is essential to develop continuous flow EC process. So, in the present study, an attempt is made to investigate continuous flow EC process for decreasing excessive hardness of bore-well water. The experimental study has been conducted using 12 aluminum electrodes (25cm*10cm, 1cm thick) provided in EC reactor with volume of 8 L. Bore well water sample, collected from a local bore-well (i.e. at – Vishrambag, Sangli; Maharashtra) having average initial hardness of 680 mg/l (Range: 650 – 700 mg/l), was used for the study. Continuous flow electrocoagulation experiments were carried out by varying operating parameters specifically reaction time (Range: 10 – 60 min), voltage (Range: 5 – 20 V), current (Range: 1 – 5A). Based on the experimental study, it is found that hardness removal to the desired extent could be achieved even for continuous flow EC reactor, so the use of it is found promising.

Keywords: hardness, continuous flow EC process, aluminum electrode, optimal operating parameters

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Authors: Gulnara Galeeva

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The Analytic Hierarchy Process is widely used in the economic and financial studies, including the formation of investment portfolios. In this study, a generalized method of obtaining a vector of priorities for the case with separate pairwise comparisons of the expert opinion being presented as a set of several equal evaluations on a ratio scale is examined. The author claims that this method allows solving an important and up-to-date problem of excluding vagueness and ambiguity of the expert opinion in the decision making theory. The study describes the authentic wide pairwise comparison matrix. Its application in the formation of the efficient investment portfolio of intangible assets of a small business enterprise with limited funding is considered. The proposed method has been successfully approbated on the practical example of a functioning dental clinic. The result of the study confirms that the wide pairwise comparison matrix can be used as a simple and reliable method for forming the enterprise investment policy. Moreover, a comparison between the method based on the wide pairwise comparison matrix and the classical analytic hierarchy process was conducted. The results of the comparative analysis confirm the correctness of the method based on the wide matrix. The application of a wide pairwise comparison matrix also allows to widely use the statistical methods of experimental data processing for obtaining the vector of priorities. A new method is available for simple users. Its application gives about the same accuracy result as that of the classical hierarchy process. Financial directors of small and medium business enterprises get an opportunity to solve the problem of companies’ investments without resorting to services of analytical agencies specializing in such studies.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, decision processes, investment portfolio, intangible assets

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Authors: Kristine Tuliao

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Although it is of primary concern to ensure that supervisors behave appropriately, research shows that unethical behaviors are prevalent and may cost organizations’ economic and reputational damages. Nevertheless, few studies have considered the roles of the different levels of values in shaping one’s ethicality, and the examination of the possible mediation in the process of their influence has been rarely done. To address this gap, this research employs Merton’s anomie theory in designing a mediation analysis to test the direct impacts of national cultural values on supervisors’ justification of unethical behaviors as well as their indirect impacts through personal values. According to Merton’s writings, individual behaviors are affected by the society’s culture given its role in defining the members’ goals as well as the acceptable methods of attaining those goals. Also, Merton’s framework suggests that individuals develop their personal values depending on the assimilation of their society’s culture. Using data of 9,813 supervisors across 30 countries, results of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) indicated that national cultural values, specifically assertiveness, performance orientation, in-group collectivism, and humane orientation, positively affect supervisors’ unethical inclination. Some cultural values may encourage unethical tendencies, especially if they urge and pressure individuals to attain purely monetary success. In addition, some of the influence of national cultural values went through personal monetary and non-monetary success values, indicating partial mediation. These findings substantiated the assertions of Merton’s anomie theory that national cultural values influence supervisors’ ethics through their integration with personal values. Given that some of the results contradict Merton’s anomie theory propositions, complementary arguments, such as incomplete assimilation of culture, and the probable impact of job position in perceptions, values, and behaviors, could be the plausible rationale for these outcomes. Consequently, this paper advances the understanding of differences in national and personal values and how these factors impact supervisors’ justification of unethical behaviors. Alongside these contributions, suggestions are presented for the public and organizations to craft policies and procedures that will minimize the tendency of supervisors to commit unethical acts.

Keywords: mediation model, national culture, personal values, supervisors' ethics

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Authors: Zhiqiang Yan, Chen Fan, Yafei Wang, Beicheng Xia

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Urban lakes play an invaluable role in urban water systems such as flood control, water supply, and public recreation. However, over 38% of the urban lakes have suffered from severe eutrophication in China. Chlorine that could remarkably inhibit the growth of phytoplankton in eutrophic, has been widely used in the agricultural, aquaculture and industry in the recent past. However, little information has been reported regarding the effects of chlorine on the lake ecosystem, especially on the main aquatic species.To investigate the ecological response of main aquatic species and system stability to chlorine interference in shallow urban lakes, a mini system dynamic model was developed based on the competition and predation of main aquatic species and total phosphorus circulation. The main species of submerged macrophyte, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos, spiroggra and total phosphorus in water and sediment were used as variables in the model,while the interference of chlorine on phytoplankton was represented by an exponential attenuation equation. Furthermore, the eco-exergy expressing the development degree of ecosystem was used to quantify the complexity of the shallow urban lake. The model was validated using the data collected in the Lotus Lake in Guangzhoufrom1 October 2015 to 31 January 2016.The correlation coefficient (R), root mean square error-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR) and index of agreement (IOA) were calculated to evaluate accuracy and reliability of the model.The simulated values showed good qualitative agreement with the measured values of all components. The model results showed that chlorine had a notable inhibitory effect on Microcystis aeruginos，Rachionus plicatilis, Diaphanosoma brachyurum Liévin and Mesocyclops leuckarti (Claus).The outbreak of Spiroggra.spp. inhibited the growth of Vallisneria natans (Lour.) Hara, leading to a gradual decrease of eco-exergy and the breakdown of ecosystem internal equilibria. This study gives important insight into using chlorine to achieve eutrophication control and understand mechanism process.

Keywords: system dynamic model, urban lake, chlorine, eco-exergy

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Authors: Yeon-Jong Jeong, Jun-Hong Park, Hyuk Choi

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In this study, we have studied the design of intermediate die in multipass drawing. Research has been continuously studied because of the advantage of better dimensional accuracy, smooth surface and improved mechanical properties in the case of drawing. Among them, multipass drawing, which is a method to realize complicated shape by drawing, was discussed in this study. The most important factor in the multipass drawing is the dimensional accuracy and simplify the process. To accomplish this, a multistage shape drawing was performed using various intermediate die shape designs, and finite element analysis was performed.

Keywords: FEM (Finite Element Method), multipass drawing, intermediate die, hollow pipe

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Authors: H. Beisch, J. Marx, S. Garlof, R. Shvets, I. I. Grygorchak, A. Kityk, B. Fiedler

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Carbon materials, especially three-dimensional carbon foams, show very high potential in the application as electrode material for energy storage systems such as batteries and supercapacitors with unique fast charging and discharging times. Regarding their high specific surface areas (SSA) high specific capacities can be reached. Globugraphite is a newly developed carbon foam with an interconnected globular carbon morphology. Especially, this foam has a statistically distributed hierarchical pore structure resulting from the manufacturing process based on sintered ceramic templates which are synthetized during a final chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. For morphology characterization scanning electron (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used. In addition, the SSA is carried out by nitrogen adsorption combined with the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) theory. Electrochemical measurements in organic and inorganic electrolyte provide high energy densities and power densities resulting from ion absorption by forming an electrochemical double layer. All values are summarized in a Ragone Diagram. Finally, power densities up to 833 W/kg and energy densities up to 48 Wh/kg could be achieved. The corresponding SSA is between 376 m²/g and 859 m²/g. For organic electrolyte a specific capacity of 71 F/g at a density of 20 mg/cm³ was achieved.

Keywords: BET, CVD process, electron microscopy, Ragone diagram

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Authors: Mia Françoise

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This report aims to develop a strategy for assisting short-term investors to benefit from the current economic climate in South Africa by utilizing technical analysis techniques and predictive analytics. As part of this research, value investing and technical analysis principles will be combined to maximize returns for South African investors while optimizing volatility. As an emerging market, South Africa offers many opportunities for high growth in sectors where other developed countries cannot grow at the same rate. Investing in South African companies with significant growth potential can be extremely rewarding. Although the risk involved is more significant in countries with less developed markets and infrastructure, there is more room for growth in these countries. According to recent research, the offshore market is expected to outperform the local market over the long term; however, short-term investments in the local market will likely be more profitable, as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is predicted to outperform the S&P500 over the short term. The instabilities in the economy contribute to increased market volatility, which can benefit investors if appropriately utilized. Price prediction and portfolio optimization comprise the two primary components of this methodology. As part of this process, statistics and other predictive modeling techniques will be used to predict the future performance of stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Following predictive data analysis, Modern Portfolio Theory, based on Markowitz's Mean-Variance Theorem, will be applied to optimize the allocation of assets within an investment portfolio. By combining different assets within an investment portfolio, this optimization method produces a portfolio with an optimal ratio of expected risk to expected return. This methodology aims to provide a short-term investment with a stock portfolio that offers the best risk-to-return profile for stocks listed on the JSE by combining price prediction and portfolio optimization.

Keywords: financial stocks, optimized asset allocation, prediction modelling, South Africa

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Authors: Mohammad Safaeipour, Yousef Amer

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This study directs its focus on developing a conceptual model to offer a systematic and integrated method to weigh the related measures and evaluate a competence of hospitals and rank of the selected hospitals that involve and consider the stakeholders’ key performance indicators (KPI’s). The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach will use to weigh the dimensions and related sub- components. The weights and performance scores will combine by using the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and rank the selected hospitals. The results of this study provide interesting insight into the necessity of process improvement implementation in which hospital that received the lowest ranking score.

Keywords: performance measurement system, PMS, hospitals, AHP, TOPSIS

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Authors: Nooshin Salari, Viliam Makis

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In this paper, we propose a condition-based maintenance policy for multi-unit systems considering the existence of economic dependency among units. We consider a system composed of N identical units, where each unit deteriorates independently. Deterioration process of each unit is modeled as a three-state continuous time homogeneous Markov chain with two working states and a failure state. The average production rate of units varies in different working states and demand rate of the system is constant. Units are inspected at equidistant time epochs, and decision regarding performing maintenance is determined by the number of units in the failure state. If the total number of units in the failure state exceeds a critical level, maintenance is initiated, where units in failed state are replaced correctively and deteriorated state units are maintained preventively. Our objective is to determine the optimal number of failed units to initiate maintenance minimizing the long run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. A numerical example is developed to demonstrate the proposed policy and the comparison with the corrective maintenance policy is presented.

Keywords: reliability, maintenance optimization, semi-Markov decision process, production

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Authors: Peng Cheng, Liqing Wei, Hongyu Chen, Ruomiao Wang

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This paper discusses a light-weight reinforced thermoplastic (LWRT) composite with superior fire retardancy. This porous LWRT composite is manufactured using polyolefin, fiberglass, and fire retardant additives via a wet-lay process. However, discoloration of the LWRT can be induced by various mechanisms, which may be a concern in the building and construction industry. It is commonly understood that discoloration is strongly associated with the presence of phenolic antioxidant(s) and NO_x. The over-oxidation of phenolic antioxidant(s) is probably the root-cause of the discoloration (pinking/yellowing). Hanwha Azdel, Inc. developed a LWRT with fire-retardant property of ASTM E84-Class A specification, as well as negligible discoloration even under harsh conditions. In addition, this thermoplastic material is suitable for secondary processing (e.g. compression molding) if necessary.

Keywords: discoloration, fire-retardant, thermoplastic composites, wet-lay process

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Authors: Hisashi Imai, Kuan-Yu Chen, Katsuyoshi Kondoh, Hung-Yin Tsai, Junko Umeda

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Microstructural and electrical properties of copper-chromium alloy (Cu-Cr) dispersed with vapor-grown carbon fiber (VGCF) prepared by powder metallurgy (P/M) process have been investigated. Cu-0.7 mass% Cr pre-alloyed powder (Cu-Cr) made by water atomization process was used as raw materials, which contained solid solute Cr elements in Cu matrix. The alloy powder coated with un-bundled VGCF by using oil coating process was consolidated at 1223 K in vacuum by spark plasma sintering, and then extruded at 1073 K. The extruded Cu-Cr alloy (monolithic alloy) had 209.3 MPa YS and 80.4 IACS% conductivity. The extruded Cu-Cr with 0.1 mass% VGCF composites revealed a small decrease of YS compared to the monolithic Cu-Cr alloy. On the other hand, the composite had a higher electrical conductivity than that of the monolithic alloy. For example, Cu-Cr with 0.1 mass% VGCF composite sintered for 5 h showed 182.7 MPa YS and 89.7 IACS% conductivity. In the case of Cu-Cr with VGCFs composites, the Cr concentration was observed around VGCF by SEM-EDS analysis, where Cr23C6 compounds were detected by TEM observation. The amount of Cr solid solution in the matrix of the Cu-Cr composites alloy was about 50% compared to the monolithic Cu-Cr sintered alloy, and resulted in the remarkable increment of the electrical conductivity.

Keywords: powder metallurgy Cu-Cr alloy powder, vapor-grown carbon fiber, electrical conductivity

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Authors: Amit R. Bhende, G. K. Awari

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Remaining useful life (RUL) prediction is one of key technologies to realize prognostics and health management that is being widely applied in many industrial systems to ensure high system availability over their life cycles. The present work proposes a data-driven method of RUL prediction based on multiple health state assessment for rolling element bearings. Bearing degradation data at three different conditions from run to failure is used. A RUL prediction model is separately built in each condition. Feed forward back propagation neural network models are developed for prediction modeling.

Keywords: bearing degradation data, remaining useful life (RUL), back propagation, prognosis

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Authors: Sudhanshu Kumar

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Electrical discharge machining, also known as EDM, process is one of the most applicable machining process for removal of material in hard to machine materials like superalloy metals. EDM process utilizes electrical energy into sparks to erode the metals in presence of dielectric medium. In the present investigation, superalloy, Inconel 718 has been selected as workpiece and electrolytic copper as tool electrode. Attempt has been made to understand the effect of size of tool with varying cavity depth during drilling of hole through EDM process. In order to systematic investigate, tool size in terms of tool diameter and cavity depth along with other important electrical parameters namely, peak current, pulse-on time and servo voltage have been varied at three different values and the experiments has been designed using fractional factorial (Taguchi) method. Each experiment has been repeated twice under the same condition in order to understand the variability within the experiments. The effect of variations in parameters has been evaluated in terms of material removal rate, tool wear rate and surface roughness. Results revel that change in tool diameter during machining affects the response characteristics significantly. Larger tool diameter yielded 13% more material removal rate than smaller tool diameter. Analysis of the effect of variation in cavity depth is notable. There is no significant effect of cavity depth on material removal rate, tool wear rate and surface quality. This indicates that number of experiments can be performed to analyze other parameters effect even at smaller depth of cavity which can reduce the cost and time of experiments. Further, statistical analysis has been carried out to identify the interaction effect between parameters.

Keywords: EDM, Inconel 718, material removal rate, roughness, tool wear, tool size

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Authors: Yusuf S. Dambatta, Ahmed A. D. Sarhan

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Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the most prominent rapid prototyping (RP) technologies which is being used to efficiently fabricate CAD 3D geometric models. However, the process is coupled with many drawbacks, of which the surface quality of the manufactured RP parts is among. Hence, studies relating to improving the surface roughness have been a key issue in the field of RP research. In this work, a technique of modelling the surface roughness in FDM is presented. Using experimentally measured surface roughness response of the FDM parts, an ANFIS prediction model was developed to obtain the surface roughness in the FDM parts using the main critical process parameters that affects the surface quality. The ANFIS model was validated and compared with experimental test results.

Keywords: surface roughness, fused deposition modelling (FDM), adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), orientation

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Authors: Hamidreza Khodaei, Ali Daryabeigi Zand

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Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a mixture of isomers of linoleic acid. Despite the fact that 28 different isomers of CLA have already been identified, but the main isomer found in natural diets more than ninety percent CLA on intake of food constitutes demonstrates. CLA is known to be a substance that readily available by rumen microorganisms in some ruminants such as cattle and sheep would likely be made. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the impacts of CLA on lipid metabolism and enhanced fat around the muscle durability by reducing the process of oxidation. In order to implement this research, 80 female mice of the Balb/C, with 55 days of age were employed in the experiment. Treatments include various levels of CLA. Over the course of this study blood samples was also taken from the tail vein of the studied mice. Some other relevant parameters such as serum concentrations of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and liver enzymes were also determined. The oxidative stability of fats TBARS technique was investigated at different intervals. The findings of the research were analyzed by statistical software of SAS 98. The results, CLA had no significant effect on liver enzymes (P > 0.05). However, it showed a statistically significant impact on triglycerides and total cholesterol. Ratio of LDL to HDL declined remarkably. Histological studies demonstrated reduced accumulation of fat in the tissues surrounding muscles.

Keywords: conjugated linoleic acid, fat metabolism, fat retention, oxidation process

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Authors: Fernando Vega, Esmeralda Portillo, Sara Camino, Benito Navarrete, Elena Montavez

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The European Union aims at strongly reducing their CO₂ emissions from energy and industrial sector by 2030. The energy sector contributes with more than two-thirds of the CO₂ emission share derived from anthropogenic activities. Although efforts are mainly focused on the use of renewables by energy production sector, carbon capture and storage (CCS) remains as a frontline option to reduce CO₂ emissions from industrial process, particularly from fossil-fuel power plants and cement production. Among the most feasible and near-to-market CCS technologies, namely post-combustion and oxy-combustion, partial oxy-combustion is a novel concept that can potentially reduce the overall energy requirements of the CO₂ capture process. This technology consists in the use of higher oxygen content in the oxidizer that should increase the CO₂ concentration of the flue gas once the fuel is burnt. The CO₂ is then separated from the flue gas downstream by means of a conventional CO₂ chemical absorption process. The production of a higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas should enhance the CO₂ absorption into the solvent, leading to further reductions of the CO₂ separation performance in terms of solvent flow-rate, equipment size, and energy penalty related to the solvent regeneration. This work evaluates a portfolio of CCS technologies applied to fossil-fuel power plants. For this purpose, an economic evaluation methodology was developed in detail to determine the main economical parameters for CO₂ emission removal such as the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and the CO₂ captured and avoided costs. ASPEN Plus™ software was used to simulate the main units of power plant and solve the energy and mass balance. Capital and investment costs were determined from the purchased cost of equipment, also engineering costs and project and process contingencies. The annual capital cost and operating and maintenance costs were later obtained. A complete energy balance was performed to determine the net power produced in each case. The baseline case consists of a supercritical 500 MWe coal-fired power plant using anthracite as a fuel without any CO₂ capture system. Four cases were proposed: conventional post-combustion capture, oxy-combustion and partial oxy-combustion using two levels of oxygen-enriched air (40%v/v and 75%v/v). CO₂ chemical absorption process using monoethanolamine (MEA) was used as a CO₂ separation process whereas the O₂ requirement was achieved using a conventional air separation unit (ASU) based on Linde's cryogenic process. Results showed a reduction of 15% of the total investment cost of the CO₂ separation process when partial oxy-combustion was used. Oxygen-enriched air production also reduced almost half the investment costs required for ASU in comparison with oxy-combustion cases. Partial oxy-combustion has a significant impact on the performance of both CO₂ separation and O₂ production technologies, and it can lead to further energy reductions using new developments on both CO₂ and O₂ separation processes.

Keywords: carbon capture, cost methodology, economic evaluation, partial oxy-combustion

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Authors: D. Habibinia, M. R. Feyzi

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Nowadays, specialized software is vastly used to verify the performance of an electric machine prototype by evaluating a model of the system. These models mainly consist of electrical parameters such as inductances and resistances. However, when the operating frequency of the device is above one kHz, the effect of parasitic capacitances grows significantly. In this paper, a software-based procedure is introduced to model these capacitances within the electromagnetic simulation of the device. The case study is a high-frequency high-voltage pulse transformer. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software with coupled field analysis is used in this method.

Keywords: finite element analysis, parasitic capacitance, pulse transformer, high frequency

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Authors: Moudar H. A. Zgoul, Amin Al Zamer

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Adhesive materials and adhesion have been the focal point of multiple research works related to numerous applications, particularly, aerospace, and aviation industries. To enhance the properties of conventional adhesive materials, additives have been introduced to the mix in order to enhance their mechanical and physical properties by creating a hybrid adhesive material. The evaluation of the mechanical properties of such hybrid adhesive materials is thus of an essential requirement for the purpose of properly modeling their behavior accurately. This paper presents an approach/tool to simulate the behavior such hybrid adhesives in a way that will allow researchers to better understand their behavior while in service.

Keywords: adhesive materials, analysis, hybrid adhesives, mechanical properties, simulation

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Authors: Fathimath Warda, Mariyam Nihaadh

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Students with Special Education Needs (SEN) are increasing in the Maldives, like anywhere else in the world, due to the changes in lifestyle of the people and ease of being diagnosed with advancements in medical health. With the growth in the population of these students, the demand for professionals in various fields is unmet. Thus, with the introduction of the Inclusive Education Policy in 2013, all students are educated in the same classroom by the regular teacher. This poses problems as the teachers are not well trained and qualified to meet the varying needs of the students, given the limited time and the large number of students in the classroom. This is a major concern for all stakeholders in the education sector and research has been conducted by various local scholars in this area. However, studies on the role of parents of such students is an area that remains yet to be explored in the Maldives, which makes a study of this nature crucial. The main aim of this study is to determine the ways in which the education provided to Special Needs Students can be maximized for a better outcome. Therefore, the study intends to understand the involvement of parents in providing education to special needs students from the teachers' perspectives. The basis for this study is the Parent Development Theory developed by Mowder, which was initially known as Parent Role Development Theory. A qualitative research has thus been utilised for the purpose of the study as it requires to find the beliefs and attitudes of teachers, along with relevant justifications regarding the role of parents in educating students with special needs. Data was gathered using one-to-one interviews, as it is one of the most reliable ways of getting meaningful and in-depth data. The study employs a total of 8 participants who are teachers teaching in inclusive classes where students with special needs are included. Emphasis was paid to select teachers who have the experience of teaching students with different disorders commonly found in the Maldives, namely in the four areas, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and speech impairment. Hence, purposive sampling will be used to select the participants. Data analysis has been done using thematic coding. The findings revealed that teachers highlighted that parents' involvement was a key factor in ensuring success of education in children with special needs. Thus, the study concludes that the role of parents as a necessary input for the proper development of children and in educating children with special needs, suggesting that extra measures have to be taken develop a positive relationship between teachers and parents in order to strengthen this aspect.

Keywords: involvement, parents' role, special education needs, teachers' voice

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Authors: Caglayan Hizal, Kutay Yuceturk, Ertugrul Turker Uzun, Hasan Ceylan, Engin Aktas, Gursoy Turan

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Monitoring concepts for structural systems have been investigated by researchers for decades since such tools are quite convenient to determine intervention planning of structures. Despite the considerable development in this regard, the efficient use of monitoring data in reliability assessment, and prediction models are still in need of improvement in their efficiency. More specifically, reliability-based seismic risk assessment of engineering structures may play a crucial role in the post-earthquake decision-making process for the structures. After an earthquake, professionals could identify heavily damaged structures based on visual observations. Among these, it is hard to identify the ones with minimum signs of damages, even if they would experience considerable structural degradation. Besides, visual observations are open to human interpretations, which make the decision process controversial, and thus, less reliable. In this context, when a continuous monitoring system has been previously installed on the corresponding structure, this decision process might be completed rapidly and with higher confidence by means of the observed data. At this stage, the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) procedure has an important role since it can make it possible to estimate the system reliability based on a recursively updated mathematical model. Therefore, integrating an SHM procedure into the reliability assessment process comes forward as an important challenge due to the arising uncertainties for the updated model in case of the environmental, material and earthquake induced changes. In this context, this study presents a case study on SHM-integrated reliability assessment of the continuously monitored progressively damaged systems. The objective of this study is to get instant feedback on the current state of the structure after an extreme event, such as earthquakes, by involving the observed data rather than the visual inspections. Thus, the decision-making process after such an event can be carried out on a rational basis. In the near future, this can give wing to the design of self-reported structures which can warn about its current situation after an extreme event.

Keywords: condition assessment, vibration-based SHM, reliability analysis, seismic risk assessment

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Authors: Burcu Guvenek, Volkan Alptekin

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Turkey is a country in the process of development and its economy has undergone structural reforms in order to realize a sustainable development and energy has vital role as a basic input for this aim. Turkey has been in the process of economic growth and development and, because of this, has an increasing energy need. This paper investigates relationship between economic growth and electricity consumption using annual data for Turkey between 1970-2008 by using bounds test. As economic growth and energy consumption variables used in empirical analysis was different order of integration I(0) and I(1), we employed bounds test approach. We have not found co-integration relationship between the variables.

Keywords: bounds test, economic growth, energy consumption, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Angga S. Fajar, A. Aminullah, J. Kiyono, R. A. Safitri

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This paper discusses about the application of ANN for optimizing of bridge structure design. ANN has been applied in various field of science concerning prediction and optimization. The structural optimization has several benefit including accelerate structural design process, saving the structural material, and minimize self-weight and mass of structure. In this paper, there are three types of bridge structure that being optimized including PSC I-girder superstructure, composite steel-concrete girder superstructure, and RC bridge pier. The different optimization strategy on each bridge structure implement back propagation method of ANN is conducted in this research. The optimal weight and easier design process of bridge structure with satisfied error are achieved.

Keywords: bridge structures, ANN, optimization, back propagation

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Authors: Farhood Rismanchian, Seong Hyeon Park, Young Hoon Lee

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This paper proposes a method to optimize the layout of an emergency department (ED) based on real executions of care processes by considering several planning objectives simultaneously. Recently, demand for healthcare services has been dramatically increased. As the demand for healthcare services increases, so do the need for new healthcare buildings as well as the need for redesign and renovating existing ones. The importance of implementation of a standard set of engineering facilities planning and design techniques has been already proved in both manufacturing and service industry with many significant functional efficiencies. However, high complexity of care processes remains a major challenge to apply these methods in healthcare environments. Process mining techniques applied in this study to tackle the problem of complexity and to enhance care process analysis. Process related information such as clinical pathways extracted from the information system of an ED. A 0-1 goal programming approach is then proposed to find a single layout that simultaneously satisfies several goals. The proposed model solved by optimization software CPLEX 12. The solution reached using the proposed method has 42.2% improvement in terms of walking distance of normal patients and 47.6% improvement in walking distance of critical patients at minimum cost of relocation. It has been observed that lots of patients must unnecessarily walk long distances during their visit to the emergency department because of an inefficient design. A carefully designed layout can significantly decrease patient walking distance and related complications.

Keywords: healthcare operation management, goal programming, facility layout problem, process mining, clinical processes

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Authors: Samuel Marínez González

Abstract:

In the last decades, the studies about humor have been increasing significantly in all areas. In the field of education and, specially, in the second language teaching, most research has concentrated on the beneficial effects that the introduction of humor in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language, as well as its impact on teachers and students. In the following research, we will try to know the learners’ perspectives about humor and its use in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classes. In order to do this, a different range of students from the Spanish courses at the University of Cape Town will participate in a survey that will reveal their beliefs about the frequency of humor in their daily lives and their Spanish lessons, their reactions to humorous situations, and the main advantages or disadvantages, from their point of view, to the introduction of humor in the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language.

Keywords: education, foreign languages, humor, pedagogy, Spanish as a Foreign Language, students’ perceptions

Procedia PDF Downloads 341

Authors: Arnaud Nougues

Abstract:

This paper describes a two-stage methodology derived from internal model control (IMC) for tuning a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for levels or other integrating processes in an industrial environment. Focus is the ease of use and implementation speed which are critical for an industrial application. Tuning can be done with minimum effort and without the need for time-consuming open-loop step tests on the plant. The first stage of the method applies to levels only: the vessel residence time is calculated from equipment dimensions and used to derive a set of preliminary proportional-integral (PI) settings with IMC. The second stage, re-tuning in closed-loop, applies to levels as well as other integrating processes: a tuning correction mechanism has been developed based on a series of closed-loop simulations with model errors. The tuning correction is done from a simple closed-loop step test and the application of a generic correlation between observed overshoot and integral time correction. A spin-off of the method is that an estimate of the vessel residence time (levels) or open-loop process gain (other integrating process) is obtained from the closed-loop data.

Keywords: closed-loop model identification, IMC-PID tuning method, integrating process control, on-line PID tuning adaptation

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Authors: Sanam Haseen, Abdul Bari

Abstract:

In this paper a three stage multivariate programming problem with random survey cost and variances as random variables has been formulated as a non-linear stochastic programming problem. The problem has been converted into an equivalent deterministic form using chance constraint programming and modified E-modeling. An empirical study of the problem has been done at the end of the paper using R-simulation.

Keywords: chance constraint programming, modified E-model, stochastic programming, stratified sample surveys, three stage sample surveys

Procedia PDF Downloads 458