Search results for: unit modular frame

Authors: Yul Y. Nazaruddin, Anas Y. Widiaribowo, Satriyo Nugroho

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Boiler is one of the critical unit in a petrochemical plant. Steam produced by the boiler is used for various processes in the plant such as urea and ammonia plant. An alternative method to optimize the boiler combustion system is presented in this paper. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) approach is applied to model the boiler using real-time operational data collected from a boiler unit of the petrochemical plant. Nonlinear equation obtained is then used to optimize the air to fuel ratio using Genetic Algorithm, resulting an optimal ratio of 15.85. This optimal ratio is then maintained constant by ratio controller designed using inverse dynamics based on ANFIS. As a result, constant value of oxygen content in the flue gas is obtained which indicates more efficient combustion process.

Keywords: ANFIS, boiler, combustion process, genetic algorithm, optimization.

Procedia PDF Downloads 247

Authors: Hanen Khanchel, Karim Ben Kahla

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Pharmaceutical companies are facing competition. Indeed, the price differences between competing products can be such that it becomes difficult to compensate them by differences in value added. The conditions of competition are no longer homogeneous for the players involved. The price of a product is a given that puts a company and its customer face to face. However, price fixing obliges the company to consider internal factors relating to production costs and external factors such as customer attitudes, the existence of regulations and the structure of the market on which the firm evolved. In setting the selling price, the company must first take into account internal factors relating to its costs: costs of production fall into two categories, fixed costs and variable costs that depend on the quantities produced. The company cannot consider selling below what it costs the product. It, therefore, calculates the unit cost of production to which it adds the unit cost of distribution, enabling it to know the unit cost of production of the product. The company adds its margin and thus determines its selling price. The margin is used to remunerate the capital providers and to finance the activity of the company and its investments. Production costs are related to the quantities produced: large-scale production generally reduces the unit cost of production, which is an asset for companies with mass production markets. This shows that small and medium-sized companies with limited market segments need to make greater efforts to ensure their profit margins. As a result, and faced with high and low market prices for raw materials and increasing staff costs, the company must seek to optimize its production time in order to reduce loads and eliminate waste. Then, the customer pays only value added. Thus, and based on this principle we decided to create a project that deals with the problem of waste in our company, and having as objectives the reduction of production costs and improvement of performance indicators. This paper presents the implementation of the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) project in a pharmaceutical company. It is structured as follows: 1) determination of the family of products, 2) drawing of the current state, 3) drawing of the future state, 4) action plan and implementation.

Keywords: VSM, waste, production time, kaizen, cartography, improvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Megan Weisbart

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Background/Significance: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment contributes to nurse burnout. Burnout costs include decreased employee compassion, missed workdays, worse patient outcomes, diminished job performance, high turnover, and higher organizational cost. Meaningful recognition, nurturing of interpersonal connections, and mindfulness-based interventions are associated with decreased burnout. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to decrease Neonatal ICU (NICU) nurse burnout using a Wellness Bundle that fosters meaningful recognition, interpersonal connections and includes mindfulness-based interventions. Methods: The Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5 (ProQOL5) was used to measure burnout before Wellness Bundle implementation, after six months, and will be given yearly for three years. Meaningful recognition bundle items include Online submission and posting of staff shoutouts, recognition events, Nurses Week and Unit Practice Council member gifts, and an employee recognition program. Fostering of interpersonal connections bundle items include: Monthly staff games with prizes, social events, raffle fundraisers, unit blog, unit wellness basket, and a wellness resource sheet. Quick coherence techniques were implemented at staff meetings and huddles as a mindfulness-based intervention. Findings: The mean baseline burnout score of 14 NICU nurses was 20.71 (low burnout). The baseline range was 13-28, with 11 nurses experiencing low burnout, three nurses experiencing moderate burnout, and zero nurses experiencing high burnout. After six months of the Wellness Bundle Implementation, the mean burnout score of 39 NICU nurses was 22.28 (low burnout). The range was 14-31, with 22 nurses experiencing low burnout, 17 nurses experiencing moderate burnout, and zero nurses experiencing high burnout. Conclusion: A NICU Wellness Bundle that incorporated meaningful recognition, fostering of interpersonal connections, and mindfulness-based activities was implemented to improve work environments and decrease nurse burnout. Participation bias and low baseline response rate may have affected the reliability of the data and necessitate another comparative measure of burnout in one year.

Keywords: burnout, NICU, nurse, wellness

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Nassima Noufail, Sara Bouhali

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In this work, we develop a semi-supervised solution for the purpose of action detection in videos and propose an efficient algorithm for video segmentation. The approach is divided into video segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. In the first part, a video is segmented into clips, and we used the K-means algorithm for this segmentation; our goal is to find groups based on similarity in the video. The application of k-means clustering into all the frames is time-consuming; therefore, we started by the identification of transition frames where the scene in the video changes significantly, and then we applied K-means clustering into these transition frames. We used two image filters, the gaussian filter and the Laplacian of Gaussian. Each filter extracts a set of features from the frames. The Gaussian filter blurs the image and omits the higher frequencies, and the Laplacian of gaussian detects regions of rapid intensity changes; we then used this vector of filter responses as an input to our k-means algorithm. The output is a set of cluster centers. Each video frame pixel is then mapped to the nearest cluster center and painted with a corresponding color to form a visual map. The resulting visual map had similar pixels grouped. We then computed a cluster score indicating how clusters are near each other and plotted a signal representing frame number vs. clustering score. Our hypothesis was that the evolution of the signal would not change if semantically related events were happening in the scene. We marked the breakpoints at which the root mean square level of the signal changes significantly, and each breakpoint is an indication of the beginning of a new video segment. In the second part, for each segment from part 1, we randomly selected a 16-frame clip, then we extracted spatiotemporal features using convolutional 3D network C3D for every 16 frames using a pre-trained model. The C3D final output is a 512-feature vector dimension; hence we used principal component analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction. The final part is the classification. The C3D feature vectors are used as input to a multi-class linear support vector machine (SVM) for the training model, and we used a multi-classifier to detect the action. We evaluated our experiment on the UCF101 dataset, which consists of 101 human action categories, and we achieved an accuracy that outperforms the state of art by 1.2%.

Keywords: video segmentation, action detection, classification, Kmeans, C3D

Procedia PDF Downloads 71

Authors: Manoj Sarda, Abhishek Agarwal, Juhi Kaushik, Vatsal Sanjay, Arup Kumar Das

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Railways in India remain primary mode of transport having one of the largest networks in the world and catering to billions of transits yearly. Catastrophic economic damage and loss to life is encountered over the past few decades due to fire to locomotives. Study of fire dynamics and fire propagation plays an important role in evacuation planning and reducing losses. Simulation based study of propagation of fire and soot inside an air conditioned coach of Indian locomotive is done in this paper. Finite difference based solver, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) version 6 has been used for analysis. A single air conditioned 3 tier coupe closed to ambient surroundings by glass windows having occupancy for 8 people is the basic unit of the domain. A system of three such coupes combined is taken to be fundamental unit for the entire study to resemble effect to an entire coach. Analysis of flame and soot contours and concentrations is done corresponding to variations in heat release rate per unit volume (HRRPUA) of fire source, variations in conditioned air velocity being circulated inside coupes by vents and an alternate fire initiation and propagation mechanism via ducts. Quantitative results of fractional area in top and front view of the three coupes under fire and smoke are obtained using MATLAB (IMT). Present simulations and its findings will be useful for organizations like Commission of Railway Safety and others in designing and implementing safety and evacuation measures.

Keywords: air conditioned coaches, fire propagation, flame contour, soot flow, train fire

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Janaína F. Guidolini, Jean P. H. B. Ometto, Angélica Giarolla, Peter M. Toledo, Carlos A. Valera

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The water crisis, a major problem of the 21^st century, occurs mainly due to poor management. The central issue that should govern the management is the integration of the various aspects that interfere with the use of water resources and their protection, supported by legal basis. A watershed is a unit of water interacting with the physical, biotic, social, economic and cultural variables. The Brazilian law recognized river basin as the territorial management unit. Based on the diagnosis of the current situation of the water resources of the Rio Grande Basin, a discussion informed in the Brazilian legal basis was made to propose measures to fight or mitigate damages and environmental degradation in the Basin. To manage water resources more efficiently, conserve water and optimize their multiple uses, the integration of acquired scientific knowledge and management is essential. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor compliance with environmental legislation.

Keywords: conservation of soil and water, environmental laws, river basin, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: Khayrullina Yulia Sergeevna, Tokareva Goulsine Shavkatovna

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The article analyzes the modern major railway hubs as a main part of the Urban Nodal Area (UNA). The term was introduced into the theory of urban planning at the end of the XX century. Tokareva G.S. jointly with Gutnov A.E. investigated the structure-forming elements of the city. UNA is the basic unit, the "cell" of the city structure. Specialization is depending on the position in the frame or the fabric of the city. This is related to feature of its organization. Spatial and functional features of UNA proposed to investigate in this paper. The base object for researching are railway hubs as connective nodes of inner and extern-city communications. Research used a stratified sampling type with the selection of typical objects. Research is being conducted on the 14 railway hubs of the native and foreign experience of the largest cities with a population over 1 million people located in one and close to the Russian climate zones. Features of the organization identified in the complex research of functional and spatial characteristics based on the hypothesis of the existence of dual characteristics of the organization of urban nodes. According to the analysis, there is using the approximation method that enable general conclusions of a representative selection of the entire population of railway hubs and it development’s area. Results of the research show specific ratio of functional and spatial organization of UNA based on railway hubs. Based on it there proposed typology of spaces and urban nodal areas. Identification of spatial diversity and functional organization’s features of the greatest railway hubs and it development’s area gives an indication of the different evolutionary stages of formation approaches. It help to identify new patterns for the complex and effective design as a prediction of the native hub’s development direction.

Keywords: urban nodal area, railway hubs, features of structural, functional organization

Procedia PDF Downloads 385

Authors: Shang-Sin Shiu, Shu-I Chin, Hsiu-Ju Chen, Ru-Yu Lien

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The Hospice and Palliative Care Act has undergone three revisions, making it less challenging for terminal patients to withdraw life support systems. However, the adequacy of care before withdraw is a crucial factor in end-of-life medical treatment. The author observed that intensive care unit (ICU) nursing staff often rely on simple flowcharts or word of mouth, leading to inadequate preparation and failure to meet patient needs before withdraw. This results in confusion or hesitation among those executing the process. Therefore, there is a motivation to improve the withdraw of patient care processes, establish standardized procedures, ensure the accuracy of removal execution, enhance end-of-life care self-efficacy for nursing staff, and improve the overall quality of care. The investigation identified key issues: the lack of applicable guidelines for ICU care for withdraw from life-sustaining, insufficient education and training on withdraw and end-of-life care, scattered locations of withdraw-related tools, and inadequate self-efficacy in withdraw from life-sustaining care. Solutions proposed include revising withdraw care processes and guidelines, integrating tools and locations, conducting educational courses, and forming support groups. After the project implementation, the accuracy of removal cognition improved from 78% to 96.5%, self-efficacy in end-of-life care after removal increased from 54.7% to 93.1%, and the correctness of care behavior progressed from 27.7% to 97.8%. It is recommended to regularly conduct courses on removing life support system care and grief consolation to enhance the quality of end-of-life care.

Keywords: the intensive care unit (ICU) patients, nursing staff, withdraw life support systems, self-efficacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Viriyavudh Sim, SeungHyun Kim, JungKyu Choi, WooYoung Jung

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Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) is a major evolution for energy dissipation when used as infill material for seismic retrofitting of steel frame, a basic PMC infill wall system consists of two GFRP laminates surrounding an infill of foam core. This paper presents numerical analysis in terms of buckling resistance of GFRP sandwich infill panels system under the influence of environment temperature and stacking sequence of laminate skin. Mode of failure under in-plane compression is studied by means of numerical analysis with ABAQUS platform. Parameters considered in this study are contact length between infill and frame, laminate stacking sequence of GFRP skin and variation of mechanical properties due to increment of temperature. The analysis is done with four cases of simple stacking sequence over a range of temperature. The result showed that both the effect of temperature and stacking sequence alter the performance of entire panel system. The rises of temperature resulted in the decrements of the panel’s strength. This is due to the polymeric nature of this material. Additionally, the contact length also displays the effect on the performance of infill panel. Furthermore, the laminate stiffness can be modified by orientation of laminate, which can increase the infill panel strength. Hence, optimal performance of the entire panel system can be obtained by comparing different cases of stacking sequence.

Keywords: buckling resistance, GFRP infill panel, stacking sequence, temperature dependent

Procedia PDF Downloads 370

Authors: Maryam Solgi, Behzad Shahmohammadi, Morteza Raissi Dehkordi

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One of the main steps for seismic retrofitting of buildings is to determine the vulnerability of structures. While current procedures for evaluating existing buildings are complicated, and there is no limitation between short, middle-high, and tall buildings. This research utilizes a simplified method for assessing structures, which is adequate for existing reinforced concrete buildings. To approach this aim, Simple Lateral Mechanisms Analysis (SLaMA) procedure proposed by NZSEE (New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering) has been carried out. In this study, three RC moment-resisting frame buildings are determined. First, these buildings have been evaluated by inelastic static procedure (Pushover) based on acceptance criteria. Then, Park-Ang Damage Index is determined for the whole members of each building by Inelastic Time History Analysis. Next, the Simple Lateral Mechanisms Analysis procedure, a hand method, is carried out to define the capacity of structures. Ultimately, existing procedures are compared with Peak Ground Acceleration caused to fail (PGAfail). The results of this comparison emphasize that the Pushover procedure and SLaMA method define a greater value of PGAfail than the Park-Ang Damage model.

Keywords: peak ground acceleration caused to fail, reinforced concrete moment-frame buildings, seismic vulnerability analysis, simple lateral mechanisms analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Syed Muzyan Shahzad, Liu Jianxin, Asim Shahzad, Muhammad Sharjeel Raza, Sun Ya, Fanidi Meryem

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Electrical resistivity investigation was conducted in vicinity of Tarbela Ghazi, in order to study the subsurface layer with a view of determining the depth to the aquifer and thickness of groundwater potential zones. Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) using Schlumberger array was carried out at 16 VES stations. Well logging data at four tube wells have been used to mark the super saturated zones with great discharge rate. The present paper shows a geoelectrical identification of the lithology and an estimate of the relationship between the resistivity and Dar Zarrouk parameters (transverse unit resistance and longitudinal unit conductance). The VES results revealed both homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the subsurface strata. Aquifer is unconfined to confine in nature, and at few locations though perched aquifer has been identified, groundwater potential zones are developed in unconsolidated deposits layers and more than seven geo-electric layers are observed at some VES locations. Saturated zones thickness ranges from 5 m to 150 m, whereas at few area aquifer is beyond 150 m thick. The average anisotropy, transvers resistance and longitudinal conductance values are 0.86 %, 35750.9821 Ω.m², 0.729 Siemens, respectively. The transverse unit resistance values fluctuate all over the aquifer system, whereas below at particular depth high values are observed, that significantly associated with the high transmissivity zones. The groundwater quality in all analyzed samples is below permissible limit according to World Health Standard (WHO).

Keywords: aquifer, Dar Zarrouk parameters, geoelectric layers, Tarbela Ghazi

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Ramanpreet Kaur, Upasana Sharma

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The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges facing the water supply for the Machine Learning Database (MLDB) system at the piston foundry plant. In the MLDB system, one main unit, i.e., robotic, is connected by two sub-units. The functioning of the system depends on the robotic and water supply. Lack of water supply causes system failure. The system operates at full capacity with the help of two sub-units. If one sub-unit fails, the system runs at a low capacity. Reliability modeling is performed using semi-Markov processes and regenerative point techniques. Several system effects such as mean time to system failure, availability at full capacity, availability at reduced capacity, busy period for repair and expected number of visits have been achieved. Benefits have been analyzed. The graphical study is designed for a specific case using programming in C++ and MS Excel.

Keywords: MLDB system, robotic, semi-Markov process, regenerative point technique

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Jonathon Bailey, Neil Bressloff, Nick Curzen

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Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) devices are stent-like frames with prosthetic leaflets on the inside, which are percutaneously implanted. The device in a crimped state is fed through the arteries to the aortic root, where the device frame is opened through either self-expansion or balloon expansion, which reveals the prosthetic valve within. The frequency at which TAVI is being used to treat aortic stenosis is rapidly increasing. In time, TAVI is likely to become the favoured treatment over Surgical Valve Replacement (SVR). Mortality after TAVI has been associated with severe Paravalvular Aortic Regurgitation (PAR). PAR occurs when the frame of the TAVI device does not make an effective seal against the internal surface of the aortic root, allowing blood to flow backwards about the valve. PAR is common in patients and has been reported to some degree in as much as 76% of cases. Severe PAR (grade 3 or 4) has been reported in approximately 17% of TAVI patients resulting in post-procedural mortality increases from 6.7% to 16.5%. TAVI devices, like SVR devices, are circular in cross-section as the aortic root is often considered to be approximately circular in shape. In reality, however, the aortic root is often non-circular. The ascending aorta, aortic sino tubular junction, aortic annulus and left ventricular outflow tract have an average ellipticity ratio of 1.07, 1.09, 1.29, and 1.49 respectively. An elliptical aortic root does not severely affect SVR, as the leaflets are completely removed during the surgical procedure. However, an elliptical aortic root can inhibit the ability of the circular Balloon-Expandable (BE) TAVI devices to conform to the interior of the aortic root wall, which increases the risk of PAR. Self-Expanding (SE) TAVI devices are considered better at conforming to elliptical aortic roots, however the valve leaflets were not designed for elliptical function, furthermore the incidence of PAR is greater in SE devices than BE devices (19.8% vs. 12.2% respectively). If a patient’s aortic root is too severely elliptical, they will not be suitable for TAVI, narrowing the treatment options to SVR. It therefore follows that in order to increase the population who can undergo TAVI, and reduce the risk associated with TAVI, non-circular devices should be developed. Computational simulations were employed to further advance our understanding of non-circular TAVI devices. Radial stiffness of the TAVI devices in multiple directions, frame bending stiffness and resistance to balloon induced expansion are all computationally simulated. Finally, a simulation has been developed that demonstrates the expansion of TAVI devices into a non-circular patient specific aortic root model in order to assess the alterations in deployment dynamics, PAR and the stresses induced in the aortic root.

Keywords: tavi, tavr, fea, par, fem

Procedia PDF Downloads 436

Authors: Vahidreza Mahmoudabadi, Omid Bahar, Mohammad Kazem Jafari

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In many applied engineering problems, structural analysis is usually conducted by assuming a rigid bed, while imposing the effect of structure bed flexibility can affect significantly on the structure response. This article focuses on investigation and evaluation of the effects arising from considering a soil-structure system in evaluation of dynamic characteristics of a steel structure with respect to elastic and inelastic behaviors. The recorded structure acceleration during Taiwan’s strong Chi-Chi earthquake on different floors of the structure was our evaluation criteria. The respective structure is an eight-story steel bending frame structure designed using a displacement-based direct method assuring weak beam - strong column function. The results indicated that different identification methods i.e. reverse Fourier transform or transfer functions, is capable to determine some of the dynamic parameters of the structure precisely, rather than evaluating all of them at once (mode frequencies, mode shapes, structure damping, structure rigidity, etc.). Response evaluation based on the input and output data elucidated that the structure first mode is not significantly affected, even considering the soil-structure interaction effect, but the upper modes have been changed. Also, it was found that the response transfer function of the different stories, in which plastic hinges have occurred in the structure components, provides similar results.

Keywords: bending steel frame structure, dynamic characteristics, displacement-based design, soil-structure system, system identification

Procedia PDF Downloads 494

Authors: A. Rong, P. B. Luh, R. Lahdelma

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High penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) such as solar power and wind power into the energy system has caused temporal and spatial imbalance between electric power supply and demand for some countries and regions. This brings about the critical need for coordinating power production and power exchange for different regions. As compared with the power-only systems, the combined heat and power (CHP) systems can provide additional flexibility of utilizing RES by exploiting the interdependence of power and heat production in the CHP plant. In the CHP system, power production can be influenced by adjusting heat production level and electric power can be used to satisfy heat demand by electric boiler or heat pump in conjunction with heat storage, which is much cheaper than electric storage. This paper addresses multi-site CHP systems without considering RES, which lay foundation for handling penetration of RES. The problem under study is the unit commitment (UC) of the transmission-constrained multi-site CHP systems. We solve the problem by combining linear relaxation of ON/OFF states and sequential dynamic programming (DP) techniques, where relaxed states are used to reduce the dimension of the UC problem and DP for improving the solution quality. Numerical results for daily scheduling with realistic models and data show that DP-based algorithm is from a few to a few hundred times faster than CPLEX (standard commercial optimization software) with good solution accuracy (less than 1% relative gap from the optimal solution on the average).

Keywords: dynamic programming, multi-site combined heat and power system, relaxed states, transmission-constrained generation unit commitment

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Sanjana S. Mallya, Roshan Arvind Sivakumar

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Orthotics is the branch of medicine that deals with the provision and use of artificial casts or braces to alter the biomechanical structure of the limb and provide support for the limb. Custom-made orthoses provide more comfort and can correct issues better than those available over-the-counter. However, they are expensive and require intricate modelling of the limb. Traditional methods of modelling involve creating a plaster of Paris mould of the limb. Lately, CAD/CAM and 3D printing processes have improved the accuracy and reduced the production time. Ordinarily, digital cameras are used to capture the features of the limb from different views to create a 3D model. We propose a system to model the limb using Microsoft Kinect2 sensor. The Kinect can capture RGB and depth frames simultaneously up to 30 fps with sufficient accuracy. The region of interest is captured from three views, each shifted by 90 degrees. The RGB and depth data are fused into a single RGB-D frame. The resolution of the RGB frame is 1920px x 1080px while the resolution of the Depth frame is 512px x 424px. As the resolution of the frames is not equal, RGB pixels are mapped onto the Depth pixels to make sure data is not lost even if the resolution is lower. The resulting RGB-D frames are collected and using the depth coordinates, a three dimensional point cloud is generated for each view of the Kinect sensor. A common reference system was developed to merge the individual point clouds from the Kinect sensors. The reference system consisted of 8 coloured cubes, connected by rods to form a skeleton-cube with the coloured cubes at the corners. For each Kinect, the region of interest is the square formed by the centres of the four cubes facing the Kinect. The point clouds are merged by considering one of the cubes as the origin of a reference system. Depending on the relative distance from each cube, the three dimensional coordinate points from each point cloud is aligned to the reference frame to give a complete point cloud. The RGB data is used to correct for any errors in depth data for the point cloud. A triangular mesh is generated from the point cloud by applying Delaunay triangulation which generates the rough surface of the limb. This technique forms an approximation of the surface of the limb. The mesh is smoothened to obtain a smooth outer layer to give an accurate model of the limb. The model of the limb is used as a base for designing the custom orthotic brace or cast. It is transferred to a CAD/CAM design file to design of the brace above the surface of the limb. The proposed system would be more cost effective than current systems that use MRI or CT scans for generating 3D models and would be quicker than using traditional plaster of Paris cast modelling and the overall setup time is also low. Preliminary results indicate that the accuracy of the Kinect2 is satisfactory to perform modelling.

Keywords: 3d scanning, mesh generation, Microsoft kinect, orthotics, registration

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Maha A. Al-Hsayni

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Title of the Study: The Effect of Using Augmented Reality Technique in a Computer Course Unit on the Academic Achievement and Attitudes of High School Female Students. This study aimed at identifying the effect of using the Augmented Reality technique on the academic achievement of computer course at the cognitive domains (Knowledge, comprehension and analysis) with third high school female students in Holy Makkah. The researcher used: The quasi-experimental approach. The sample of the study was comprised of (55) female students in the third high school level in Holy Makkah in the second semester of the academic year 1434/1435 H. These students were assigned to two groups: The experimental group of (28) students who were taught by using the Augmented Reality technology, and the control group of (27) students, who were taught by using the traditional method. The researcher prepared a set of tools and materials, which are represented in achievement test consisted of (30) clauses, direction instrument consisted of (25) clauses and the design of augmented reality for computer study unit. The study used the following statistical methods for data analysis: Cronbach's alpha coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient, means, standard deviations, t-test and analysis of covariance test ANCOVA. The study reached the following results: 1- There are statistically significance difference at ( 0.05) among the adjusted means of the experimental and control groups in the posttest at the domains of (Knowledge, comprehension and analysis) of third high school graders after adjusting the pretest 2- There are statistically significance difference at ( 0.05) among the means of pre and post-test for female students of the experimental group in the scale of attitude towards using Augmented Reality Technique. In the light of the study results, the researcher recommends the followings: The necessity of using Augmented Reality Technique in teaching computer courses for high school students. Furthermore, emphasizing the need to provide schools with educational halls equipped with instruments and screens that enable teachers to use the Augmented Reality in teaching the other courses. Also, the researcher suggested conducting more studies in order to improve the process of teaching and learning.

Keywords: augmented reality technique, computer course unit, academic achievement, attitudes, high school female students

Procedia PDF Downloads 407

Authors: Upamanyu Majumder, Angshuman Das

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The Klimov RD-33 is a turbofan jet engine for a lightweight fighter jet that is the primary engine for the Mikoyan MiG-29. Its production started in 1981. The RD-33 was the first afterburning turbofan engine produced by the Klimov Company of Russia in the 8,000 to 9,000 kilograms-force (78,000 to 88,000 N; 18,000 to 20,000 lbf) thrust class. It features a modular twin-shaft design with individual parts that can be replaced separately and has a good tolerance to the environment. The RD-33 is simple to maintain and retains good performance in challenging environments. In this paper the stagnation properties(pressure and temperature) at the intake diffuser, compressor and turbine sections of the RD-33 engine are calculated using the standard atmosphere conditions at different altitudes( take-off, 5000m, 10000m, 15000m, 20000m and 22500m). The results are plotted against altitude values using MS-Excel.

Keywords: Klimov RD-33 engine, stagnation properties, various altitudes, ms-excel

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: Babatunde Olumide Olawale, Oyebode Olumide Oyediran

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The security safe is a place or building where classified document and precious items are kept. To prevent unauthorised persons from gaining access to this safe a lot of technologies had been used. But frequent reports of an unauthorised person gaining access into security safes with the aim of removing document and items from the safes are pointers to the fact that there is still security gap in the recent technologies used as access control for the security safe. In this paper we try to solve this problem by developing a multimodal biometric system for physical access control into a security safe using face and voice recognition. The safe is accessed by the combination of face and speech pattern recognition and also in that sequential order. User authentication is achieved through the use of camera/sensor unit and a microphone unit both attached to the door of the safe. The user face was captured by the camera/sensor while the speech was captured by the use of the microphone unit. The Scale Invariance Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm was used to train images to form templates for the face recognition system while the Mel-Frequency Cepitral Coefficients (MFCC) algorithm was used to train the speech recognition system to recognise authorise user’s speech. Both algorithms were hosted in two separate web based servers and for automatic analysis of our work; our developed system was simulated in a MATLAB environment. The results obtained shows that the developed system was able to give access to authorise users while declining unauthorised person access to the security safe.

Keywords: access control, multimodal biometrics, pattern recognition, security safe

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: Ardalan Sabamehr, Ashutosh Bagchi

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Recently, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) based on the vibration of structures has attracted the attention of researchers in different fields such as: civil, aeronautical and mechanical engineering. Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) have been developed to identify modal properties of infrastructure such as bridge, building and so on. Frequency Domain Decomposition (FDD), Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) and Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) are the three most common methods in output only modal identification. FDD, SSI, and CWT operate based on the frequency domain, time domain, and time-frequency plane respectively. So, FDD and SSI are not able to display time and frequency at the same time. By the way, FDD and SSI have some difficulties in a noisy environment and finding the closed modes. CWT technique which is currently developed works on time-frequency plane and a reasonable performance in such condition. The other advantage of wavelet transform rather than other current techniques is that it can be applied for the non-stationary signal as well. The aim of this paper is to compare three most common modal identification techniques to find modal properties (such as natural frequency, mode shape, and damping ratio) of three story steel frame which was built in Concordia University Lab by use of ambient vibration. The frame has made of Galvanized steel with 60 cm length, 27 cm width and 133 cm height with no brace along the long span and short space. Three uniaxial wired accelerations (MicroStarin with 100mv/g accuracy) have been attached to the middle of each floor and gateway receives the data and send to the PC by use of Node Commander Software. The real-time monitoring has been performed for 20 seconds with 512 Hz sampling rate. The test is repeated for 5 times in each direction by hand shaking and impact hammer. CWT is able to detect instantaneous frequency by used of ridge detection method. In this paper, partial derivative ridge detection technique has been applied to the local maxima of time-frequency plane to detect the instantaneous frequency. The extracted result from all three methods have been compared, and it demonstrated that CWT has the better performance in term of its accuracy in noisy environment. The modal parameters such as natural frequency, damping ratio and mode shapes are identified from all three methods.

Keywords: ambient vibration, frequency domain decomposition, stochastic subspace identification, continuous wavelet transform

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Jiri Cecrdle

Abstract:

This paper describes the concept of the W-WING whirl flutter aeroelastic demonstrator. Whirl flutter is the specific case of flutter that accounts for the additional dynamic and aerodynamic influences of the engine rotating parts. The instability is driven by motion-induced unsteady aerodynamic propeller forces and moments acting in the propeller plane. Whirl flutter instability is a serious problem that may cause the unstable vibration of a propeller mounting, leading to the failure of an engine installation or an entire wing. The complicated physical principle of whirl flutter required the experimental validation of the analytically gained results. W-WING aeroelastic demonstrator has been designed and developed at Czech Aerospace Research Centre (VZLU) Prague, Czechia. The demonstrator represents the wing and engine of the twin turboprop commuter aircraft. Contrary to the most of past demonstrators, it includes a powered motor and thrusting propeller. It allows the changes of the main structural parameters influencing the whirl flutter stability characteristics. Propeller blades are adjustable at standstill. The demonstrator is instrumented by strain gauges, accelerometers, revolution-counting impulse sensor, sensor of airflow velocity, and the thrust measurement unit. Measurement is supported by the in house program providing the data storage and real-time depiction in the time domain as well as pre-processing into the form of the power spectral densities. The engine is linked with a servo-drive unit, which enables maintaining of the propeller revolutions (constant or controlled rate ramp) and monitoring of immediate revolutions and power. Furthermore, the program manages the aerodynamic excitation of the demonstrator by the aileron flapping (constant, sweep, impulse). Finally, it provides the safety guard to prevent any structural failure of the demonstrator hardware. In addition, LMS TestLab system is used for the measurement of the structure response and for the data assessment by means of the FFT- and OMA-based methods. The demonstrator is intended for the experimental investigations in the VZLU 3m-diameter low-speed wind tunnel. The measurement variant of the model is defined by the structural parameters: pitch and yaw attachment stiffness, pitch and yaw hinge stations, balance weight station, propeller type (duralumin or steel blades), and finally, angle of attack of the propeller blade 75% section (). The excitation is provided either by the airflow turbulence or by means of the aerodynamic excitation by the aileron flapping using a frequency harmonic sweep. The experimental results are planned to be utilized for validation of analytical methods and software tools in the frame of development of the new complex multi-blade twin-rotor propulsion system for the new generation regional aircraft. Experimental campaigns will include measurements of aerodynamic derivatives and measurements of stability boundaries for various configurations of the demonstrator.

Keywords: aeroelasticity, flutter, whirl flutter, W WING demonstrator

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Authors: L. Yu, W. K. Li, S. K. Ong, A. Y. C. Nee

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In this paper, a scalable augmented reality framework for handheld devices is presented. The presented framework is enabled by using a server-client data communication structure, in which the search for tracking targets among a database of images is performed on the server-side while pixel-wise 3D tracking is performed on the client-side, which, in this case, is a handheld mobile device. Image search on the server-side adopts a residual-enhanced image descriptors representation that gives the framework a scalability property. The tracking algorithm on the client-side is based on a gravity-aligned feature descriptor which takes the advantage of a sensor-equipped mobile device and an optimized intensity-based image alignment approach that ensures the accuracy of 3D tracking. Automatic content streaming is achieved by using a key-frame selection algorithm, client working phase monitoring and standardized rules for content communication between the server and client. The recognition accuracy test performed on a standard dataset shows that the method adopted in the presented framework outperforms the Bag-of-Words (BoW) method that has been used in some of the previous systems. Experimental test conducted on a set of video sequences indicated the real-time performance of the tracking system with a frame rate at 15-30 frames per second. The presented framework is exposed to be functional in practical situations with a demonstration application on a campus walk-around.

Keywords: augmented reality framework, server-client model, vision-based tracking, image search

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Authors: T. S. Ramesh Babu, D. Neeraja

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This research work revealed that effect of Natural admixture (NAD) on Conventional Concrete (CC) and Class F Fly Ash(FA) blended concrete. Broiler hen egg white albumen and yellow yolk were used as Natural Admixture. Cement was replaced by Class F fly ash at various levels of 0%, 25%, 35%, 45% and 55% by its mass and NAD was added to concrete at different replacement dosages of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.00% by its volume to water content and liquid to binder ratio was maintained at 0.5. For all replacement levels of FA and NAD, the mechanical properties viz unit weight, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of CC and Class F fly ash (FA) were studied at 7, 28, 56 and 112 days. From the results, it was concluded that 0.25% of NAD dosage was considered as optimum dosage for both CC and class F fly ash blended concrete. The studies revealed that 35% Class F fly ash blended concrete mix is concluded as optimum mix and 55% Class F fly ash blended concrete mix is concluded as economical mix with 0.25% NAD dosage.

Keywords: Class F fly ash, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, natural admixture, splitting tensile strength, unit weight

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Maha BenHamad, Ali Snoussi, Ammar Ben Brahim

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A steady-state analysis of triple-effect thermal vapor compressor desalination unit was performed. A mathematical model based on mass, salinity and energy balances is developed. The purpose of this paper is to develop a connection between process simulator and process optimizer in order to study the influence of several operating variables on the performance and the produced water cost of the unit. A MATLAB program is used to solve the model equations, and Aspen HYSYS is used to model the plant. The model validity is examined against a commercial plant and showed a good agreement between industrial data and simulations results. Results show that the pressures of the last effect and the compressed vapor have an important influence on the produced cost, and the increase of the difference temperature in the condenser decreases the specific heat area about 22%.

Keywords: steady-state, triple effect, thermal vapor compressor, Matlab, Aspen Hysys

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Alok Madan, Arshad K. Hashmi

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Performance based design (PBD) is an iterative exercise in which a preliminary trial design of the building structure is selected and if the selected trial design of the building structure does not conform to the desired performance objective, the trial design is revised. In this context, development of a fundamental approach for performance based seismic design of masonry infilled frames with minimum number of trials is an important objective. The paper presents a plastic design procedure based on the energy balance concept for PBD of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames subjected to near-field earthquakes. The proposed energy based plastic design procedure was implemented for trial performance based seismic design of representative masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames with various practically relevant distributions of masonry infill panels over the frame elevation. Non-linear dynamic analyses of the trial PBD of masonry infilled R/C frames was performed under the action of near-field earthquake ground motions. The results of non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrate that the proposed energy method is effective for performance based design of masonry infilled R/C frames under near-field as well as far-field earthquakes.

Keywords: masonry infilled frame, energy methods, near-fault ground motions, pushover analysis, nonlinear dynamic analysis, seismic demand

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Radek Novotny, Michal Novak, Daniela Marusakova, Monika Sipova, Hugo Fuentes, Peter Borst

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This research has been conducted within the European HORIZON 2020 project ECC-SMART. The main objective is to assess whether it is feasible to design and develop a small modular reactor (SMR) that would be cooled by supercritical water (SCW). One of the main objectives for material research concerns the corrosion of the candidate cladding materials. The experimental part has been conducted in support of the qualification procedure of the future SCW-SMR constructional materials. The last objective was to identify the gaps in current norms and guidelines. Apart from corrosion, resistance testing of candidate materials stresses corrosion cracking susceptibility tests have been performed in supercritical water. This paper describes part of these tests, in particular, those slow strain rate tensile loading applied for tangential ring shape specimens of two candidate materials, Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel. These ring tensile tests are one the methods used for tensile testing of nuclear cladding. Here full circular heads with dimensions roughly equal to the inner diameter of the sample and the gage sections are placed in the parallel direction to the applied load. Slow strain rate tensile tests have been conducted in 380 or 500oC supercritical water applying two different elongation rates, 1x10-6 and 1x10-7 s-1. The effect of temperature and dissolved oxygen content on the SCC susceptibility of Alloy 800H and 310S stainless steel was investigated when two different temperatures and concentrations of dissolved oxygen were applied in supercritical water. The post-fracture analysis includes fractographic analysis of the fracture surfaces using SEM as well as cross-sectional analysis on the occurrence of secondary cracks. Assessment of the effect of environment and dissolved oxygen content was by comparing to the results of the reference tests performed in air and N2 gas overpressure. The effect of high temperature on creep and its role in the initiation of SCC was assessed as well. It has been concluded that the applied test method could be very useful for the investigation of stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of candidate cladding materials in supercritical water.

Keywords: stress corrosion cracking, ring tensile tests, super-critical water, alloy 800H, 310S stainless steel

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Authors: Nalinee Sophatsathit

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This paper presents a variation of navigation systems which tallies every node along the shortest path from start to destination nodes. The underlying technique rests on the well-established Dijkstra Algorithm. The ultimate goal is to serve as a user navigation guide that furnishes stop over cost of every node along this shortest path, whereby users can decide whether or not to visit any specific nodes. The output is an implementable module that can be further refined to run on the Internet and smartphone technology. This will benefit large organizations having physical installations spreaded over wide area such as hospitals, universities, etc. The savings on service personnel, let alone lost time and unproductive work, are attributive to innovative navigation system management.

Keywords: navigation systems, shortest path, smartphone technology, user navigation guide

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Julius Lenaerts, Ahmed Elsaadawy, Mohammed Bashir

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Background Sedated and paralyzed patients have an impaired blink reflex leading to ophthalmic complications such as conjunctivitis, epithelial defects, bacterial keratitis, and more. These are entirely preventable complications through regular eye care. Methods Patients at level 3 or above (intubated/paralyzed) care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were reviewed between February and April. Data was pulled from Metavision and adherence was compared to Royal College of Ophthalmology (RCOphth) recommendations[4]. Using a multi-pronged approach through posters, individual teaching sessions and faculty teaching, we aimed to educate staff about eye care in the ICU. Patients were reaudited in the period July to August. Results Out of 40 patients, only 23% were assessed for eye care needs on admission compared to 77% after teaching; eye care was only delivered 59% of the time it was due, compared to 61%; 2.5% of patients had eyedrops prescribed compared to 41%. This shows an overall increase in meeting RCOphth standards. Key messages Eye care is an overlooked aspect of patient care in the ICU, associated with avoidable ocular complications. Healthcare staff need further rigorous education on the provision and importance of eye care to reduce avoidable complications.

Keywords: ICU, eye care, risk, QIP

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: Aya Tanaka, Mariko Era, Manami Masuda, Yui Okuno, Takayoshi Kawahara, Takahide Kanyama, Hiroshi Morita

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Objectives— Fungi and bacteria are present in a wide range of natural environments. They are breed in the foods such as vegetables and fruit, causing corruption and deterioration of these foods in some cases. Furthermore, some species of fungi and bacteria are known to cause food intoxication or allergic reactions in some individuals. To prevent fungal and bacterial contamination, various fungicides and bactericidal have been developed that inhibit fungal and bacterial growth. Fungicides and bactericides must show high antifungal and antibacterial activity, sustainable activity, and a high degree of safety. Therefore, we focused on the fatty acid salt which is the main component of soap. We focused on especially C10K and C12K. This study aimed to find the effectiveness of the fatty acid salt as antimicrobial agents for food safety. Materials and Methods— Cladosporium cladosporioides NBRC 30314, Penicillium pinophilum NBRC 6345, Aspergillus oryzae (Akita Konno store), Rhizopus oryzae NBRC 4716, Fusarium oxysporum NBRC 31631, Escherichia coli NBRC 3972, Bacillus subtilis NBRC 3335, Staphylococcus aureus NBRC 12732, Pseudomonas aenuginosa NBRC 13275 and Serratia marcescens NBRC 102204 were chosen as tested fungi and bacteria. Hartmannella vermiformis NBRC 50599 and Acanthamoeba castellanii NBRC 30010 were chosen as tested amoeba. Nine fatty acid salts including potassium caprate (C10K) and laurate (C12K) at 350 mM and pH 10.5 were used as antifungal activity. The spore suspension of each fungus (3.0×10⁴ spores/mL) or the bacterial suspension (3.0×10⁵ or 3.0×10⁶ or 3.0×10⁷ CFU/mL) was mixed with each of the fatty acid salts (final concentration of 175 mM). Samples were counted at 0, 10, 60, and 180 min by plating (100 µL) on potato dextrose agar or nutrient agar. Fungal and bacterial colonies were counted after incubation for 1 or 2 days at 30 °C. Results— C10K was antifungal activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against fungi other than A. oryzae. C12K was antifungal activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against fungi other than P. pinophilum and A. oryzae. C10K and C12K did not show high anti-yeast activity. C10K was antibacterial activity of 6 or 7 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against bacteria other than B. subtilis. C12K was antibacterial activity of 5 to 7 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against bacteria other than S. marcescens. C12K was anti-amoeba activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against H. vermiformis. These results suggest C10K and C12K have potential in the field of food safety.

Keywords: food safety, microbes, antimicrobial, fatty acid salts

Procedia PDF Downloads 482

Authors: Naohiro Nakamura

Abstract:

Analysis methods to accurately estimate the behavior of buildings when earthquakes occur is very important for improving the seismic safety of such buildings. Recently, the use of damping devices has increased significantly and there is a particular need to appropriately evaluate the behavior of buildings with such devices during earthquakes in the design stage. At present, however, the accuracy of the analysis evaluations is not sufficient. One reason is that the accuracy of current analysis methods has not been appropriately verified because there is very limited data on the behavior of actual buildings during earthquakes. Many types of shaking table test of large structures are performed at the '3-Dimensional Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility' (nicknamed 'E-Defense') operated by the National Research Institute of Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). In this study, simulations using 3- dimensional analysis models were conducted on shaking table test of a 5-story steel-frame structure with dampers. The results of the analysis correspond favorably to the test results announced afterward by the committee. However, the suitability of the parameters and models used in the analysis and the influence they had on the responses remain unclear. Hence, we conducted additional analysis and studies on these models and parameters. In this paper, outlines of the test are shown and the utilized analysis model is explained. Next, the analysis results are compared with the test results. Then, the additional analyses, concerning with the hysteresis curve of the dampers and the beam-end stiffness of the frame, are investigated.

Keywords: three-dimensional analysis, E-defense, full-scale experimen, vibration control damper

Procedia PDF Downloads 182