Search results for: Finite Mixture Models
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9776

Search results for: Finite Mixture Models

3386 Influence of Major Axis on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of Elliptical Section

Authors: K. B. Rajasekarababu, J. Karthik, G. Vinayagamurthy

Abstract:

This paper is intended to explain the influence of major axis on aerodynamic characteristics of elliptical section. Many engineering applications such as off shore structures, bridge piers, civil structures and pipelines can be modelled as a circular cylinder but flow over complex bodies like, submarines, Elliptical wing, fuselage, missiles, and rotor blades, in which the parameters such as axis ratio can influence the flow characteristics of the wake and nature of separation. Influence of Major axis in Flow characteristics of elliptical sections are examined both experimentally and computationally in this study. For this research, four elliptical models with varying major axis [*AR=1, 4, 6, 10] are analysed. Experimental works have been conducted in a subsonic wind tunnel. Furthermore, flow characteristics on elliptical model are predicted from k-ε turbulence model using the commercial CFD packages by pressure based transient solver with Standard wall conditions.The analysis can be extended to estimation and comparison of Drag coefficient and Fatigue analysis of elliptical sections.

Keywords: elliptical section, major axis, aerodynamic characteristics, k-ε turbulence model

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3385 Prediction of Rolling Forces and Real Exit Thickness of Strips in the Cold Rolling by Using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: M. Heydari Vini

Abstract:

There is a complicated relation between effective input parameters of cold rolling and output rolling force and exit thickness of strips.in many mathematical models, the effect of some rolling parameters have been ignored and the outputs have not a desirable accuracy. In the other hand, there is a special relation among input thickness of strips,the width of the strips,rolling speeds,mandrill tensions and the required exit thickness of strips with rolling force and the real exit thickness of the rolled strip. First of all, in this paper the effective parameters of cold rolling process modeled using an artificial neural network according to the optimum network achieved by using a written program in MATLAB,it has been shown that the prediction of rolling stand parameters with different properties and new dimensions attained from prior rolled strips by an artificial neural network is applicable.

Keywords: cold rolling, artificial neural networks, rolling force, real rolled thickness of strips

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3384 An ALM Matrix Completion Algorithm for Recovering Weather Monitoring Data

Authors: Yuqing Chen, Ying Xu, Renfa Li

Abstract:

The development of matrix completion theory provides new approaches for data gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The existing matrix completion algorithms for WSN mainly consider how to reduce the sampling number without considering the real-time performance when recovering the data matrix. In order to guarantee the recovery accuracy and reduce the recovery time consumed simultaneously, we propose a new ALM algorithm to recover the weather monitoring data. A lot of experiments have been carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed ALM algorithm by using different parameter settings, different sampling rates and sampling models. In addition, we compare the proposed ALM algorithm with some existing algorithms in the literature. Experimental results show that the ALM algorithm can obtain better overall recovery accuracy with less computing time, which demonstrate that the ALM algorithm is an effective and efficient approach for recovering the real world weather monitoring data in WSN.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, matrix completion, singular value thresholding, augmented Lagrange multiplier

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3383 Kinetic Studies of Bioethanol Production from Salt-Pretreated Sugarcane Leaves

Authors: Preshanthan Moodley, E. B. Gueguim Kana

Abstract:

This study examines the kinetics of S. cerevisiae BY4743 growth and bioethanol production from sugarcane leaf waste (SLW), utilizing two different optimized pretreatment regimes; under two fermentation modes: steam salt-alkali filtered enzymatic hydrolysate (SSA-F), steam salt-alkali unfiltered (SSA-U), microwave salt-alkali filtered (MSA-F) and microwave salt-alkali unfiltered (MSA-U). The kinetic coefficients were determined by fitting the Monod, modified Gompertz, and logistic models to the experimental data with high coefficients of determination R² > 0.97. A maximum specific growth rate (µₘₐₓ) of 0.153 h⁻¹ was obtained under SSA-F and SSA-U whereas, 0.150 h⁻¹ was observed with MSA-F and MSA-U. SSA-U gave a potential maximum bioethanol concentration (Pₘ) of 31.06 g/L compared to 30.49, 23.26 and 21.79g/L for SSA-F, MSA-F and MSA-U respectively. An insignificant difference was observed in the μmax and Pm for the filtered and unfiltered enzymatic hydrolysate for both SSA and MSA pretreatments, thus potentially reducing a unit operation. These findings provide significant insights for process scale up.

Keywords: lignocellulosic bioethanol, microwave pretreatment, sugarcane leaves, kinetics

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3382 Civil-Military Relations in Turkey, Europe, and Middle East

Authors: Dorsa Bakhshandehgeyazdi

Abstract:

This article tries to comprehend the change of Turkish common military relations in an analogical viewpoint. The investigation is taking into account two criteria: institutional / legitimate systems and political oversight of the military's self-sufficiency. Examination of European furthermore, Middle Eastern common military relations models to the Turkish ideal model discloses grave contrasts in the middle of Turkish and Middle Eastern common military relations. The Turkish model in change for not less than 10 years is closer to the European show in both lawful and political perspectives. However, the article underscores that Turkish common military relations are still in change and despite the fact that the EU increase procedure has continuously democratized the legitimate arrangement of the nation, law based combining obliges further advances in the political area. A the result, stabilization in Turkey depends not just on withdrawing of the military from the political domain, additionally on the best possible civilization of the administration in hypothesis and practice.

Keywords: Turkish common military, institutional, legitimate systems, political oversight, middle Eastern common military

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3381 A 15 Minute-Based Approach for Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment

Authors: Hoi-Lam Ma, Sai-Ho Chung

Abstract:

In traditional integrated berth allocation with quay crane assignment models, time dimension is usually assumed in hourly based. However, nowadays, transshipment becomes the main business to many container terminals, especially in Southeast Asia (e.g. Hong Kong and Singapore). In these terminals, vessel arrivals are usually very frequent with small handling volume and very short staying time. Therefore, the traditional hourly-based modeling approach may cause significant berth and quay crane idling, and consequently cannot meet their practical needs. In this connection, a 15-minute-based modeling approach is requested by industrial practitioners. Accordingly, a Three-level Genetic Algorithm (3LGA) with Quay Crane (QC) shifting heuristics is designed to fulfill the research gap. The objective function here is to minimize the total service time. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed 15-minute-based approach can reduce the berth and QC idling significantly.

Keywords: transshipment, integrated berth allocation, variable-in-time quay crane assignment, quay crane assignment

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3380 Controlling Differential Settlement of Large Reservoir through Soil Structure Interaction Approach

Authors: Madhav Khadilkar

Abstract:

Construction of a large standby reservoir was required to provide secure water supply. The new reservoir was required to be constructed at the same location of an abandoned old open pond due to space constraints. Some investigations were carried out earlier to improvise and re-commission the existing pond. But due to a lack of quantified risk of settlement from voids in the underlying limestone, the shallow foundations were not found feasible. Since the reservoir was resting on hard strata for about three-quarter of plan area and one quarter was resting on soil underlying with limestone and considerably low subgrade modulus. Further investigations were carried out to ascertain the locations and extent of voids within the limestone. It was concluded that the risk due to lime dissolution was acceptably low, and the site was found geotechnically feasible. The hazard posed by limestone dissolution was addressed through the integrated structural and geotechnical analysis and design approach. Finite Element Analysis was carried out to quantify the stresses and differential settlement due to various probable loads and soil-structure interaction. Walls behaving as cantilever under operational loads were found undergoing in-plane bending and tensile forces due to soil-structure interaction. Sensitivity analysis for varying soil subgrade modulus was carried out to check the variation in the response of the structure and magnitude of stresses developed. The base slab was additionally checked for the loss of soil contact due to lime pocket formations at random locations. The expansion and contraction joints were planned to receive minimal additional forces due to differential settlement. The reservoir was designed to sustain the actions corresponding to allowable deformation limits per code, and geotechnical measures were proposed to achieve the soil parameters set in structural analysis.

Keywords: differential settlement, limestone dissolution, reservoir, soil structure interaction

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3379 Combining the Fictitious Stress Method and Displacement Discontinuity Method in Solving Crack Problems in Anisotropic Material

Authors: Bahatti̇n Ki̇mençe, Uğur Ki̇mençe

Abstract:

In this study, the purpose of obtaining the influence functions of the displacement discontinuity in an anisotropic elastic medium is to produce the boundary element equations. A Displacement Discontinuous Method formulation (DDM) is presented with the aim of modeling two-dimensional elastic fracture problems. This formulation is found by analytical integration of the fundamental solution along a straight-line crack. With this purpose, Kelvin's fundamental solutions for anisotropic media on an infinite plane are used to form dipoles from singular loads, and the various combinations of the said dipoles are used to obtain the influence functions of displacement discontinuity. This study introduces a technique for coupling Fictitious Stress Method (FSM) and DDM; the reason for applying this technique to some examples is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed coupling method. In this study, displacement discontinuity equations are obtained by using dipole solutions calculated with known singular force solutions in an anisotropic medium. The displacement discontinuities method obtained from the solutions of these equations and the fictitious stress methods is combined and compared with various examples. In this study, one or more crack problems with various geometries in rectangular plates in finite and infinite regions, under the effect of tensile stress with coupled FSM and DDM in the anisotropic environment, were examined, and the effectiveness of the coupled method was demonstrated. Since crack problems can be modeled more easily with DDM, it has been observed that the use of DDM has increased recently. In obtaining the displacement discontinuity equations, Papkovitch functions were used in Crouch, and harmonic functions were chosen to satisfy various boundary conditions. A comparison is made between two indirect boundary element formulations, DDM, and an extension of FSM, for solving problems involving cracks. Several numerical examples are presented, and the outcomes are contrasted to existing analytical or reference outs.

Keywords: displacement discontinuity method, fictitious stress method, crack problems, anisotropic material

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3378 Simulation of Soil-Pile Interaction of Steel Batter Piles Penetrated in Sandy Soil Subjected to Pull-Out Loads

Authors: Ameer A. Jebur, William Atherton, Rafid M. Alkhaddar, Edward Loffill

Abstract:

Superstructures like offshore platforms, tall buildings, transition towers, skyscrapers and bridges are normally designed to resist compression, uplift and lateral forces from wind waves, negative skin friction, ship impact and other applied loads. Better understanding and the precise simulation of the response of batter piles under the action of independent uplift loads is a vital topic and an area of active research in the field of geotechnical engineering. This paper investigates the use of finite element code (FEC) to examine the behaviour of model batter piles penetrated in dense sand, subjected to pull-out pressure by means of numerical modelling. The concept of the Winkler Model (beam on elastic foundation) has been used in which the interaction between the pile embedded depth and adjacent soil in the bearing zone is simulated by nonlinear p-y curves. The analysis was conducted on different pile slenderness ratios (lc⁄d) ranging from 7.5, 15.22 and 30 respectively. In addition, the optimum batter angle for a model steel pile penetrated in dense sand has been chosen to be 20° as this is the best angle for this simulation as demonstrated by other researcher published in literature. In this numerical analysis, the soil response is idealized as elasto-plastic and the model piles are described as elastic materials for the purpose of simulation. The results revealed that the applied loads affect the pullout pile capacity as well as the lateral pile response for dense sand together with varying shear strength parameters linked to the pile critical depth. Furthermore, the pile pull-out capacity increases with increasing the pile aspect ratios.

Keywords: slenderness ratio, soil-pile interaction, winkler model (beam on elastic foundation), pull-out capacity

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3377 Hominin Niche in the Times of Climate Change

Authors: Emilia Hunt, Sally C. Reynolds, Fiona Coward, Fabio Parracho Silva, Philip Hopley

Abstract:

Ecological niche modeling is widely used in conservation studies, but application to the extinct hominin species is a relatively new approach. Being able to understand what ecological niches were occupied by respective hominin species provides a new perspective into influences on evolutionary processes. Niche separation or overlap can tell us more about specific requirements of the species within the given timeframe. Many of the ancestral species lived through enormous climate changes: glacial and interglacial periods, changes in rainfall, leading to desertification or flooding of regions and displayed impressive levels of adaptation necessary for their survival. This paper reviews niche modeling methodologies and their application to hominin studies. Traditional conservation methods might not be directly applicable to extinct species and are not comparable to hominins. Hominin niche also includes aspects of technologies, use of fire and extended communication, which are not traditionally used in building conservation models. Future perspectives on how to improve niche modeling for extinct hominin species will be discussed.

Keywords: hominin niche, climate change, evolution, adaptation, ecological niche modelling

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3376 Effect of Loop Diameter, Height and Insulation on a High Temperature CO2 Based Natural Circulation Loop

Authors: S. Sadhu, M. Ramgopal, S. Bhattacharyya

Abstract:

Natural circulation loops (NCLs) are buoyancy driven flow systems without any moving components. NCLs have vast applications in geothermal, solar and nuclear power industry where reliability and safety are of foremost concern. Due to certain favorable thermophysical properties, especially near supercritical regions, carbon dioxide can be considered as an ideal loop fluid in many applications. In the present work, a high temperature NCL that uses supercritical carbon dioxide as loop fluid is analysed. The effects of relevant design and operating variables on loop performance are studied. The system operating under steady state is modelled taking into account the axial conduction through loop fluid and loop wall, and heat transfer with surroundings. The heat source is considered to be a heater with controlled heat flux and heat sink is modelled as an end heat exchanger with water as the external cold fluid. The governing equations for mass, momentum and energy conservation are normalized and are solved numerically using finite volume method. Results are obtained for a loop pressure of 90 bar with the power input varying from 0.5 kW to 6.0 kW. The numerical results are validated against the experimental results reported in the literature in terms of the modified Grashof number (Grm) and Reynolds number (Re). Based on the results, buoyancy and friction dominated regions are identified for a given loop. Parametric analysis has been done to show the effect of loop diameter, loop height, ambient temperature and insulation. The results show that for the high temperature loop, heat loss to surroundings affects the loop performance significantly. Hence this conjugate heat transfer between the loop and surroundings has to be considered in the analysis of high temperature NCLs.

Keywords: conjugate heat transfer, heat loss, natural circulation loop, supercritical carbon dioxide

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3375 Numerical Investigation of Plasma-Fuel System (PFS) for Coal Ignition and Combustion

Authors: Vladimir Messerle, Alexandr Ustimenko, Oleg Lavrichshev

Abstract:

To enhance the efficiency of solid fuels’ use, to decrease the fuel oil rate in the thermal power plants fuel balance and to minimize harmful emissions, a plasma technology of coal ignition, gasification and incineration is successfully applied. This technology is plasma thermochemical preparation of fuel for burning (PTCPF). In the framework of this concept, some portion of pulverized solid fuel (PF) is separated from the main PF flow and undergone the activation by arc plasma in a specific chamber with plasma torch – PFS. The air plasma flame is a source of heat and additional oxidation, it provides a high-temperature medium enriched with radicals, where the fuel mixture is heated, volatile components of coal are extracted, and carbon is partially gasified. This active blended fuel can ignite the main PF flow supplied into the furnace. This technology provides the boiler start-up and stabilization of PF flame and eliminates the necessity for addition of highly reactive fuel. In the report, a model of PTCPF, implemented as a program PlasmaKinTherm for the PFS calculation is described. The model combines thermodynamic and kinetic methods for describing the process of PTCPF in PFS. The numerical investigation of operational parameters of PFS depending on the electric power of the plasma generator and steam coal ash content revealed the temperature and velocity of gas and coal particles, and concentrations of PTCPF products dependences on the PFS length. Main mechanisms of PTCPF were disclosed. It was found that in the range of electric power of plasma generator from 40 to 100 kW high ash bituminous coal, having consumption 1667 kg/h is ignited stably. High level of temperature (1740 K) and concentration of combustible components (44%) at the PFS exit is a confirmation of it. Augmentation in power of plasma generator results displacement maxima temperatures and speeds of PTCPF products upstream (in the direction of the plasma source). The maximum temperature and velocity vary in a narrow range of values and practically do not depend on the power of the plasma torch. The numerical study of indicators of the process of PTCPF depending on the ash content in the range of its values 20-70% demonstrated that at the exit of PFS concentration of combustible components decreases with an increase in coal ash, the temperature of the gaseous products is increasing, and coal carbon conversion rate is increased to a maximum value when the ash content of 60%, dramatically decreasing with further increase in the ash content.

Keywords: coal, efficiency, ignition, numerical modeling, plasma generator, plasma-fuel system

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3374 Low Cost LiDAR-GNSS-UAV Technology Development for PT Garam’s Three Dimensional Stockpile Modeling Needs

Authors: Mohkammad Nur Cahyadi, Imam Wahyu Farid, Ronny Mardianto, Agung Budi Cahyono, Eko Yuli Handoko, Daud Wahyu Imani, Arizal Bawazir, Luki Adi Triawan

Abstract:

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has cost efficiency and data retrieval time advantages. Using technologies such as UAV, GNSS, and LiDAR will later be combined into one of the newest technologies to cover each other's deficiencies. This integration system aims to increase the accuracy of calculating the volume of the land stockpile of PT. Garam (Salt Company). The use of UAV applications to obtain geometric data and capture textures that characterize the structure of objects. This study uses the Taror 650 Iron Man drone with four propellers, which can fly for 15 minutes. LiDAR can classify based on the number of image acquisitions processed in the software, utilizing photogrammetry and structural science principles from Motion point cloud technology. LiDAR can perform data acquisition that enables the creation of point clouds, three-dimensional models, Digital Surface Models, Contours, and orthomosaics with high accuracy. LiDAR has a drawback in the form of coordinate data positions that have local references. Therefore, researchers use GNSS, LiDAR, and drone multi-sensor technology to map the stockpile of salt on open land and warehouses every year, carried out by PT. Garam twice, where the previous process used terrestrial methods and manual calculations with sacks. Research with LiDAR needs to be combined with UAV to overcome data acquisition limitations because it only passes through the right and left sides of the object, mainly when applied to a salt stockpile. The UAV is flown to assist data acquisition with a wide coverage with the help of integration of the 200-gram LiDAR system so that the flying angle taken can be optimal during the flight process. Using LiDAR for low-cost mapping surveys will make it easier for surveyors and academics to obtain pretty accurate data at a more economical price. As a survey tool, LiDAR is included in a tool with a low price, around 999 USD; this device can produce detailed data. Therefore, to minimize the operational costs of using LiDAR, surveyors can use Low-Cost LiDAR, GNSS, and UAV at a price of around 638 USD. The data generated by this sensor is in the form of a visualization of an object shape made in three dimensions. This study aims to combine Low-Cost GPS measurements with Low-Cost LiDAR, which are processed using free user software. GPS Low Cost generates data in the form of position-determining latitude and longitude coordinates. The data generates X, Y, and Z values to help georeferencing process the detected object. This research will also produce LiDAR, which can detect objects, including the height of the entire environment in that location. The results of the data obtained are calibrated with pitch, roll, and yaw to get the vertical height of the existing contours. This study conducted an experimental process on the roof of a building with a radius of approximately 30 meters.

Keywords: LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicle, low-cost GNSS, contour

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3373 Three-Stage Least Squared Models of a Station-Level Subway Ridership: Incorporating an Analysis on Integrated Transit Network Topology Measures

Authors: Jungyeol Hong, Dongjoo Park

Abstract:

The urban transit system is a critical part of a solution to the economic, energy, and environmental challenges. Furthermore, it ultimately contributes the improvement of people’s quality of lives. For taking these kinds of advantages, the city of Seoul has tried to construct an integrated transit system including both subway and buses. The effort led to the fact that approximately 6.9 million citizens use the integrated transit system every day for their trips. Diagnosing the current transit network is a significant task to provide more convenient and pleasant transit environment. Therefore, the critical objective of this study is to establish a methodological framework for the analysis of an integrated bus-subway network and to examine the relationship between subway ridership and parameters such as network topology measures, bus demand, and a variety of commercial business facilities. Regarding a statistical approach to estimate subway ridership at a station level, many previous studies relied on Ordinary Least Square regression, but there was lack of studies considering the endogeneity issues which might show in the subway ridership prediction model. This study focused on both discovering the impacts of integrated transit network topology measures and endogenous effect of bus demand on subway ridership. It could ultimately contribute to developing more accurate subway ridership estimation accounting for its statistical bias. The spatial scope of the study covers Seoul city in South Korea, and it includes 243 subway stations and 10,120 bus stops with the temporal scope set during twenty-four hours with one-hour interval time panels each. The subway and bus ridership information in detail was collected from the Seoul Smart Card data in 2015 and 2016. First, integrated subway-bus network topology measures which have characteristics regarding connectivity, centrality, transitivity, and reciprocity were estimated based on the complex network theory. The results of integrated transit network topology analysis were compared to subway-only network topology. Also, the non-recursive approach which is Three-Stage Least Square was applied to develop the daily subway ridership model as capturing the endogeneity between bus and subway demands. Independent variables included roadway geometry, commercial business characteristics, social-economic characteristics, safety index, transit facility attributes, and dummies for seasons and time zone. Consequently, it was found that network topology measures were significant size effect. Especially, centrality measures showed that the elasticity was a change of 4.88% for closeness centrality, 24.48% for betweenness centrality while the elasticity of bus ridership was 8.85%. Moreover, it was proved that bus demand and subway ridership were endogenous in a non-recursive manner as showing that predicted bus ridership and predicted subway ridership is statistically significant in OLS regression models. Therefore, it shows that three-stage least square model appears to be a plausible model for efficient subway ridership estimation. It is expected that the proposed approach provides a reliable guideline that can be used as part of the spectrum of tools for evaluating a city-wide integrated transit network.

Keywords: integrated transit system, network topology measures, three-stage least squared, endogeneity, subway ridership

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3372 Shock Formation for Double Ramp Surface

Authors: Abdul Wajid Ali

Abstract:

Supersonic flight promises speed, but the design of the air inlet faces an obstacle: shock waves. They prevent air flow in the mixed compression ports, which reduces engine performance. Our research investigates this using supersonic wind tunnels and schlieren imaging to reveal the complex dance between shock waves and airflow. The findings show clear patterns of shock wave formation influenced by internal/external pressure surfaces. We looked at the boundary layer, the slow-moving air near the inlet walls, and its interaction with shock waves. In addition, the study emphasizes the dependence of the shock wave behaviour on the Mach number, which highlights the need for adaptive models. This knowledge is key to optimizing the combined compression inputs, paving the way for more powerful and efficient supersonic vehicles. Future engineers can use this knowledge to improve existing designs and explore innovative configurations for next-generation ultrasonic applications.

Keywords: oblique shock formation, boundary layer interaction, schlieren images, double wedge surface

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3371 Time Series Analysis of Radon Concentration at Different Depths in an Underground Goldmine

Authors: Theophilus Adjirackor, Frederic Sam, Irene Opoku-Ntim, David Okoh Kpeglo, Prince K. Gyekye, Frank K. Quashie, Kofi Ofori

Abstract:

Indoor radon concentrations were collected monthly over a period of one year in 10 different levels in an underground goldmine, and the data was analyzed using a four-moving average time series to determine the relationship between the depths of the underground mine and the indoor radon concentration. The detectors were installed in batches within four quarters. The measurements were carried out using LR115 solid-state nuclear track detectors. Statistical models are applied in the prediction and analysis of the radon concentration at various depths. The time series model predicted a positive relationship between the depth of the underground mine and the indoor radon concentration. Thus, elevated radon concentrations are expected at deeper levels of the underground mine, but the relationship was insignificant at the 5% level of significance with a negative adjusted R2 (R2 = – 0.021) due to an appropriate engineering and adequate ventilation rate in the underground mine.

Keywords: LR115, radon concentration, rime series, underground goldmine

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3370 Determinant Elements for Useful Life in Airports

Authors: Marcelo Müller Beuren, José Luis Duarte Ribeiro

Abstract:

Studies point that Brazilian large airports are not managing their assets efficiently. Therefore, organizations seek improvements to raise their asset’s productivity. Hence, identification of assets useful life in airports becomes an important subject, since its accuracy leads to better maintenance plans and technological substitution, contribution to airport services management. However, current useful life prediction models do not converge in terms of determinant elements used, as they are particular to the studied situation. For that reason, the main objective of this paper is to identify the determinant elements for a useful life of major assets in airports. With that purpose, a case study was held in the key airport of the south of Brazil trough historical data analysis and specialist interview. This paper concluded that most of the assets useful life are determined by technical elements, maintenance cost, and operational costs, while few presented influence of technological obsolescence. As a highlight, it was possible to identify the determinant elements to be considered by a model which objective is to identify the useful life of airport’s major assets.

Keywords: airports, asset management, asset useful life

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3369 Impact of Drainage Defect on the Railway Track Surface Deflections; A Numerical Investigation

Authors: Shadi Fathi, Moura Mehravar, Mujib Rahman

Abstract:

The railwaytransportation network in the UK is over 100 years old and is known as one of the oldest mass transit systems in the world. This aged track network requires frequent closure for maintenance. One of the main reasons for closure is inadequate drainage due to the leakage in the buried drainage pipes. The leaking water can cause localised subgrade weakness, which subsequently can lead to major ground/substructure failure.Different condition assessment methods are available to assess the railway substructure. However, the existing condition assessment methods are not able to detect any local ground weakness/damageand provide details of the damage (e.g. size and location). To tackle this issue, a hybrid back-analysis technique based on artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA) has been developed to predict the substructurelayers’ moduli and identify any soil weaknesses. At first, afinite element (FE) model of a railway track section under Falling Weight Deflection (FWD) testing was developed and validated against field trial. Then a drainage pipe and various scenarios of the local defect/ soil weakness around the buried pipe with various geometriesand physical properties were modelled. The impact of the soil local weaknesson the track surface deflection wasalso studied. The FE simulations results were used to generate a database for ANN training, and then a GA wasemployed as an optimisation tool to optimise and back-calculate layers’ moduli and soil weakness moduli (ANN’s input). The hybrid ANN-GA back-analysis technique is a computationally efficient method with no dependency on seed modulus values. The modelcan estimate substructures’ layer moduli and the presence of any localised foundation weakness.

Keywords: finite element (FE) model, drainage defect, falling weight deflectometer (FWD), hybrid ANN-GA

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3368 Consistent Testing for an Implication of Supermodular Dominance with an Application to Verifying the Effect of Geographic Knowledge Spillover

Authors: Chung Danbi, Linton Oliver, Whang Yoon-Jae

Abstract:

Supermodularity, or complementarity, is a popular concept in economics which can characterize many objective functions such as utility, social welfare, and production functions. Further, supermodular dominance captures a preference for greater interdependence among inputs of those functions, and it can be applied to examine which input set would produce higher expected utility, social welfare, or production. Therefore, we propose and justify a consistent testing for a useful implication of supermodular dominance. We also conduct Monte Carlo simulations to explore the finite sample performance of our test, with critical values obtained from the recentered bootstrap method, with and without the selective recentering, and the subsampling method. Under various parameter settings, we confirmed that our test has reasonably good size and power performance. Finally, we apply our test to compare the geographic and distant knowledge spillover in terms of their effects on social welfare using the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) patent data. We expect localized citing to supermodularly dominate distant citing if the geographic knowledge spillover engenders greater social welfare than distant knowledge spillover. Taking subgroups based on firm and patent characteristics, we found that there is industry-wise and patent subclass-wise difference in the pattern of supermodular dominance between localized and distant citing. We also compare the results from analyzing different time periods to see if the development of Internet and communication technology has changed the pattern of the dominance. In addition, to appropriately deal with the sparse nature of the data, we apply high-dimensional methods to efficiently select relevant data.

Keywords: supermodularity, supermodular dominance, stochastic dominance, Monte Carlo simulation, bootstrap, subsampling

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3367 Polymer Mixing in the Cavity Transfer Mixer

Authors: Giovanna Grosso, Martien A. Hulsen, Arash Sarhangi Fard, Andrew Overend, Patrick. D. Anderson

Abstract:

In many industrial applications and, in particular in polymer industry, the quality of mixing between different materials is fundamental to guarantee the desired properties of finished products. However, properly modelling and understanding polymer mixing often presents noticeable difficulties, because of the variety and complexity of the physical phenomena involved. This is the case of the Cavity Transfer Mixer (CTM), for which a clear understanding of mixing mechanisms is still missing, as well as clear guidelines for the system optimization. This device, invented and patented by Gale at Rapra Technology Limited, is an add-on to be mounted downstream of existing extruders, in order to improve distributive mixing. It consists of two concentric cylinders, the rotor and stator, both provided with staggered rows of hemispherical cavities. The inner cylinder (rotor) rotates, while the outer (stator) remains still. At the same time, the pressure load imposed upstream, pushes the fluid through the CTM. Mixing processes are driven by the flow field generated by the complex interaction between the moving geometry, the imposed pressure load and the rheology of the fluid. In such a context, the present work proposes a complete and accurate three dimensional modelling of the CTM and results of a broad range of simulations assessing the impact on mixing of several geometrical and functioning parameters. Among them, we find: the number of cavities per row, the number of rows, the size of the mixer, the rheology of the fluid and the ratio between the rotation speed and the fluid throughput. The model is composed of a flow part and a mixing part: a finite element solver computes the transient velocity field, which is used in the mapping method implementation in order to simulate the concentration field evolution. Results of simulations are summarized in guidelines for the device optimization.

Keywords: Mixing, non-Newtonian fluids, polymers, rheology.

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3366 Probabilistic and Stochastic Analysis of a Retaining Wall for C-Φ Soil Backfill

Authors: André Luís Brasil Cavalcante, Juan Felix Rodriguez Rebolledo, Lucas Parreira de Faria Borges

Abstract:

A methodology for the probabilistic analysis of active earth pressure on retaining wall for c-Φ soil backfill is described in this paper. The Rosenblueth point estimate method is used to measure the failure probability of a gravity retaining wall. The basic principle of this methodology is to use two point estimates, i.e., the standard deviation and the mean value, to examine a variable in the safety analysis. The simplicity of this framework assures to its wide application. For the calculation is required 2ⁿ repetitions during the analysis, since the system is governed by n variables. In this study, a probabilistic model based on the Rosenblueth approach for the computation of the overturning probability of failure of a retaining wall is presented. The obtained results have shown the advantages of this kind of models in comparison with the deterministic solution. In a relatively easy way, the uncertainty on the wall and fill parameters are taken into account, and some practical results can be obtained for the retaining structure design.

Keywords: retaining wall, active earth pressure, backfill, probabilistic analysis

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3365 Detecting Cyberbullying, Spam and Bot Behavior and Fake News in Social Media Accounts Using Machine Learning

Authors: M. D. D. Chathurangi, M. G. K. Nayanathara, K. M. H. M. M. Gunapala, G. M. R. G. Dayananda, Kavinga Yapa Abeywardena, Deemantha Siriwardana

Abstract:

Due to the growing popularity of social media platforms at present, there are various concerns, mostly cyberbullying, spam, bot accounts, and the spread of incorrect information. To develop a risk score calculation system as a thorough method for deciphering and exposing unethical social media profiles, this research explores the most suitable algorithms to our best knowledge in detecting the mentioned concerns. Various multiple models, such as Naïve Bayes, CNN, KNN, Stochastic Gradient Descent, Gradient Boosting Classifier, etc., were examined, and the best results were taken into the development of the risk score system. For cyberbullying, the Logistic Regression algorithm achieved an accuracy of 84.9%, while the spam-detecting MLP model gained 98.02% accuracy. The bot accounts identifying the Random Forest algorithm obtained 91.06% accuracy, and 84% accuracy was acquired for fake news detection using SVM.

Keywords: cyberbullying, spam behavior, bot accounts, fake news, machine learning

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3364 [Keynote Speech]: Feature Selection and Predictive Modeling of Housing Data Using Random Forest

Authors: Bharatendra Rai

Abstract:

Predictive data analysis and modeling involving machine learning techniques become challenging in presence of too many explanatory variables or features. Presence of too many features in machine learning is known to not only cause algorithms to slow down, but they can also lead to decrease in model prediction accuracy. This study involves housing dataset with 79 quantitative and qualitative features that describe various aspects people consider while buying a new house. Boruta algorithm that supports feature selection using a wrapper approach build around random forest is used in this study. This feature selection process leads to 49 confirmed features which are then used for developing predictive random forest models. The study also explores five different data partitioning ratios and their impact on model accuracy are captured using coefficient of determination (r-square) and root mean square error (rsme).

Keywords: housing data, feature selection, random forest, Boruta algorithm, root mean square error

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3363 Study of ANFIS and ARIMA Model for Weather Forecasting

Authors: Bandreddy Anand Babu, Srinivasa Rao Mandadi, C. Pradeep Reddy, N. Ramesh Babu

Abstract:

In this paper quickly illustrate the correlation investigation of Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving and Average (ARIMA) and daptive Network Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models done by climate estimating. The climate determining is taken from University of Waterloo. The information is taken as Relative Humidity, Ambient Air Temperature, Barometric Pressure and Wind Direction utilized within this paper. The paper is carried out by analyzing the exhibitions are seen by demonstrating of ARIMA and ANIFIS model like with Sum of average of errors. Versatile Network Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) demonstrating is carried out by Mat lab programming and Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving and Average (ARIMA) displaying is produced by utilizing XLSTAT programming. ANFIS is carried out in Fuzzy Logic Toolbox in Mat Lab programming.

Keywords: ARIMA, ANFIS, fuzzy surmising tool stash, weather forecasting, MATLAB

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3362 Inferring Influenza Epidemics in the Presence of Stratified Immunity

Authors: Hsiang-Yu Yuan, Marc Baguelin, Kin O. Kwok, Nimalan Arinaminpathy, Edwin Leeuwen, Steven Riley

Abstract:

Traditional syndromic surveillance for influenza has substantial public health value in characterizing epidemics. Because the relationship between syndromic incidence and the true infection events can vary from one population to another and from one year to another, recent studies rely on combining serological test results with syndromic data from traditional surveillance into epidemic models to make inference on epidemiological processes of influenza. However, despite the widespread availability of serological data, epidemic models have thus far not explicitly represented antibody titre levels and their correspondence with immunity. Most studies use dichotomized data with a threshold (Typically, a titre of 1:40 was used) to define individuals as likely recently infected and likely immune and further estimate the cumulative incidence. Underestimation of Influenza attack rate could be resulted from the dichotomized data. In order to improve the use of serosurveillance data, here, a refinement of the concept of the stratified immunity within an epidemic model for influenza transmission was proposed, such that all individual antibody titre levels were enumerated explicitly and mapped onto a variable scale of susceptibility in different age groups. Haemagglutination inhibition titres from 523 individuals and 465 individuals during pre- and post-pandemic phase of the 2009 pandemic in Hong Kong were collected. The model was fitted to serological data in age-structured population using Bayesian framework and was able to reproduce key features of the epidemics. The effects of age-specific antibody boosting and protection were explored in greater detail. RB was defined to be the effective reproductive number in the presence of stratified immunity and its temporal dynamics was compared to the traditional epidemic model using use dichotomized seropositivity data. Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) was used to measure the fitness of the model to serological data with different mechanisms of the serological response. The results demonstrated that the differential antibody response with age was present (ΔDIC = -7.0). The age-specific mixing patterns with children specific transmissibility, rather than pre-existing immunity, was most likely to explain the high serological attack rates in children and low serological attack rates in elderly (ΔDIC = -38.5). Our results suggested that the disease dynamics and herd immunity of a population could be described more accurately for influenza when the distribution of immunity was explicitly represented, rather than relying only on the dichotomous states 'susceptible' and 'immune' defined by the threshold titre (1:40) (ΔDIC = -11.5). During the outbreak, RB declined slowly from 1.22[1.16-1.28] in the first four months after 1st May. RB dropped rapidly below to 1 during September and October, which was consistent to the observed epidemic peak time in the late September. One of the most important challenges for infectious disease control is to monitor disease transmissibility in real time with statistics such as the effective reproduction number. Once early estimates of antibody boosting and protection are obtained, disease dynamics can be reconstructed, which are valuable for infectious disease prevention and control.

Keywords: effective reproductive number, epidemic model, influenza epidemic dynamics, stratified immunity

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3361 Optimizing Detection Methods for THz Bio-imaging Applications

Authors: C. Bolakis, I. S. Karanasiou, D. Grbovic, G. Karunasiri, N. Uzunoglu

Abstract:

A new approach for efficient detection of THz radiation in biomedical imaging applications is proposed. A double-layered absorber consisting of a 32 nm thick aluminum (Al) metallic layer, located on a glass medium (SiO2) of 1 mm thickness, was fabricated and used to design a fine-tuned absorber through a theoretical and finite element modeling process. The results indicate that the proposed low-cost, double-layered absorber can be tuned based on the metal layer sheet resistance and the thickness of various glass media taking advantage of the diversity of the absorption of the metal films in the desired THz domain (6 to 10 THz). It was found that the composite absorber could absorb up to 86% (a percentage exceeding the 50%, previously shown to be the highest achievable when using single thin metal layer) and reflect less than 1% of the incident THz power. This approach will enable monitoring of the transmission coefficient (THz transmission ‘’fingerprint’’) of the biosample with high accuracy, while also making the proposed double-layered absorber a good candidate for a microbolometer pixel’s active element. Based on the aforementioned promising results, a more sophisticated and effective double-layered absorber is under development. The glass medium has been substituted by diluted poly-si and the results were twofold: An absorption factor of 96% was reached and high TCR properties acquired. In addition, a generalization of these results and properties over the active frequency spectrum was achieved. Specifically, through the development of a theoretical equation having as input any arbitrary frequency in the IR spectrum (0.3 to 405.4 THz) and as output the appropriate thickness of the poly-si medium, the double-layered absorber retains the ability to absorb the 96% and reflects less than 1% of the incident power. As a result, through that post-optimization process and the spread spectrum frequency adjustment, the microbolometer detector efficiency could be further improved.

Keywords: bio-imaging, fine-tuned absorber, fingerprint, microbolometer

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3360 Development of Extruded Prawn Snack Using Prawn Flavor Powder from Prawn Head Waste

Authors: S. K. Sharma, P. Kumar, Pratibha Singh

Abstract:

Consumption of SNACK is growing its popularity every day in India and a broad range of these items are available in the market. The end user interest in ready-to-eat snack foods is constantly growing mainly due to their ease, ample accessibility, appearance, taste and texture. Food extrusion has been practiced for over fifty years. Its role was initially limited to mixing and forming cereal products. Although thermoplastic extrusion has been successful for starch products, extrusion of proteins has achieved only limited success. In this study, value-added extruded prawn product was prepared with prawn flavor powder and corn flour using a twin-screw extruder. Prawn flavor concentrates prepared from fresh prawn head (Solenocera indica). To prepare flavor concentrate prawn head washed with potable water and blended with 200ml 3% salt solution per 250gm head weight to make the slurry, which was further put in muslin cloth and boiled with salt and starch solution for 10 minutes, cooled to room temperature and filtered, starch added to the filtrate and made into powder in an electrically drier at 43-450c. The mixture was passed through the twin-screw extruder (co-rotating twin screw extruder - basic technology Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata) which was operated at a particular speed of rotation, die diameter, temperature, moisture, and fish powder concentration. Many trial runs were conducted to set up the process variables. The different extrudes produced after each trail were examined for the quality and characteristics. The effect of temperature, moisture, screw speed, protein, fat, ash and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) number and expansion ratio were studied. In all the four trials, moisture, temperature, speed and die diameter used was 20%, 100°C, 350 rpm and 4 mm, respectively. The ratio of prawn powder and cornstarch used in different trials ranged between 2:98 and 10:90. The storage characteristics of the final product were studied using three different types of packaging under nitrogen flushing, i.e. a- 12-pm polyester, 12-pm metalized polyester, 60-11m polyethylene (metalized polyester a), b- 12-11m metalized polyester, 37.5-11m polyethylene (metalized polyester b), c- 12-11m polyethylene, 9-11m aluminium foil, 37.5-11m polyethylene (aluminium foil). The organoleptic analysis was carried out on a 9-point hedonic scale. The study revealed that the fried product packed in aluminum foil under nitrogen flushing would remain acceptable for more than three months.

Keywords: extruded product, prawn flavor, twin-screw extruder, storage characteristics

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3359 Overview on Effectiveness of Learning Contract in Architecture Design Studios

Authors: Badiossadat Hassanpour, Reza Sirjani, Nangkuala Utaberta

Abstract:

The avant-garde educational systems are striving to find a life long learning methods. Different fields and majors have test variety of proposed models, and found their difficulties and strengths. Architecture as a critical stage of education due to its characteristics which are learning by doing and critique based education and evaluation is out of this study procedure. Learning contracts is a new alternative form of evaluation of students’ achievements, while it acts as agreement about learning goals. Obtained results from studies in different fields which confirm its positive impact on students' learning in those fields and positively affected students' motivation and confidence in meeting their own learning needs, prompted us to implement this model in architecture design studio. In this implemented contract to the studio, students were asked to use the existing possibility of contract to have self assessment and examine their professional development to identify whether they are deficient or they would like to develop more expertise. The evidences of this research as well indicate that students feel positive about the learning contract and see it accommodating their individual learning needs.

Keywords: contract (LC), architecture design studio, education, student-centered learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 431
3358 A Data-Driven Compartmental Model for Dengue Forecasting and Covariate Inference

Authors: Yichao Liu, Peter Fransson, Julian Heidecke, Jonas Wallin, Joacim Rockloev

Abstract:

Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, poses a significant public health challenge in endemic tropical or subtropical countries, including Sri Lanka. To reveal insights into the complexity of the dynamics of this disease and study the drivers, a comprehensive model capable of both robust forecasting and insightful inference of drivers while capturing the co-circulating of several virus strains is essential. However, existing studies mostly focus on only one aspect at a time and do not integrate and carry insights across the siloed approach. While mechanistic models are developed to capture immunity dynamics, they are often oversimplified and lack integration of all the diverse drivers of disease transmission. On the other hand, purely data-driven methods lack constraints imposed by immuno-epidemiological processes, making them prone to overfitting and inference bias. This research presents a hybrid model that combines machine learning techniques with mechanistic modelling to overcome the limitations of existing approaches. Leveraging eight years of newly reported dengue case data, along with socioeconomic factors, such as human mobility, weekly climate data from 2011 to 2018, genetic data detecting the introduction and presence of new strains, and estimates of seropositivity for different districts in Sri Lanka, we derive a data-driven vector (SEI) to human (SEIR) model across 16 regions in Sri Lanka at the weekly time scale. By conducting ablation studies, the lag effects allowing delays up to 12 weeks of time-varying climate factors were determined. The model demonstrates superior predictive performance over a pure machine learning approach when considering lead times of 5 and 10 weeks on data withheld from model fitting. It further reveals several interesting interpretable findings of drivers while adjusting for the dynamics and influences of immunity and introduction of a new strain. The study uncovers strong influences of socioeconomic variables: population density, mobility, household income and rural vs. urban population. The study reveals substantial sensitivity to the diurnal temperature range and precipitation, while mean temperature and humidity appear less important in the study location. Additionally, the model indicated sensitivity to vegetation index, both max and average. Predictions on testing data reveal high model accuracy. Overall, this study advances the knowledge of dengue transmission in Sri Lanka and demonstrates the importance of incorporating hybrid modelling techniques to use biologically informed model structures with flexible data-driven estimates of model parameters. The findings show the potential to both inference of drivers in situations of complex disease dynamics and robust forecasting models.

Keywords: compartmental model, climate, dengue, machine learning, social-economic

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3357 The Moderating Effects of Attachment Style on the Relationship between the Psychological Symptoms and Well-Being of Mental Health Practitioners in Rehabilitation Centers: A Preliminary Study

Authors: Amaba, Marinela C., Espino, Gianne Ericka S. J. Valencia, Zeia Beatriz C.

Abstract:

This study aims to determine the moderating role of attachment style on the relationship between psychological symptoms and well-being of mental health practitioners in rehabilitation centers that are accredited of the Department of Health in Pampanga. Using the data gathered from 46 mental health practitioners, multiple regression models were conducted to test the main and moderating effects of attachment styles. The findings show that all three psychological symptoms namely depression, anxiety, and stress have main effects on their general well-being on a negative direction. However, attachment style did not moderate the relationship between the psychological symptoms and general well-being. On one hand, results about the relationship of psychological symptoms and well-being are consistent to previous findings of other studies while on the other hand, results in moderation were contradicting.

Keywords: attachment style, psychological symptoms, well-being, mental health practitioners, rehabilitation centers

Procedia PDF Downloads 543