Search results for: electronic measurement systems

Authors: Adamantini Loukodimou, David Weston, Shiladitya Paul

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Offshore structures are subjected to harsh environments. It is documented that carbon steel needs protection from corrosion. The combined effect of UV radiation, seawater splash, and fluctuating temperatures diminish the integrity of these structures. In addition, the possibility of damage caused by floating ice, seaborne debris, and maintenance boats make them even more vulnerable. Their inspection and maintenance when far out in the sea are difficult, risky, and expensive. The most known method of mitigating corrosion of offshore structures is the use of cathodic protection. There are several zones in an offshore wind turbine. In the atmospheric zone, due to the lack of a continuous electrolyte (seawater) layer between the structure and the anode at all times, this method proves inefficient. Thus, the use of protective coatings becomes indispensable. This research focuses on the atmospheric zone. The conversion of commercially available and conventional paint (epoxy) system to an autonomous self-healing paint system via the addition of suitable encapsulated healing agents and catalyst is investigated in this work. These coating systems, which can self-heal when damaged, can provide a cost-effective engineering solution to corrosion and related problems. When the damage of the paint coating occurs, the microcapsules are designed to rupture and release the self-healing liquid (monomer), which then will react in the presence of the catalyst and solidify (polymerization), resulting in healing. The catalyst should be compatible with the system because otherwise, the self-healing process will not occur. The carbon steel substrate will be exposed to a corrosive environment, so the use of a sacrificial layer of Zn is also investigated. More specifically, the first layer of this new coating system will be TSZA (Thermally Sprayed Zn85/Al15) and will be applied on carbon steel samples with dimensions 100 x 150 mm after being blasted with alumina (size F24) as part of the surface preparation. Based on the literature, it corrodes readily, so one additional paint layer enriched with microcapsules will be added. Also, the reaction and the curing time are of high importance in order for this bilayer system of coating to work successfully. For the first experiments, polystyrene microcapsules loaded with 3-octanoyltio-1-propyltriethoxysilane were conducted. Electrochemical experiments such as Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) confirmed the corrosion inhibiting properties of the silane. The diameter of the microcapsules was about 150-200 microns. Further experiments were conducted with different reagents and methods in order to obtain diameters of about 50 microns, and their self-healing properties were tested in synthetic seawater using electrochemical techniques. The use of combined paint/electrodeposited coatings allows for further novel development of composite coating systems. The potential for the application of these coatings in offshore structures will be discussed.

Keywords: corrosion mitigation, microcapsules, offshore wind turbines, self-healing

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Authors: Rob Waddle

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We study an economy with weak justice and security systems and with weak public policy and regulation or little capacity to implement them, and with high barriers to profitable sectors. We look at growth and development opportunities based on the derived demand. We show that there is hope for such an economy to grow up and to generate a win-win situation for all stakeholders if the derived demand is supplied. We then investigate conditions that could stimulate the derived demand supply. We show that little knowledge of public, private and international expenditures in the economy and academic tools are enough to trigger the derived demand supply. Our model can serve as guidance to donor and NGO working in developing countries, and show to media the best way to help is to share information about existing and accessible opportunities. It can also provide direction to vocational schools and universities that could focus more on providing tools to seize existing opportunities.

Keywords: growth, development, monopoly, oligopoly, inequality

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Hideaki Endo, Mika Goto

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The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected railway businesses. The number of railway passengers decreased due to the decline in the number of commuters and business travelers to avoid crowded trains and a sharp drop in inbound tourists visiting Japan. This has affected not only railway businesses but also related businesses, including hotels, leisure businesses, and retail businesses at station buildings. In 2021, the companies were divided into profitable and loss-making companies. This division suggests that railway companies, particularly loss-making companies, needed to decrease operational inefficiency. To measure the impact of COVID-19 and discuss the sustainable management strategies of railway companies, we examine the cost inefficiency of Japanese listed railway companies by applying stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to their operational and financial data. First, we employ the stochastic frontier cost function approach to measure inefficiency. The cost frontier function is formulated as a Cobb–Douglas type, and we estimated parameters and variables for inefficiency. This study uses panel data comprising 26 Japanese-listed railway companies from 2005 to 2020. This period includes several events deteriorating the business environment, such as the financial crisis from 2007 to 2008 and the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, and we compare those impacts with those of the COVID-19 pandemic after 2020. Second, we identify the characteristics of the best-practice railway companies and examine the drivers of cost inefficiencies. Third, we analyze the factors influencing cost inefficiency by comparing the profiles of the top 10 railway companies and others before and during the pandemic. Finally, we examine the relationship between cost inefficiency and the implementation of efficiency measures for each railway company. We obtained the following four findings. First, most Japanese railway companies showed the lowest cost inefficiency (most efficient) in 2014 and the highest in 2020 (least efficient) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second worst occurred in 2009 when it was affected by the financial crisis. However, we did not observe a significant impact of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This is because no railway company was influenced by the earthquake in this operating area, except for JR-EAST. Second, the best-practice railway companies are KEIO and TOKYU. The main reason for their good performance is that both operate in and near the Tokyo metropolitan area, which is densely populated. Third, we found that non-best-practice companies had a larger decrease in passenger kilometers than best-practice companies. This indicates that passengers made fewer long-distance trips because they refrained from inter-prefectural travel during the pandemic. Finally, we found that companies that implement more efficiency improvement measures had higher cost efficiency and they effectively used their customer databases through proactive DX investments in marketing and asset management.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, stochastic frontier analysis, railway sector, cost efficiency

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Authors: Jochen Nelles, Susanne Kohns, Julia Spies, Friederike Schmitz-Buhl, Roland Thietje, Christopher Brandl, Alexander Mertens, Christopher M. Schlick

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Industrial robots as part of highly automated manufacturing are recently developed to cooperative (light-weight) robots. This offers the opportunity of using them as assistance robots and to improve the participation in professional life of disabled or handicapped people such as tetraplegics. Robots under development are located within a cooperation area together with the working person at the same workplace. This cooperation area is an area where the robot and the working person can perform tasks at the same time. Thus, working people and robots are operating in the immediate proximity. Considering the physical restrictions and the limited mobility of tetraplegics, a hands-free robot control could be an appropriate approach for a cooperative assistance robot. To meet these requirements, the research project MeRoSy (human-robot synergy) develops methods for cooperative assistance robots based on the measurement of head movements of the working person. One research objective is to improve the participation in professional life of people with disabilities and, in particular, mobility impaired persons (e.g. wheelchair users or tetraplegics), whose participation in a self-determined working life is denied. This raises the research question, how a human-robot cooperation workplace can be designed for hands-free robot control. Here, the example of a library scenario is demonstrated. In this paper, an empirical study that focuses on the impact of head movement related stress is presented. 12 test subjects with tetraplegia participated in the study. Tetraplegia also known as quadriplegia is the worst type of spinal cord injury. In the experiment, three various basic head movements were examined. Data of the head posture were collected by a motion capture system; muscle activity was measured via surface electromyography and the subjective mental stress was assessed via a mental effort questionnaire. The muscle activity was measured for the sternocleidomastoid (SCM), the upper trapezius (UT) or trapezius pars descendens, and the splenius capitis (SPL) muscle. For this purpose, six non-invasive surface electromyography sensors were mounted on the head and neck area. An analysis of variance shows differentiated muscular strains depending on the type of head movement. Systematically investigating the influence of different basic head movements on the resulting strain is an important issue to relate the research results to other scenarios. At the end of this paper, a conclusion will be drawn and an outlook of future work will be presented.

Keywords: assistance robot, human-robot interaction, motion capture, stress-strain-concept, surface electromyography, tetraplegia

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Authors: Marius Nygaard, Ona Flindall

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The Palisaden student housing project was completed in August 2013 and was, with its eight floors, Norway’s tallest timber building at the time of completion. It was the first time cross-laminated-timber (CLT) was utilized at this scale in Norway. The project was the result of a concerted effort by a newly formed management company to establish CLT as a sustainable and financially competitive alternative to conventional steel and concrete systems. The introduction of CLT onto the student housing market proved so successful that by 2017 more than 4000 individual student residences will have been built using the same model of development and construction. The aim of this paper is to identify the key factors that enabled this breakthrough for CLT. It is based on an in-depth study of a series of housing projects and the role of the management company who both instigated and enabled this shift of CLT from the margin to the mainstream. Specifically, it will look at how a new building system was integrated into a marketing strategy that identified a market potential within the existing structure of the construction industry and within the economic restrictions inherent to student housing in Norway. It will show how a key player established a project model that changed both the patterns of cooperation and the information basis for decisions. Based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with managers, contractors and the interdisciplinary teams of consultants (architects, structural engineers, acoustical experts etc.) this paper will trace the introduction, expansion and evolution of CLT-based building systems in the student housing market. It will show how the project management firm’s position in the value chain enabled them to function both as a liaison between contractor and client, and between contractor and producer. A position that allowed them to improve the flow of information. This ensured that CLT was handled on equal terms to other structural solutions in the project specifications, enabling realistic pricing and risk evaluation. Secondly, this paper will describe and discuss how the project management firm established and interacted with a growing network of contractors, architects and engineers to pool expertise and broaden the knowledge base across Norway’s regional markets. Finally, it will examine the role of the client, the building typology, and the industrial and technological factors in achieving this breakthrough for CLT in the construction industry. This paper gives an in-depth view of the progression of a single case rather than a broad description of the state of the art of large-scale timber building in Norway. However, this type of study may offer insights that are important to the understanding not only of specific markets but also of how new technologies should be introduced in big and well-established industries.

Keywords: cross-laminated-timber (CLT), industry breakthrough, student housing, timber market

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Authors: Shin Woo Kim, Eui Ju Lee

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The recent development of biofuel production technology facilitates the use of bioethanol and biodiesel on automobile. Bioethanol, especially, can be used as a fuel for gasoline vehicles because the addition of ethanol has been known to increase octane number and reduce soot emissions. However, the wide application of biofuel has been still limited because of lack of detailed combustion properties such as auto-ignition temperature and pollutant emissions such as NOx and soot, which has been concerned mainly on the vehicle fire safety and environmental safety. In this study, the combustion characteristics of gasoline/ethanol fuel were investigated both numerically and experimentally. For auto-ignition temperature and NOx emission, the numerical simulation was performed on the well-stirred reactor (WSR) to simulate the homogeneous gasoline engine and to clarify the effect of ethanol addition in the gasoline fuel. Also, the response surface method (RSM) was introduced as a design of experiment (DOE), which enables the various combustion properties to be predicted and optimized systematically with respect to three independent variables, i.e., ethanol mole fraction, equivalence ratio and residence time. The results of stoichiometric gasoline surrogate show that the auto-ignition temperature increases but NOx yields decrease with increasing ethanol mole fraction. This implies that the bioethanol added gasoline is an eco-friendly fuel on engine running condition. However, unburned hydrocarbon is increased dramatically with increasing ethanol content, which results from the incomplete combustion and hence needs to adjust combustion itself rather than an after-treatment system. RSM results analyzed with three independent variables predict the auto-ignition temperature accurately. However, NOx emission had a big difference between the calculated values and the predicted values using conventional RSM because NOx emission varies very steeply and hence the obtained second order polynomial cannot follow the rates. To relax the increasing rate of dependent variable, NOx emission is taken as common logarithms and worked again with RSM. NOx emission predicted through logarithm transformation is in a fairly good agreement with the experimental results. For more tangible understanding of gasoline/ethanol fuel on pollutant emissions, experimental measurements of combustion products were performed in gasoline/ethanol pool fires, which is widely used as a fire source of laboratory scale experiments. Three measurement methods were introduced to clarify the pollutant emissions, i.e., various gas concentrations including NOx, gravimetric soot filter sampling for elements analysis and pyrolysis, thermophoretic soot sampling with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Soot yield by gravimetric sampling was decreased dramatically as ethanol was added, but NOx emission was almost comparable regardless of ethanol mole fraction. The morphology of the soot particle was investigated to address the degree of soot maturing. The incipient soot such as a liquid like PAHs was observed clearly on the soot of higher ethanol containing gasoline, and the soot might be matured under the undiluted gasoline fuel.

Keywords: gasoline/ethanol fuel, NOx, pool fire, soot, well-stirred reactor (WSR)

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Authors: Anna Krukowska, Tomasz Klimczuk, Adriana Zaleska-Medynska

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Photoactive materials have attracted attention due to their potential application in the degradation of environmental pollutants to non-hazardous compounds in an eco-friendly route. Among semiconductor photocatalysts, tantalates such as potassium tantalate (KTaO3) is one of the excellent functional photomaterial. However, tantalates-based materials are less active under visible-light irradiation, the enhancement in photoactivity could be improved with the modification of opto-eletronic properties of KTaO3 by doping rare earth metal (Er) and further photodeposition of noble metal nanoparticles (Pt). Inclusion of rare earth element in orthorhombic structure of tantalate can generate one high-energy photon by absorbing two or more incident low-energy photons, which convert visible-light and infrared-light into the ultraviolet-light to satisfy the requirement of KTaO3 photocatalysts. On the other hand, depositions of noble metal nanoparticles on the surface of semiconductor strongly absorb visible-light due to their surface plasmon resonance, in which their conducting electrons undergo a collective oscillation induced by electric field of visible-light. Furthermore, the high dispersion of Pt nanoparticles, which will be obtained by photodeposition process is additional important factor to improve the photocatalytic activity. The present work is aimed to study the effect of photocatalytic process of the prepared Er-doped KTaO3 and further incorporation of Pt nanoparticles by photodeposition. Moreover, the research is also studied correlations between photocatalytic activity and physico-chemical properties of obtained Pt/Er-KTaO3 samples. The Er-doped KTaO3 microcomposites were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Then photodeposition method was used for Pt loading over Er-KTaO3. The structural and optical properties of Pt/Er-KTaO3 photocatalytic were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), volumetric adsorption method (BET), UV-Vis absorption measurement, Raman spectroscopy and luminescence spectroscopy. The photocatalytic properties of Pt/Er-KTaO3 microcomposites were investigated by degradation of phenol in aqueous phase as model pollutant under visible and ultraviolet-light irradiation. Results of this work show that all the prepared photocatalysis exhibit low BET surface area, although doping of the bare KTaO3 with rare earth element (Er) presents a slight increase in this value. The crystalline structure of Pt/Er-KTaO3 powders exhibited nearly identical positions for the main peak at about 22,8o and the XRD pattern could be assigned to an orthorhombic distorted perovskite structure. The Raman spectra of obtained semiconductors confirmed demonstrating perovskite-like structure. The optical absorption spectra of Pt nanoparticles exhibited plasmon absorption band for main peaks at about 216 and 264 nm. The addition of Pt nanoparticles increased photoactivity compared to Er-KTaO3 and pure KTaO3. Summary optical properties of KTaO3 change with its doping Er-element and further photodeposition of Pt nanoparticles.

Keywords: heterogeneous photocatalytic, KTaO3 photocatalysts, Er3+ ion doping, Pt photodeposition

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Authors: Betül Özgenç, Soner Kuşlu, Sabri Çolak, Turan Çalban

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The aim of this study was investigate the leaching kinetics of ulexite in disodium hydrogen phosphate solutions in a mechanical agitation system. Reaction temperature, concentration of disodium hydrogen phosphate solutions, stirring speed, solid/liquid ratio and ulexite particle size were selected as parameters. The experimental results were successfully correlated by linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were evaluated shrinking core models for solid-fluid systems. It was observed that increase in the reaction temperature and decrease in the solid/liquid ratio causes an increase the dissolution rate of ulexite. The activation energy was found to be 63.4 kJ/mol. The leaching of ulexite was controlled by chemical reaction.

Keywords: ulexite, disodium hydrogen phosphate, leaching kinetics

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Authors: Tsu-Wang Shen, Shan-Chun Chang, Chih-Hsien Wang, Te-Chao Fang

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For electrocardiogram (ECG) biometrics system, it is a tedious process to pre-install user’s high-intensity heart rate (HR) templates in ECG biometric systems. Based on only resting enrollment templates, it is a challenge to identify human by using ECG with the high-intensity HR caused from exercises and stress. This research provides a heartbeat segment method with slope-oriented neural networks against the ECG morphology changes due to high intensity HRs. The method has overall system accuracy at 97.73% which includes six levels of HR intensities. A cumulative match characteristic curve is also used to compare with other traditional ECG biometric methods.

Keywords: high-intensity heart rate, heart rate resistant, ECG human identification, decision based artificial neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 435

Authors: A. S. Ibrahim Mamane, S. Giljean, M.-J. Pac, G. L’Hostis

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Fiber reinforced composite laminates are particularly subject to residual stresses due to their heterogeneity and the complex chemical, mechanical and thermal mechanisms that occur during their processing. Residual stresses are now well known to cause damage accumulation, shape instability, and behavior disturbance in composite parts. Many works exist in the literature on techniques for minimizing residual stresses in thermosetting and thermoplastic composites mainly. To study in-depth the influence of processing mechanisms on the formation of residual stresses and to minimize them by establishing a reliable correlation, it is essential to be able to measure very precisely the profile of residual stresses in the composite. Residual stresses are important data to consider when sizing composite parts and predicting their behavior. The incremental hole drilling is very effective in measuring the gradient of residual stresses in composite laminates. This method is semi-destructive and consists of drilling incrementally a hole through the thickness of the material and measuring relaxation strains around the hole for each increment using three strain gauges. These strains are then converted into residual stresses using a matrix of coefficients. These coefficients, called calibration coefficients, depending on the diameter of the hole and the dimensions of the gauges used. The reliability of the incremental hole drilling depends on the accuracy with which the calibration coefficients are determined. These coefficients are calculated using a finite element model. The samples’ features and the experimental conditions must be considered in the simulation. Any mismatch can lead to inadequate calibration coefficients, thus introducing errors on residual stresses. Several calibration coefficient correction methods exist for isotropic material, but there is a lack of information on this subject concerning composite laminates. In this work, a Python program was developed to automatically generate the adequate finite element model. This model allowed us to perform a parametric study to assess the influence of experimental errors on the calibration coefficients. The results highlighted the sensitivity of the calibration coefficients to the considered errors and gave an order of magnitude of the precisions required on the experimental device to have reliable measurements. On the basis of these results, improvements were proposed on the experimental device. Furthermore, a numerical method was proposed to correct the calibration coefficients for different types of materials, including thick composite parts for which the analytical approach is too complex. This method consists of taking into account the experimental errors in the simulation. Accurate measurement of the experimental errors (such as eccentricity of the hole, angular deviation of the gauges from their theoretical position, or errors on increment depth) is therefore necessary. The aim is to determine more precisely the residual stresses and to expand the validity domain of the incremental hole drilling technique.

Keywords: fiber reinforced composites, finite element simulation, incremental hole drilling method, numerical correction of the calibration coefficients, residual stresses

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Authors: László L. Lippai

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In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions. 

Keywords: health promotion, mental health promotion, mental state questionnaire, psychological well-being

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Authors: Boudjedra Abderrahim, Toumi Salah, Boutalbi Mostefa, Frihi Mohammed

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Nowadays, using the advancement of technology in semiconductor device fabrication, many transistors can be integrated to a single chip (VLSI). Although the growth chip density potentially eases systems-on-chip (SoCs) integrating thousands of processing element (PE) such as memory, processor, interfaces cores, system complexity, high-performance interconnect and scalable on-chip communication architecture become most challenges for many digital and embedded system designers. Networks-on-chip (NoCs) becomes a new paradigm that makes possible integrating heterogeneous devices and allows many communication constraints and performances. In this paper, we are interested for good performance and low area for implementation and a behavioral modeling of network on chip mesh topology design using VHDL hardware description language with performance evaluation and FPGA implementation results.

Keywords: design, implementation, communication system, network on chip, VHDL

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Authors: Majid Hejazian, Nam-Trung Nguyen

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Over the past few years, microfluidic devices have generated significant attention from industry and academia due to advantages such as small sample volume, low cost and high efficiency. Microfluidic devices have applications in chemical, biological and industry analysis and can facilitate assay of bio-materials and chemical reactions, separation, and sensing. Micromixers are one of the important microfluidic concepts. Micromixers can work as stand-alone devices or be integrated in a more complex microfluidic system such as a lab on a chip (LOC). Micromixers are categorized as passive and active types. Passive micromixers rely only on the arrangement of the phases to be mixed and contain no moving parts and require no energy. Active micromixers require external fields such as pressure, temperature, electric and acoustic fields. Rapid and efficient mixing is important for many applications such as biological, chemical and biochemical analysis. Achieving fast and homogenous mixing of multiple samples in the microfluidic devices has been studied and discussed in the literature recently. Improvement in mixing rely on effective mass transport in microscale, but are currently limited to molecular diffusion due to the predominant laminar flow in this size scale. Using magnetic field to elevate mass transport is an effective solution for mixing enhancement in microfluidics. The use of a non-uniform magnetic field to improve mass transfer performance in a microfluidic device is demonstrated in this work. The phenomenon of mixing ferrofluid and DI-water streams has been reported before, but mass transfer enhancement for other non-magnetic species through magnetic field have not been studied and evaluated extensively. In the present work, permanent magnets were used in a simple microfluidic device to create a non-uniform magnetic field. Two streams are introduced into the microchannel: one contains fluorescent dye mixed with diluted ferrofluid to induce enhanced mass transport of the dye, and the other one is a non-magnetic DI-water stream. Mass transport enhancement of fluorescent dye is evaluated using fluorescent measurement techniques. The concentration field is measured for different flow rates. Due to effect of magnetic field, a body force is exerted on the paramagnetic stream and expands the ferrofluid stream into non-magnetic DI-water flow. The experimental results demonstrate that without a magnetic field, both magnetic nanoparticles of the ferrofluid and the fluorescent dye solely rely on molecular diffusion to spread. The non-uniform magnetic field, created by the permanent magnets around the microchannel, and diluted ferrofluid can improve mass transport of non-magnetic solutes in a microfluidic device. The susceptibility mismatch between the fluids results in a magnetoconvective secondary flow towards the magnets and subsequently the mass transport of the non-magnetic fluorescent dye. A significant enhancement in mass transport of the fluorescent dye was observed. The platform presented here could be used as a microfluidics-based micromixer for chemical and biological applications.

Keywords: ferrofluid, mass transfer, micromixer, microfluidics, magnetic

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Authors: Onesmus Nyaude

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The aim of the study was to investigate participants’ views on how corruption can be combated to enhance learner academic achievement. The study was undertaken on three select public secondary institutions in Zimbabwe. This study also focuses on exploring the various views of educators; parents and the learners on the role played by corruption in perpetuating the seemingly existing learner academic achievement disparities in various educational institutions. The study further interrogates and examines the nexus between the prevalence of corruption in schools and the subsequent influence on the academic achievement of learners. Corruption is considered a form of social injustice; hence in Zimbabwe, the general consensus is that it is perceived rife to the extent that it is overtaking the traditional factors that contributed to the poor academic achievement of learners. Coupled to this, have been the issue of gross abuse of power and some malpractices emanating from concealment of essential and official transactions in the conduct of business. Through proposing robust anti-corruption mechanisms, teaching and learning resources poured in schools would be put into good use. This would prevent the unlawful diversion and misappropriation of the resources in question which has always been the culture. This study is of paramount significance to curriculum planners, teachers, parents, and learners. The study was informed by the interpretive paradigm; thus qualitative research approaches were used. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were adopted in ‘site and participants’ selection. A representative sample of (150) participants was used. The study found that the majority of the participants perceived corruption as a social problem and a human right threat affecting the quality of teaching and learning processes in the education sector. It was established that corruption prevalence within institutions is as a result of the perpetual weakening of ethical values and other variables linked to upholding of ‘Ubuntu’ among general citizenry. It was further established that greediness and weak systems are major causes of rampant corruption within institutions of higher learning and are manifesting through abuse of power, bribery, misappropriation and embezzlement of material and financial resources. Therefore, there is great need to collectively address the problem of corruption in educational institutions and society at large. The study additionally concludes that successful combating of corruption will promote successful moral development of students as well as safeguarding their human rights entitlements. The study recommends the adoption of principles of good corporate governance within educational institutions in order to successfully curb corruption. The study further recommends the intensification of interventionist strategies and strengthening of systems in educational institutions as well as regular audits to overcome the problem associated with rampant corruption cases.

Keywords: academic achievement, combating, corruption, good corporate governance, qualitative study

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Authors: Anjushi Verma, Tirthankar Gayen

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Although, reliability is an important attribute of quality, especially for mission critical systems, yet, there does not exist any versatile model even today for the reliability assessment of component-based software. The existing Black Box models are found to make various assumptions which may not always be realistic and may be quite contrary to the actual behaviour of software. They focus on observing the manner in which the system behaves without considering the structure of the system, the components composing the system, their interconnections, dependencies, usage frequencies, etc.As a result, the entropy (uncertainty) in assessment using these models is much high.Though, there are some models based on operation profile yet sometimes it becomes extremely difficult to obtain the exact operation profile concerned with a given operation. This paper discusses the drawbacks, deficiencies and limitations of Black Box approaches from the perspective of various authors and finally proposes a conceptual model for the reliability assessment of software.

Keywords: black box, faults, failure, software reliability

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Authors: Nur Fareza Mustapha

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Solutions to policy problems need to be curated to the local context, taking into account the trajectory of the local development path to ensure its efficacy. For Kuala Lumpur, rapid urbanization and migration into the city for the past few decades have increased the demand for housing to accommodate a growing urban population. As a critical factor affecting housing affordability, land supply constraints have been attributed to intensifying market pressures, which grew in tandem with the demands of urban development, along with existing institutional constraints in the governance of land. While demand-side pressures are inevitable given the fixed supply of land, supply-side constraints in regulations distort markets and if addressed inappropriately, may lead to mistargeted policy interventions. Given Malaysia’s historical development, regulatory barriers for land may originate from the British colonial period, when many aspects of the current laws governing tenure were introduced and formalized, and henceforth, became engrained in the system. This research undertakes a postcolonial institutional analysis approach to uncover the causal mechanism driving the evolution of land tenure systems in post-colonial Kuala Lumpur. It seeks to determine the sources of these shifts, focusing on the incentives and bargaining positions of actors during periods of institutional flux/change. It aims to construct a conceptual framework to further this understanding and to elucidate how this historical trajectory affects current access to urban land markets for housing. Archival analysis is used to outline and analyse the evolution of land tenure systems in Kuala Lumpur while stakeholder interviews are used to analyse its impact on the current urban land market, with a particular focus on the provision of and access to affordable housing in the city. Preliminary findings indicate that many aspects of the laws governing tenure that were introduced and formalized during the British colonial period have endured until the present day. Customary rules of tenure were displaced by rules following a European tradition, which found legitimacy through a misguided interpretation of local laws regarding the ownership of land. Colonial notions of race and its binary view of native vs. non-natives have also persisted in the construction and implementation of current legislation regarding land tenure. More concrete findings from this study will generate a more nuanced understanding of the regulatory land supply constraints in Kuala Lumpur, taking into account both the long and short term spatial and temporal processes that affect how these rules are created, implemented and enforced.

Keywords: colonial discourse, historical institutionalism, housing, land policy, post-colonial city

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Authors: Shaleeza Sohail

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Self, and peer evaluations are some of the main components in almost all group assignments and projects in higher education institutes. These evaluations provide students an opportunity to better understand the learning outcomes of the assignment and/or project. A number of online systems have been developed for this purpose that provides automated assessment and feedback of students’ contribution in a group environment based on self and peer evaluations. All these systems lack a progressive aspect of these assessments and feedbacks which is the most crucial factor for ongoing improvement and life-long learning. In addition, a number of assignments and projects are designed in a manner that smaller or initial assessment components lead to a final assignment or project. In such cases, the evaluation and feedback may provide students an insight into their performance as a group member for a particular component after the submission. Ideally, it should also create an opportunity to improve for next assessment component as well. Self and Peer Progressive Assessment and Feedback System encourages students to perform better in the next assessment by providing a comparative analysis of the individual’s contribution score on an ongoing basis. Hence, the student sees the change in their own contribution scores during the complete project based on smaller assessment components. Self-Assessment Factor is calculated as an indicator of how close the self-perception of the student’s own contribution is to the perceived contribution of that student by other members of the group. Peer-Assessment Factor is calculated to compare the perception of one student’s contribution as compared to the average value of the group. Our system also provides a Group Coherence Factor which shows collectively how group members contribute to the final submission. This feedback is provided for students and teachers to visualize the consistency of members’ contribution perceived by its group members. Teachers can use these factors to judge the individual contributions of the group members in the combined tasks and allocate marks/grades accordingly. This factor is shown to students for all groups undertaking same assessment, so the group members can comparatively analyze the efficiency of their group as compared to other groups. Our System provides flexibility to the instructors for generating their own customized criteria for self and peer evaluations based on the requirements of the assignment. Students evaluate their own and other group members’ contributions on the scale from significantly higher to significantly lower. The preliminary testing of the prototype system is done with a set of predefined cases to explicitly show the relation of system feedback factors to the case studies. The results show that such progressive feedback to students can be used to motivate self-improvement and enhanced team skills. The comparative group coherence can promote a better understanding of the group dynamics in order to improve team unity and fair division of team tasks.

Keywords: effective group work, improvement of team skills, progressive feedback, self and peer assessment system

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Authors: Fahad Alamoudi, Yaser Miaji

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The growing popularity of swimming pools and other activities in the water for sport, fitness, therapy or just enjoyable relaxation have led to the increased use of swimming pools and the establishment of a variety of specific-use pools such as spa pools, water slides, and more recently, hydrotherapy and wave pools. In this research, a few simple equipment is used for test, detect and alert for detection of water cleanness and pollution. YSI Photometer Systems, TDSTestr High model, Rio 12HF and Electrode A1. The researchers used electrolysis as a method of separating bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them. The results which use 41 experiments show the higher the salt concentration, the more efficient the electrode and the smaller the gap between the plates, the lower the electrode voltage. Furthermore, it is proved that the larger the surface area, the lower the cell voltage and the higher current used the more chlorine produced.

Keywords: photometer, electrode, electrolysis, swimming pool chlorination

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Authors: Lisa Tribuzio

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This paper explores the complexity of working with Muslim communities in Australia. It will draw upon the notions of belonging, social inclusion and effective community programming to engage Muslim communities in Western environments given the current global political climate. Factors taken into consideration for effective engagement include: family engagement, considering key practices such as Ramadan, fasting and prayer and food requirements, gender relations, core values around faith and spirituality, considering attitudes towards self disclosure in a counseling setting and the notion of Us and Them in the media and systems and its effect on minority communities. It will explore recent research in the field from Australian researchers as well as recommendations from United Nations in working with Muslim communities. It will also explore current practice models applied in Australia in engaging effectively with diverse communities and addressing racism and discrimination in innovative ways.

Keywords: Muslim, cultural diversity, social inclusion, racism

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Authors: Belkacem Benadda, Adil Benabdellah, Boutheyna Souna

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is an unprecedented creation. Electronics objects are now able to interact, share, respond and adapt to their environment on a much larger basis. Actual spread of these modern means of connectivity and solutions with high data volume exchange are affecting our ways of life. Accommodation is becoming an intelligent living space, not only suited to the people circumstances and desires, but also to systems constraints to make daily life simpler, cheaper, increase possibilities and achieve a higher level of services and luxury. In this paper we are as Internet access, teleworking, consumption monitoring, information search, etc.). This paper addresses the design and integration of a smart home, it also purposes an IoT solution that allows smart power consumption based on measurements from power-grid and deep learning analysis.

Keywords: array sensors, IoT, power grid, FPGA, embedded

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Authors: Maria Reznakova, Michala Strnadova, Lukas Reznak

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Successful achievement of strategic goals requires an effective performance management system, i.e. determining the appropriate indicators measuring the rate of goal achievement. Assuming that the goal of the owners is to grow the assets they invested in, it is vital to identify the key performance indicators, which contribute to value creation. These indicators are known as value drivers. Based on the undertaken literature search, a value driver is defined as any factor that affects the value of an enterprise. The important factors are then monitored by both financial and non-financial indicators. Financial performance indicators are most useful in strategic management, since they indicate whether a company's strategy implementation and execution are contributing to bottom line improvement. Non-financial indicators are mainly used for short-term decisions. The identification of value drivers, however, is problematic for companies which are not publicly traded. Therefore financial ratios continue to be used to measure the performance of companies, despite their considerable criticism. The main drawback of such indicators is the fact that they are calculated based on accounting data, while accounting rules may differ considerably across different environments. For successful enterprise performance management it is vital to avoid factors that may reduce (or even destroy) its value. Among the known factors reducing the enterprise value are the lack of capital, lack of strategic management system and poor quality of production. In order to gain further insight into the topic, the paper presents results of the research identifying factors that adversely affect the performance of mechanical engineering enterprises in the Czech Republic. The research methodology focuses on both the qualitative and the quantitative aspect of the topic. The qualitative data were obtained from a questionnaire survey of the enterprises senior management, while the quantitative financial data were obtained from the Analysis Major Database for European Sources (AMADEUS). The questionnaire prompted managers to list factors which negatively affect business performance of their enterprises. The range of potential factors was based on a secondary research – analysis of previously undertaken questionnaire surveys and research of studies published in the scientific literature. The results of the survey were evaluated both in general, by average scores, and by detailed sub-analyses of additional criteria. These include the company specific characteristics, such as its size and ownership structure. The evaluation also included a comparison of the managers’ opinions and the performance of their enterprises – measured by return on equity and return on assets ratios. The comparisons were tested by a series of non-parametric tests of statistical significance. The results of the analyses show that the factors most detrimental to the enterprise performance include the incompetence of responsible employees and the disregard to the customers‘ requirements.

Keywords: business value, financial ratios, performance measurement, value drivers

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Authors: Shah Muhammad Butt, Ahmed Masaud Ansari

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Present Financial crisis in Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) facing lots of problems considerable budget cuts, make difficult to meet the ever growing IT-based research and learning needs, institutions are rapidly planning and promoting cloud-based approaches for their academic and research needs. A cost effective Hybrid Cloud framework for HEI’s will provide educational services for campus or intercampus communication. Hybrid Cloud Framework comprises Private and Public Cloud approaches. This paper will propose the framework based on the Open Source Cloud (OpenNebula for Virtualization, Eucalyptus for Infrastructure, and Aneka for programming development environment) combined with CSP’s services which are delivered to the end-user via the Internet from public clouds.

Keywords: educational services, hybrid campus cloud, open source, electrical and systems sciences

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Authors: Sun-Hee Lee, Amanda Kraley

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The “MeToo” movement is a social movement against sexual abuse and harassment. Though the hashtag went viral in 2017 following different cultural flashpoints in different countries, the initial response was quiet in South Korea. This radically changed in January 2018, when a high-ranking senior prosecutor, Seo Ji-hyun, gave a televised interview discussing being sexually assaulted by a colleague. Acknowledging public anger, particularly among women, on the long-existing problems of sexual harassment and abuse, the South Korean media have focused on several high-profile cases. Analyzing the media representation of these cases is a window into the evolving South Korean discourse around “MeToo.” This study presents a linguistic analysis of “MeToo” discourse in South Korea by utilizing a corpus-based approach. The term corpus (pl. corpora) is used to refer to electronic language data, that is, any collection of recorded instances of spoken or written language. A “MeToo” corpus has been collected by extracting newspaper articles containing the keyword “MeToo” from BIGKinds, big data analysis, and service and Nexis Uni, an online academic database search engine, to conduct this language analysis. The corpus analysis explores how Korean media represent accusers and the accused, victims and perpetrators. The extracted data includes 5,885 articles from four broadsheet newspapers (Chosun, JoongAng, Hangyore, and Kyunghyang) and 88 articles from two Korea-based English newspapers (Korea Times and Korea Herald) between January 2017 and November 2020. The information includes basic data analysis with respect to keyword frequency and network analysis and adds refined examinations of select corpus samples through naming strategies, semantic relations, and pragmatic properties. Along with the exponential increase of the number of articles containing the keyword “MeToo” from 104 articles in 2017 to 3,546 articles in 2018, the network and keyword analysis highlights ‘US,’ ‘Harvey Weinstein’, and ‘Hollywood,’ as keywords for 2017, with articles in 2018 highlighting ‘Seo Ji-Hyun, ‘politics,’ ‘President Moon,’ ‘An Ui-Jeong, ‘Lee Yoon-taek’ (the names of perpetrators), and ‘(Korean) society.’ This outcome demonstrates the shift of media focus from international affairs to domestic cases. Another crucial finding is that word ‘defamation’ is widely distributed in the “MeToo” corpus. This relates to the South Korean legal system, in which a person who defames another by publicly alleging information detrimental to their reputation—factual or fabricated—is punishable by law (Article 307 of the Criminal Act of Korea). If the defamation occurs on the internet, it is subject to aggravated punishment under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. These laws, in particular, have been used against accusers who have publicly come forward in the wake of “MeToo” in South Korea, adding an extra dimension of risk. This corpus analysis of “MeToo” newspaper articles contributes to the analysis of the media representation of the “MeToo” movement and sheds light on the shifting landscape of gender relations in the public sphere in South Korea.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, MeToo, newspapers, South Korea

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Authors: Mohamed Abo El Nasr, Mohamed Shoeib, Abdelhamid Abdelkhalik, Amro Serag

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Background: Early assessment of severity of chest trauma, either blunt or penetrating is of critical importance in prediction of patient outcome. Different trauma scoring systems are widely available and are based on anatomical or physiological parameters to expect patient morbidity or mortality. Up till now, there is no ideal, universally accepted trauma score that could be applied in all trauma centers and is suitable for assessment of severity of chest trauma patients. Aim: Our aim was to compare various trauma scoring systems regarding their predictability of morbidity and mortality in chest trauma patients. Patients and Methods: This study was a prospective study including 400 patients with chest trauma who were managed at Tanta University Emergency Hospital, Egypt during a period of 2 years (March 2014 until March 2016). The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the mode of trauma: blunt or penetrating. The collected data included age, sex, hemodynamic status on admission, intrathoracic injuries, and associated extra-thoracic injuries. The patients outcome including mortality, need of thoracotomy, need for ICU admission, need for mechanical ventilation, length of hospital stay and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome were also recorded. The relevant data were used to calculate the following trauma scores: 1. Anatomical scores including abbreviated injury scale (AIS), Injury severity score (ISS), New injury severity score (NISS) and Chest wall injury scale (CWIS). 2. Physiological scores including revised trauma score (RTS), Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score. 3. Combined score including Trauma and injury severity score (TRISS ) and 4. Chest-Specific score Thoracic trauma severity score (TTSS). All these scores were analyzed statistically to detect their sensitivity, specificity and compared regarding their predictive power of mortality and morbidity in blunt and penetrating chest trauma patients. Results: The incidence of mortality was 3.75% (15/400). Eleven patients (11/230) died in blunt chest trauma group, while (4/170) patients died in penetrating trauma group. The mortality rate increased more than three folds to reach 13% (13/100) in patients with severe chest trauma (ISS of >16). The physiological scores APACHE II and RTS had the highest predictive value for mortality in both blunt and penetrating chest injuries. The physiological score APACHE II followed by the combined score TRISS were more predictive for intensive care admission in penetrating injuries while RTS was more predictive in blunt trauma. Also, RTS had a higher predictive value for expectation of need for mechanical ventilation followed by the combined score TRISS. APACHE II score was more predictive for the need of thoracotomy in penetrating injuries and the Chest-Specific score TTSS was higher in blunt injuries. The anatomical score ISS and TTSS score were more predictive for prolonged hospital stay in penetrating and blunt injuries respectively. Conclusion: Trauma scores including physiological parameters have a higher predictive power for mortality in both blunt and penetrating chest trauma. They are more suitable for assessment of injury severity and prediction of patients outcome.

Keywords: chest trauma, trauma scores, blunt injuries, penetrating injuries

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Authors: M. S. H. Chowdhury, Ishak Hashim

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In this paper, linear and non-linear stiff systems of ordinary differential equations are solved by the classical Adomian decomposition method (ADM) and the multi-stage Adomian decomposition method (MADM). The MADM is a technique adapted from the standard Adomian decomposition method (ADM) where standard ADM is converted into a hybrid numeric-analytic method called the multistage ADM (MADM). The MADM is tested for several examples. Comparisons with an explicit Runge-Kutta-type method (RK) and the classical ADM demonstrate the limitations of ADM and promising capability of the MADM for solving stiff initial value problems (IVPs).

Keywords: stiff system of ODEs, Runge-Kutta Type Method, Adomian decomposition method, Multistage ADM

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Authors: Hesham A. Elkaranshawy, Amr M. Abdelrazek, Hosam M. Ezzat

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The system of ordinary nonlinear differential equations describing sliding velocity during impact with friction for a three-dimensional rigid-multibody system is developed. No analytical solutions have been obtained before for this highly nonlinear system. Hence, a power series solution is proposed. Since the validity of this solution is limited to its convergence zone, a suitable time step is chosen and at the end of it a new series solution is constructed. For a case study, the trajectory of the sliding velocity using the proposed method is built using 6 time steps, which coincides with a Runge-Kutta solution using 38 time steps.

Keywords: impact with friction, nonlinear ordinary differential equations, power series solutions, rough collision

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Authors: Bagireanu Astrid, Bros-Williamson Julio, Duncheva Mila, Currie John

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The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector plays a critical role in the global transition toward sustainable and net-zero built environments. However, the industry faces unique challenges in planning for net-zero while struggling with low productivity, cost overruns and overall resistance to change. Traditional practices fall short due to their inability to meet the requirements for systemic change, especially as governments increasingly demand transformative approaches. Working in silos and rigid hierarchies and a short-term, client-centric approach prioritising immediate gains over long-term benefit stands in stark contrast to the fundamental requirements for the realisation of net-zero objectives. These practices have limited capacity to effectively integrate AEC stakeholders and promote the essential knowledge sharing required to address the multifaceted challenges of achieving net-zero. In the context of built environment, procurement may be described as the method by which a project proceeds from inception to completion. Collaborative procurement methods under the Integrated Practices (IP) umbrella have the potential to align more closely with net-zero objectives. This paper explores the synergies between collaborative procurement principles and the pursuit of net zero in the AEC sector, drawing upon the shared values of cross-disciplinary collaboration, Early Supply Chain involvement (ESI), use of standards and frameworks, digital information management, strategic performance measurement, integrated decision-making principles and contractual alliancing. To investigate the role of collaborative procurement in advancing net-zero objectives, a structured research methodology was employed. First, the study focuses on a systematic review on the application of collaborative procurement principles in the AEC sphere. Next, a comprehensive analysis is conducted to identify common clusters of these principles across multiple procurement methods. An evaluative comparison between traditional procurement methods and collaborative procurement for achieving net-zero objectives is presented. Then, the study identifies the intersection between collaborative procurement principles and the net-zero requirements. Lastly, an exploration of key insights for AEC stakeholders focusing on the implications and practical applications of these findings is made. Directions for future development of this research are recommended. Adopting collaborative procurement principles can serve as a strategic framework for guiding the AEC sector towards realising net-zero. Synergising these approaches overcomes fragmentation, fosters knowledge sharing, and establishes a net-zero-centered ecosystem. In the context of the ongoing efforts to amplify project efficiency within the built environment, a critical realisation of their central role becomes imperative for AEC stakeholders. When effectively leveraged, collaborative procurement emerges as a powerful tool to surmount existing challenges in attaining net-zero objectives.

Keywords: collaborative procurement, net-zero, knowledge sharing, architecture, built environment

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Authors: Vidar Hepsø

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The energy and oil companies on the Norwegian Continental shelf come from a situation where each asset control and manage their energy supply (island mode) and move towards a situation where the assets need to collaborate and coordinate energy use with others due to increased cost and scarcity of electric energy sharing the energy that is provided. Currently, several areas are electrified either with an onshore grid cable or are receiving intermittent energy from offshore wind-parks. While the onshore grid in Norway is well regulated, the offshore grid is still in the making, with several oil and gas electrification projects and offshore wind development just started. The paper will describe the shift in the mindset that comes with operating this new offshore grid. This transition process heralds an increase in collaboration across boundaries and integration of energy management across companies, businesses, technical disciplines, and engagement with stakeholders in the larger society. This transition will be described as a function of the new challenges with increased complexity of the energy mix (wind, oil/gas, hydrogen and others) coupled with increased technical and organization complexity in energy management. Organizational complexity denotes an increasing integration across boundaries, whether these boundaries are company, vendors, professional disciplines, regulatory regimes/bodies, businesses, and across numerous societal stakeholders. New practices must be developed, made legitimate and institutionalized across these boundaries. Only parts of this complexity can be mitigated technically, e.g.: by use of batteries, mixing energy systems and simulation/ forecasting tools. Many challenges must be mitigated with legitimated societal and institutionalized governance practices on many levels. Offshore electrification supports Norway’s 2030 climate targets but is also controversial since it is exploiting the larger society’s energy resources. This means that new systems and practices must also be transparent, not only for the industry and the authorities, but must also be acceptable and just for the larger society. The paper report from ongoing work in Norway, participant observation and interviews in projects and people working with offshore grid development in Norway. One case presented is the development of an offshore floating windfarm connected to two offshore installations and the second case is an offshore grid development initiative providing six installations electric energy via an onshore cable. The development of the offshore grid is analyzed using a capability platform framework, that describes the technical, competence, work process and governance capabilities that are under development in Norway. A capability platform is a ‘stack’ with the following layers: intelligent infrastructure, information and collaboration, knowledge sharing & analytics and finally business operations. The need for better collaboration and energy forecasting tools/capabilities in this stack will be given a special attention in the two use cases that are presented.

Keywords: capability platform, electrification, carbon footprint, control rooms, energy forecsting, operational model

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Authors: L. Sellami, D. Idoughi, P. F. Tiako

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Cloud computing provides infrastructure to the enterprise through the Internet allowing access to cloud services at anytime and anywhere. This pervasive aspect of the services, the distributed nature of data and the wide use of information make cloud computing vulnerable to intrusions that violate the security of the cloud. This requires the use of security mechanisms to detect malicious behavior in network communications and hosts such as intrusion detection systems (IDS). In this article, we focus on the detection of intrusion into the cloud sing IDSs. We base ourselves on client authentication in the computing cloud. This technique allows to detect the abnormal use of ubiquitous service and prevents the intrusion of cloud computing. This is an approach based on client authentication data. Our IDS provides intrusion detection inside and outside cloud computing network. It is a double protection approach: The security user node and the global security cloud computing.

Keywords: cloud computing, intrusion detection system, privacy, trust

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Authors: K. Djellabi, M. E. H. Latreche

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The induction heating phenomenon depends on various factors, making the problem highly nonlinear. The mathematical analysis of this problem in most cases is very difficult and it is reduced to simple cases. Another knowledge of induction heating systems is generated in production environments, but these trial-error procedures are long and expensive. The numerical models of induction heating problem are another approach to reduce abovementioned drawbacks. This paper deals with the simulation model of induction heating problem. The simulation model of induction heating system in COMSOL Multiphysics is created. In this work we present results of numerical simulations of induction heating process in pieces of cylindrical shapes, in an inductor with four coils. The modeling of the inducting heating process was made with the software COMSOL Multiphysics Version 4.2a, for the study we present the temperature charts.

Keywords: induction heating, electromagnetic field, inductor, numerical simulation, finite element

Procedia PDF Downloads 316