Search results for: visitation rate
7939 Numerical Investigation and Optimization of the Effect of Number of Blade and Blade Type on the Suction Pressure and Outlet Mass Flow Rate of a Centrifugal Fan
Authors: Ogan Karabas, Suleyman Yigit
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Number of blade and blade type of centrifugal fans are the most decisive factor on the field of application, noise level, suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate. Nowadays, in order to determine these effects on centrifugal fans, numerical studies are carried out in addition to experimental studies. In this study, it is aimed to numerically investigate the changes of suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate values of a centrifugal fan according to the number of blade and blade type. Centrifugal fans of the same size with forward, backward and straight blade type were analyzed by using a simulation program and compared with each other. This analysis was carried out under steady state condition by selecting k-Ɛ turbulence model and air is assumed incompressible. Then, 16, 32 and 48 blade centrifugal fans were again analyzed by using same simulation program, and the optimum number of blades was determined for the suction pressure and the outlet mass flow rate. According to the results of the analysis, it was obtained that the suction pressure in the 32 blade fan was twice the value obtained in the 16 blade fan. In addition, the outlet mass flow rate increased by 45% with the increase in the number of blade from 16 to 32. There is no significant change observed on the suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate when the number of blades increased from 32 to 48. In the light of the analysis results, the optimum blade number was determined as 32.Keywords: blade type, centrifugal fan, cfd, outlet mass flow rate, suction pressure
Procedia PDF Downloads 4047938 Optimum Design of Combine Threshing Cylinder for Soybean Harvest
Authors: Choi Duckkyu, Choi Yong, Kang Taegyoung, Jun Hyeonjong, Choi Ilsu, Hyun Changsik
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This study was carried out to develop a soybean combine thresher that enables to reduce the damage rate of soybean threshing and the rate of unthreshing. The combine threshing cylinder was developed with 6 circular axis at each end and fixed with disc plates. It was attached to the prototype combine thresher. A combine thresher that has a cylinder with circular rod type threshing pegs was used for a comparative test. A series of comparative tests were conducted using dae-won soybean. The test of the soybean thresher was performed at the cylinder speeds of 210, 240, 270 and 300 rpm, and with the concave clearance of 10, 13 and 16 mm. The separating positions of soybean after threshing were researched on a separate box with 4 sections. The soybean positions of front, center, rear and rear outside, of 59.5%, 30.6%, 7.8% and 2.2% respectively, were obtained. At the cylinder speeds from 210 rpm to 300 rpm, the damage rate of soybean was increased from 0.1% to 4.2% correspondingly to speeds. The unthreshed rate of soybean under the same condition was increased from 0.9% to 4.1% correspondingly to speeds. 0.7% of the damage rate and 1.5% of the unthreshed rate was achieved at the cylinder speed of 240 rpm and with the concave clearance of 10 mm. For Daewon soybean, an optimum cylinder speed of 240 rpm and the concave clearance of 10 mm were identified. These results will be useful for the design, construction, and operation of soybean threshing harvesters.Keywords: soybean harvest, combine threshing, threshing cylinder, optimum design
Procedia PDF Downloads 5307937 The Exchange Rate Exposure of Exporting and Domestic Firms in Central and Eastern European Countries Controlling for Regime Effect and Recent Crisis
Authors: Raheel Asif, Michael Frommel
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This paper focuses on analyzing the exchange rate exposure of exporting & domestic firms in (the so far rarely addressed) largest Eastern European transition economies, i.e., Russia and the three EU accession countries, Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic (CEEC-3). It also controls for possible effects of different exchange rate regimes, Great Financial crisis (2007-08), Russian Financial crisis (2014-15), the formation of EU & turn of year effect. Substantially improving the results from the existing literature on these transition economies, we find for more than 51% of our sample firms in CEEC-3 countries and 29% in Russia shows a significant exchange rate exposure. However, the magnitude and direction of firms’ exposure depends on the particular bilateral exchange rate and differs between CEEC-3 and Russia. We find that share price increases with an appreciation of the domestic currency against the EURO and US Dollar (USD) in CEEC-3; however, the effect is more pronounced for EURO as expected. Whereas, for Russian firms share price increases with a depreciation of the domestic currency against the USD only. Those differences may result from a differing dominance of exposure channels in the respective economies, such as the country-specific export structure, competitiveness channels, and dependence on foreign debt. Finally, the switch from a pegged to a flexible exchange rate regime appears to have a less pronounced effect for the exchange rate exposure of firms in all countries except for USD in Poland and Russia.Keywords: exchange rate exposure, transition economies, central and eastern Europe, international finance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1267936 An Integrated Approach to Find the Effect of Strain Rate on Ultimate Tensile Strength of Randomly Oriented Short Glass Fiber Composite in Combination with Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Sharad Shrivastava, Arun Jalan
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In this study tensile testing was performed on randomly oriented short glass fiber/epoxy resin composite specimens which were prepared using hand lay-up method. Samples were tested over a wide range of strain rate/loading rate from 2mm/min to 40mm/min to see the effect on ultimate tensile strength of the composite. A multi layered 'back propagation artificial neural network of supervised learning type' was used to analyze and predict the tensile properties with strain rate and temperature as given input and output as UTS to predict. Various network structures were designed and investigated with varying parameters and network sizes, and an optimized network structure was proposed to predict the UTS of short glass fiber/epoxy resin composite specimens with reasonably good accuracy.Keywords: glass fiber composite, mechanical properties, strain rate, artificial neural network
Procedia PDF Downloads 4377935 Heart-Rate Resistance Electrocardiogram Identification Based on Slope-Oriented Neural Networks
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 4357934 Monthly Labor Forces Surveys Portray Smooth Labor Markets and Bias Fixed Effects Estimation: Evidence from Israel’s Transition from Quarterly to Monthly Surveys
Authors: Haggay Etkes
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This study provides evidence for the impact of monthly interviews conducted for the Israeli Labor Force Surveys (LFSs) on estimated flows between labor force (LF) statuses and on coefficients in fixed-effects estimations. The study uses the natural experiment of parallel interviews for the quarterly and the monthly LFSs in Israel in 2011 for demonstrating that the Labor Force Participation (LFP) rate of Jewish persons who participated in the monthly LFS increased between interviews, while in the quarterly LFS it decreased. Interestingly, the estimated impact on the LFP rate of self-reporting individuals is 2.6–3.5 percentage points while the impact on the LFP rate of individuals whose data was reported by another member of their household (a proxy), is lower and statistically insignificant. The relative increase of the LFP rate in the monthly survey is a result of a lower rate of exit from the LF and a somewhat higher rate of entry into the LF relative to these flows in the quarterly survey. These differing flows have a bearing on labor search models as the monthly survey portrays a labor market with less friction and a “steady state” LFP rate that is 5.9 percentage points higher than the quarterly survey. The study also demonstrates that monthly interviews affect a specific group (45–64 year-olds); thus the sign of coefficient of age as an explanatory variable in fixed-effects regressions on LFP is negative in the monthly survey and positive in the quarterly survey.Keywords: measurement error, surveys, search, LFSs
Procedia PDF Downloads 2707933 Experimental Study of Heat Transfer Enhancement Using Protruded Rectangular Fin
Authors: Tarique Jamil Khan, Swapnil Pande
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The investigation deals with the study of heat transfer enhancement using protruded square fin. This study is enough to determine whether protrusion in forced convection is enough to enhance the rate of heat transfer. It includes the results after performing experiments by using a plane rectangular fin of aluminum material and the same dimension rectangular fin of the same material but having protruded circular shape extended normally. The fins made by a sand casting method. The results clearly mentioned that the protruded surface is effective enough to enhance the rate of heat transfer. This research investigates a modern fin topologies heat transfer characteristics that will clearly outdated the conventional fin to increase the rate of heat transfer. Protruded fins improve the rate of heat transfer compared to solid fin by varying shape of the protrusion in diameter and height.Keywords: heat transfer enhancement, forced convection, protruted fin, rectangular fin
Procedia PDF Downloads 3627932 The Fiscal-Monetary Policy and Economic Growth in Algeria: VECM Approach
Authors: K. Bokreta, D. Benanaya
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The objective of this study is to examine the relative effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy in Algeria using the econometric modelling techniques of cointegration and vector error correction modelling to analyse and draw policy inferences. The chosen variables of fiscal policy are government expenditure and net taxes on products, while the effect of monetary policy is presented by the inflation rate and the official exchange rate. From the results, we find that in the long-run, the impact of government expenditures is positive, while the effect of taxes is negative on growth. Additionally, we find that the inflation rate is found to have little effect on GDP per capita but the impact of the exchange rate is insignificant. We conclude that fiscal policy is more powerful then monetary policy in promoting economic growth in Algeria.Keywords: economic growth, monetary policy, fiscal policy, VECM
Procedia PDF Downloads 3107931 Theoretical Research for Influence of Irradiation on Transient Creep of Metals
Authors: Pavlo Selyshchev, Tetiana Didenko
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Via formalism of the Complex systems and in the framework of the climb - glide model a theoretical approach to describe the influence of irradiation on transient creep of metals. We consider metal under such stress and conditions of irradiation at which creep is determined by dislocation motion that consists in climb and glide. It is shown that there are qualitatively different regimes of a creep as a result of irradiation. Simulation and analysis of this phenomenon are performed. The time dependence of creep rate of metal under an irradiation is theoretically obtained. The conditions of zero minimums of the creep-rate existence as well as the times of their appearance are determined. The changing of the position of creep-rate dips in the conditions of the temperature exposure change is investigated. The obtained results are compared with the experimentally observed dependence of the creep rate on time.Keywords: creep, climb and glide of dislocations, irradiation, non-linear feed-back, point defects
Procedia PDF Downloads 2017930 An Association between Stock Index and Macro Economic Variables in Bangladesh
Authors: Shamil Mardi Al Islam, Zaima Ahmed
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The aim of this article is to explore whether certain macroeconomic variables such as industrial index, inflation, broad money, exchange rate and deposit rate as a proxy for interest rate are interlinked with Dhaka stock price index (DSEX index) precisely after the introduction of new index by Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) since January 2013. Bangladesh stock market has experienced rapid growth since its inception. It might not be a very well-developed capital market as compared to its neighboring counterparts but has been a strong avenue for investment and resource mobilization. The data set considered consists of monthly observations, for a period of four years from January 2013 to June 2018. Findings from cointegration analysis suggest that DSEX and macroeconomic variables have a significant long-run relationship. VAR decomposition based on VAR estimated indicates that money supply explains a significant portion of variation of stock index whereas, inflation is found to have the least impact. Impact of industrial index is found to have a low impact compared to the exchange rate and deposit rate. Policies should there aim to increase industrial production in order to enhance stock market performance. Further reasonable money supply should be ensured by authorities to stimulate stock market performance.Keywords: deposit rate, DSEX, industrial index, VAR
Procedia PDF Downloads 1617929 Poincare Plot for Heart Rate Variability
Authors: Mazhar B. Tayel, Eslam I. AlSaba
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The heart is the most important part in any body organisms. It effects and affected by any factor in the body. Therefore, it is a good detector of any matter in the body. When the heart signal is non-stationary signal, therefore, it should be study its variability. So, the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has attracted considerable attention in psychology, medicine and have become important dependent measure in psychophysiology and behavioral medicine. Quantification and interpretation of heart rate variability. However, remain complex issues are fraught with pitfalls. This paper presents one of the non-linear techniques to analyze HRV. It discusses 'What Poincare plot is?', 'How it is work?', 'its usage benefits especially in HRV', 'the limitation of Poincare cause of standard deviation SD1, SD2', and 'How overcome this limitation by using complex correlation measure (CCM)'. The CCM is most sensitive to changes in temporal structure of the Poincaré plot as compared to SD1 and SD2.Keywords: heart rate variability, chaotic system, poincare, variance, standard deviation, complex correlation measure
Procedia PDF Downloads 4007928 Physical and Mechanical Phenomena Associated with Rock Failure in Brazilian Disc Specimens
Authors: Hamid Reza Nejati, Amin Nazerigivi, Ahmad Reza Sayadi
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Failure mechanism of rocks is one of the fundamental aspects to study rock engineering stability. Rock is a material that contains flaws, initial damage, micro-cracks, etc. Failure of rock structure is largely due to tensile stress and was influenced by various parameters. In the present study, the effect of brittleness and loading rate on the physical and mechanical phenomena produced in rock during loading sequences is considered. For this purpose, Acoustic Emission (AE) technique is used to monitor fracturing process of three rock types (onyx marble, sandstone and soft limestone) with different brittleness and sandstone samples under different loading rate. The results of experimental tests revealed that brittleness and loading rate have a significant effect on the mode and number of induced fracture in rocks. An increase in rock brittleness increases the frequency of induced cracks, and the number of tensile fracture decreases when loading rate increases.Keywords: brittleness, loading rate, acoustic emission, tensile fracture, shear fracture
Procedia PDF Downloads 4757927 Estimation of Break Points of Housing Price Growth Rate for Top MSAs in Texas Area
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Applying the structural break estimation method proposed by Perron and Bai (1998) to the housing price growth rate of top 5 MSAs in the Texas area, this paper estimated the structural break date for the growth rate of housing prices index. As shown in the estimation results, the break dates for each region are quite different, which indicates the heterogeneity of the housing market in response to macroeconomic conditions.Keywords: structural break, housing prices index, ADF test, linear model
Procedia PDF Downloads 1507926 The Effect of a New Reimbursement Policy for Discharge Planning Service
Authors: Chueh Chi-An, Chan Hui-Ya
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Background and Aim: National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration released a new reimbursement policy for hospital patients who received a superior discharge plan on April 1, 2016. Each case could be claimed 1,500 points for fee-of service with related documents. The policy is considered a solution to help reducing the crowding in the emergency department, the length of stay of hospital, unplanned readmission rate and unplanned ER visit. This study aim is to explore the effect of the new reimbursement policy for discharge planning service in a medical center. Methods: The discharge team explained to general wards the new policy and encouraged early assessment, communication and connecting to community care for patients. They stated the benefit from the policy and asked documenting for reimbursement claiming from April to May 2016. The imbursement fee of NHI declaration from June 2015 to October 2017 was collected. The indicators included hospital occupancy rate, hospital bed turnover rate, long-term hospitalization rate, and patients’ satisfaction were analyzed after the policy implemented. Results: The results showed that the amount of service declaration was increasing from 2 cases in February 2016 to 110 cases in October 2017, the application rate was increasing from 0.029% to 1.576% of all inpatient cases, and the average payment from NHI was around 148,500 NT dollars per month in 2017. There are no significant differences in the indicators among hospital occupancy rate, hospital bed turnover rate, long-term hospitalization rate, and patients’ satisfaction. Conclusion: To provide a good discharge plan require a specialized case manager, the new reimbursement policy is too complicated and the total fee-of-service hospital could claim is too limited to hiring one. The results suggest more strategies combine with the new reimbursement policy will be needed.Keywords: discharge planning, reimbursement, unplanned ER visit, readmission rate
Procedia PDF Downloads 1747925 Corrosion Behaviour of Hypereutectic Al-Si Automotive Alloy in Different pH Environment
Authors: M. Al Nur, M. S. Kaiser
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Corrosion behaviour of hypereutectic Al-19Si automotive alloy in different pH=1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 environments was carried out using conventional gravimetric measurements and was complemented by resistivity, optical micrograph, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray analyzer (EDX) investigations. Gravimetric analysis confirmed that the highest corrosion rate is shown at pH 13 followed by pH 1. Minimum corrosion occurs in the pH range of 3.0 to 11 due to establishment of passive layer on the surface. The highest corrosion rate at pH 13 is due to the presence of sodium hydroxide in the solution which dissolves the surface oxide film at a steady rate. At pH 1, it can be attributed that the presence of aggressive chloride ions serves to pick up the damage of the passive films at localized regions. With varying exposure periods by both, the environment complies with the normal corrosion rate profile that is an initial steep rise followed by a nearly constant value of corrosion rate. Resistivity increases in case of pH 1 solution for the higher pit formation and decreases at pH 13 due to formation of thin film. The SEM image of corroded samples immersed in pH 1 solution clearly shows pores on the surface and in pH 13 solution, and the corrosion layer seems more compact and homogenous and not porous.Keywords: Al-Si alloy, corrosion, pH, resistivity, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
Procedia PDF Downloads 1667924 Impact Assessment of Plum Research Investments in South Africa
Authors: Precious M. Tshabalala, Thula S. Dlamini, Frikkie Liebenberg, Johann Kirsten
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Numerous studies have been conducted, and the evidence has been unambiguous showing that investing in agricultural research and development increases productivity. Continued investments in agricultural research have led to the development of over 26 successful plum cultivars since 1980 at the Agricultural Research Council’s (ARC) Infruitec/Nietvoorbij in South Africa, and more continue to be developed to meet the specific needs of both producers and consumers. Yet very little is known about the returns on any of these research initiatives. The objective of the study was determine the economic impact of plum research investments at the ARC-the main plum breeding research organization in the country. The rate of return to plum research is estimated by estimating parameters in plum production and expressing research investment as an explanatory variable. The marginal rate of return is then determined to be 14.23 per cent. The rate of return to investment being this high is indicative of an under investment in plum research.Keywords: Agricultural research investments, productivity and rate of return, plum
Procedia PDF Downloads 4867923 Occupational Safety Need Analysis for Turkey and Europe
Authors: Ismail Muratoglu, Ahmet Meyveci, Abdurrahman Tuncer, Erkan Demirci
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This study is dedicated to the analysis of the problems of occupational safety in Turkey, Italy and Poland. The need analysis was applied to three different countries which are Turkey; 4, Poland; 1, Italy; 1 state. The number of the subjects is 891 in Turkey. The number of the subjects is 26 in Italy and the number of the subjects is 19 in Poland. The total number of samples of study is 936. Four different forms (Job Security Experts Form, Student Form, Teacher Form and Company Form) were applied. Results of experts of job security forms are rate of 7.1%. Then, the students’ forms are rate of 34.3%, teacher or instructor forms are rate of 9.9%. The last corporation forms are rate of 48.7%.Keywords: Europe, need analysis, occupational safety, Turkey, vocational education
Procedia PDF Downloads 4327922 Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer and Scale Growth Characteristics of Crystallisation Scale in Agitation Tank
Authors: Prasanjit Das, M .M. K. Khan, M. G. Rasul, Jie Wu, I. Youn
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Crystallisation scale occurs when dissolved minerals precipitate from an aqueous solution. To investigate the crystallisation scale growth of normal solubility salt, a lab-scale agitation tank with and without baffles were used as a benchmark using potassium nitrate as the test fluid. Potassium nitrate (KNO3) solution in this test leads to crystallisation scale on heat transfer surfaces. This experimental investigation has focused on the effect of surface crystallisation of potassium nitrate on the low-temperature heat exchange surfaces on the wall of the agitation tank. The impeller agitation rate affects the scaling rate at the low-temperature agitation wall and it shows a decreasing scaling rate with an increasing agitation rate. It was observed that there was a significant variation of heat transfer coefficients and scaling resistance coefficients with different agitation rate as well as with varying impeller size, tank with and without baffles and solution concentration.Keywords: crystallisation, heat transfer coefficient, scale, resistance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1847921 Numerical Investigation the Effect of Adjustable Guide Vane for Improving the Airflow Rate in Axial Fans
Authors: Behzad Shahizare, N. Nik-Ghazali, Kannan M. Munisamy, Seyedsaeed Tabatabaeikia
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The main objective of this study is to clarify the effect of the adjustable outlet guide vane (OGV) on the axial fan. Three-dimensional Numerical study was performed to analyze the effect of adjustable guide vane for improving the airflow rate in axial fans. Grid independence test was done between five different meshes in order to choose the reliable mesh. In flow analyses, Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations was solved using three types of turbulence models named k-ɛ, k-ω and k-ω SST. The aerodynamic performances of the fan and guide vane were evaluated. Numerical method was validated by comparing with experimental test according to AMECA 210 standard. Results showed that, by using the adjustable guide vane the airflow rate is increased around 3% to 6 %. The maximum enhancement of the airflow rate was achieved when pressure was 374pa.Keywords: axial fan, adjustable guide vane, CFD, turbo machinery
Procedia PDF Downloads 3377920 Effects of Tensile Pre-Stresses on Corrosion Behavior of AISI 304 Stainless Steel in 1N H2SO4
Authors: Sami Ibrahim Jafar, Israa Abud Alkadir, Samah Abdul Kareem Khashin
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The aim of this work is to assess the influence of tensile pre-stresses on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of the AISI304 stainless steel in 1N H2SO4 austenitic stainless steel. Samples of this stainless steel either with pre-stresses, corresponding to [255, 305, 355, 405, 455, 505, 555, 605 and σf] MPa induced by tensile tests, or without pre-stresses (as received), were characterized regarding their microstructure to investigate the pre-tensile stress effects on the corrosion behavior. The results showed that the corrosion rate of elastic pre-stresses 304 stainless steel was very little increased compared with that of as received specimens. The corrosion rate increases after applying pre-stress between (σ255 - σ 455) MPa. The microstructure showed that the austenitic grains begin to deform in the direction of applied pre-stresses. The maximum hardness at this region was (229.2) Hv, but at higher pre-stress (σ455 – σ 605) MPa unanticipated occurrence, the corrosion rate decreases. The microstructure inspection shows the deformed austenitic grain and ά-martensitic phase needle are appeared inside austenitic grains and the hardness reached the maximum value (332.433) Hv. The results showed that the corrosion rate increases at the values of pre-stresses between (σ605 – σf) MPa., which is inspected the result. The necking of gauge length of specimens occurs in specimens and this leads to deterioration in original properties and the corrosion rate reaches the maximum value.Keywords: tensile pre-stresses, corrosion rate, austenitic stainless steel, hardness
Procedia PDF Downloads 4117919 Energy Consumption in Biodiesel Production at Various Kinetic Reaction of Transesterification
Authors: Sariah Abang, S. M. Anisuzzaman, Awang Bono, D. Krishnaiah, S. Rasmih
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Biodiesel is a potential renewable energy due to biodegradable and non-toxic. The challenge of its commercialization is associated with high production cost due to its feedstock also useful in various food products. Non-competitive feedstock such as waste cooking oils normally contains a large amount of free fatty acids (FFAs). Large amount of fatty acid degrades the alkaline catalyst in the biodiesel production, thereby decreasing the biodiesel production rate. Generally, biodiesel production processes including esterification and trans-esterification are conducting in a mixed system, in which the hydrodynamic effect on the reaction could not be completely defined. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of variation rate constant and activation energy on energy consumption of biodiesel production. Usually, the changes of rate constant and activation energy depend on the operating temperature and the degradation of catalyst. By varying the activation energy and kinetic rate constant, the effects can be seen on the energy consumption of biodiesel production. The result showed that the energy consumption of biodiesel is dependent on the changes of rate constant and activation energy. Furthermore, this study was simulated using Aspen HYSYS.Keywords: methanol, palm oil, simulation, transesterification, triolein
Procedia PDF Downloads 3207918 Impact of COVID-19 on Hospital Waste
Authors: Caroline Correia, Stefani Perna, John Gaughan, Elizabeth Cerceo
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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to how hospitals function on a daily basis. Increased personal protective equipment (PPE) usage and measures to pre-package, separate, and decontaminate have the potential to increase the waste load. However, limiting non-essential surgeries drastically reduces operating room (OR) waste, and restricting visitation policies to contain outbreaks may help conserve resources. The impact of these policy changes with increased disposable PPE usage on hospital production of waste is unknown. Methods: Waste produced in pounds (lbs) was measured for January through June during both 2019 and 2020 through Stericycle in Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. This timeframe was selected since the pandemic began in January 2020 in the US. The total waste produced during this time was 328,623 lbs in 2019 and 306,454 lbs in 2020. Using Poisson counts (α=.05), less waste was produced in 2020 (p < 0.001). The amount of sharps and regulated medical waste (grossly bloody items) were both significantly decreased as well (p < 0.0001, p=0.0002), and these account for 10-15% of the total waste produced. Discussion: Despite the increased usage of disposable PPE, overall hospital waste was decreased during the pandemic as compared to prior. As surgeries are estimated to be responsible for up to one-half of waste produced by hospitals, it is possible that constraint on elective procedures contributed to the decreased waste in all three categories; estimates of a 35% decrease in surgical volume would be expected to impact waste production. The effects of the pandemic on waste production should continue to be monitored to understand the environmental impact as health systems resume backlogged surgeries at a higher volume.Keywords: COVID-19, hospital, surgery, waste
Procedia PDF Downloads 1057917 Commodity Price Shocks and Monetary Policy
Authors: Faisal Algosair
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We examine the role of monetary policy in the presence of commodity price shocks using a Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with price and wage rigidities. The model characterizes a commodity exporter by its degree of export diversification, and explores the following monetary regimes: flexible domestic inflation targeting; flexible Consumer Price Index inflation targeting; exchange rate peg; and optimal rule. An increase in the degree of diversification is found to mitigate responses to commodity shocks. The welfare comparison suggests that a flexible exchange rate regime under the optimal rule is preferred to an exchange rate peg. However, monetary policy provides limited stabilization effects in an economy with low degree of export diversification.Keywords: business cycle, commodity price, exchange rate, global financial cycle
Procedia PDF Downloads 977916 Reaction Rate Behavior of a Methane-Air Mixture over a Platinum Catalyst in a Single Channel Catalytic Reactor
Authors: Doo Ki Lee, Kumaresh Selvakumar, Man Young Kim
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Catalytic combustion is an environmentally friendly technique to combust fuels in gas turbines. In this paper, the behavior of surface reaction rate on catalytic combustion is studied with respect to the heterogeneous oxidation of methane-air mixture in a catalytic reactor. Plug flow reactor (PFR), the simplified single catalytic channel assists in investigating the catalytic combustion phenomenon over the Pt catalyst by promoting the desired chemical reactions. The numerical simulation with multi-step elementary surface reactions is governed by the availability of free surface sites onto the catalytic surface and thereby, the catalytic combustion characteristics are demonstrated by examining the rate of the reaction for lean fuel mixture. Further, two different surface reaction mechanisms are adopted and compared for surface reaction rates to indicate the controlling heterogeneous reaction for better fuel conversion. The performance of platinum catalyst under heterogeneous reaction is analyzed under the same temperature condition, where the catalyst with the higher kinetic rate of reaction would have a maximum catalytic activity for enhanced methane catalytic combustion.Keywords: catalytic combustion, heterogeneous reaction, plug flow reactor, surface reaction rate
Procedia PDF Downloads 2737915 Separate Production of Hydrogen and Methane from Ethanol Wastewater Using Two-Stage UASB: Micronutrient Transportation
Authors: S. Jaikeaw, S. Chavadej
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The objective of this study was to determine the effects of COD loading rate on hydrogen and methane production and micronutrient transportation using a two-stage upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) system under mesophilic temperature (37°C) with a constant recycle ratio of 1:1 (final effluent flow rate: feed flow rate). The first (hydrogen) UASB unit having 4 L liquid holding volume was controlled at pH 5.5 but the second (methane) UASB unit having 24 L liquid holding volume had no pH control. The two-stage UASB system operated at different COD loading rates from 8 to 20 kg/m³d based on total UASB working volume. The results showed that, at the optimum COD loading rate of 13 kg/m³d, the produced gas from the hydrogen UASB unit contained 1.5% H₂, 16.5% CH₄, and 82% CO₂ with H₂S of 252 ppm and also provided a hydrogen yield of 1.66 mL/g COD removed (or 0.56 mL/g COD applied) and a specific hydrogen production rate of 156.85 ml H₂/LRd (or 5.12 ml H₂/g MLVSS d). Under the optimum COD loading rate, the produced gas from the methane UASB unit mainly contained methane and carbon dioxide without hydrogen of 74 and 26%, respectively with hydrogen sulfide of 287 ppm and the system also provided a maximum methane yield of 407.00 mL/g COD removed (or 263.23 mL/g COD applied) and a specific methane production rate of 2081.44 ml CH₄/LRd (or 99.75 ml CH₄/g MLVSS d). Under the optimum COD loading rate, all micronutrients markedly dropped by the sulfide precipitation reactions. The reduction of micronutrients mostly appeared in the methane UASB unit. Under the studied conditions, both Co and Ni were found to be greatly precipitated out, causing the deficiency to microbial activity. It is hypothesized that an addition of both Co and Ni can improve the methanogenic activity.Keywords: hydrogen and methane production, ethanol wastewater, a two-stage upflow anaerobic blanket (UASB) system, mesophillic temperature, microbial concentration (MLVSS), micronutrients
Procedia PDF Downloads 2877914 Corrosion Behaviour of Al-Mg-Si Alloy Matrix Hybrid Composite Reinforced with Cassava Peel Ash and Silicon Carbide
Authors: B. Oji, O. Olaniran
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The prospect of improving the corrosion property of Al 6063 alloy based hybrid composites reinforced with cassava peel ash (CPA) and silicon carbide (SiC) is the target of this research. It seeks to determine the viability of using locally sourced material (CPA) as a complimentary reinforcement for SiC to produce low cost high performance aluminum matrix composite. The CPA was mixed with the SiC in the ratios 0:1, 1:3, 1:1, 3:1 and 1:0 for 8 wt % reinforcement in the produced composites by double stir-casting method. The microstructures of the composites were studied before and after corrosion using the scanning electron microscopy which reveals the matrix (dark region) and eutectic phase (lamellar region). The corrosion rate was studied in accordance with ASTM G59-97 (2014) using an AutoLab potentiostat (Versa STAT 400) with versaSTUDIO electrochemical software which analyses the results obtained. The result showed that Al 6063 alloy exhibited good corrosion resistance in 0.3M H₂SO₄ and 3.5 wt. % NaCl solutions with sample C containing the 25% wt CPA showing the highest resistance to corrosion with corrosion rate of 0.0046 mmpy as compared to the control sample which has a value of 13.233 mmpy. Sample B, D, E, and F also showed a corrosion rate of 3.9502, 2.6903, 2.1223, and 5.7344 mmpy which indicated a better corrosion rate than the control in the acidic environment. The corrosion rate in the saline medium shows that sample E with 75% wt CPA has the lowest corrosion rate of 0.0422 mmpy as compared to the control sample with 0.0873 mmpy corrosion rate.Keywords: Al-Mg-Si alloy, AutoLab potentiostat, Cassava Peel Ash, CPA, hybrid composite, stir-cast method
Procedia PDF Downloads 1277913 Modeling the Compound Interest Dynamics Using Fractional Differential Equations
Authors: Muath Awadalla, Maen Awadallah
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Banking sector covers different activities including lending money to customers. However, it is commonly known that customers pay money they have borrowed including an added amount called interest. Compound interest rate is an approach used in determining the interest to be paid. The instant compounded amount to be paid by a debtor is obtained through a differential equation whose main parameters are the rate and the time. The rate used by banks in a country is often defined by the government of the said country. In Switzerland, for instance, a negative rate was once applied. In this work, a new approach of modeling the compound interest is proposed using Hadamard fractional derivative. As a result, it appears that depending on the fraction value used in derivative the amount to be paid by a debtor might either be higher or lesser than the amount determined using the classical approach.Keywords: compound interest, fractional differential equation, hadamard fractional derivative, optimization
Procedia PDF Downloads 1267912 Impact of Different Modulation Techniques on the Performance of Free-Space Optics
Authors: Naman Singla, Ajay Pal Singh Chauhan
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As the demand for providing high bit rate and high bandwidth is increasing at a rapid rate so there is a need to see in this problem and finds a technology that provides high bit rate and also high bandwidth. One possible solution is by use of optical fiber. Optical fiber technology provides high bandwidth in THz. But the disadvantage of optical fiber is of high cost and not used everywhere because it is not possible to reach all the locations on the earth. Also high maintenance required for usage of optical fiber. It puts a lot of cost. Another technology which is almost similar to optical fiber is Free Space Optics (FSO) technology. FSO is the line of sight technology where modulated optical beam whether infrared or visible is used to transfer information from one point to another through the atmosphere which works as a channel. This paper concentrates on analyzing the performance of FSO in terms of bit error rate (BER) and quality factor (Q) using different modulation techniques like non return to zero on off keying (NRZ-OOK), differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) using OptiSystem software. The findings of this paper show that FSO system based on DQPSK modulation technique performs better.Keywords: attenuation, bit rate, free space optics, link length
Procedia PDF Downloads 3477911 Determining the Nitrogen Mineralization Rate by Industrially Manufactured Organic Fertilizers on Alfisol in Southwestern Nigeria
Authors: Ayeni Leye Samuel
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Laboratory incubation study was carried out at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo Southwestern Nigeria to determine the rate of NO3-N, NH4-N, total N, OC and available P released to the soil samples collected from Okitipupa mangrove forest. The soil samples were incubated with organic (OG), organomineral (OMF) and NPK 15:15:15 (NPKF) fertilizers. Organic and organomineral fertilizers were separately applied at the rate of 0, 0.25 and 0.5mg/100 g soil while NPKF was applied at the rate of 0.002g/100g soil. The treatments were replicated three times and arranged on CRD. The treatments were incubated for 90 days. Compared with control, OG and NPKF at all rates significantly increased (p<0.05) soil NH4-N, NO3-N, total N and available P. The order of increase in NH4-N were 10t/ha OMF> 5t/ha OMF> 5t/ha OG>10t/ha OG>control>400 kg/ha while the order of increase in NO3-N were 5t/ha OMF>10t/ha OMF>10t/ha OG>5t/ha OG>control>400 kg/ha NPKF. 5t/ha OMF had the highest, 5t/ha OMF recorded the highest pH, 5t/ha OG had the highest OC while 10t/ha OG had the highest available P.Keywords: c/n ratio, immobilization, incubation study, organomineral fertilizer
Procedia PDF Downloads 3257910 Respiratory Indices and Sports Performance: A Comparision between Different Levels Basketballers
Authors: Ranjan Chakravarty, Satpal Yadav, Biswajit Basumatary, Arvind S. Sajwan
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The purpose of this study is to compare the basketball players of different level on selected respiratory indices. Ninety male basketball players from different universities those who participated in intercollegiate and inter- varsity championship. Selected respiratory indices were resting pulse rate, resting blood pressure, vital capacity and resting respiratory rate. Mean and standard deviation of selected respiratory indices were calculated and three different levels i.e. beginners, intermediate and advanced were compared by using analysis of variance. In order to test the hypothesis, level of significance was set at 0.05. It was concluded that variability does not exist among the basketball players of different groups with respect to their selected respiratory indices i.e. resting pulse rate, resting blood pressure, vital capacity and resting respiratory rate.Keywords: respiratory indices, sports performance, basketball players, intervarsity level
Procedia PDF Downloads 338