Search results for: Coulomb explosion

Authors: Viktor Novikov, Yuri Ruzhin

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The studies completed to-date on a relation of the Earth's seismicity and solar processes provide the fuzzy and contradictory results. For verification of an idea that solar flares can trigger earthquakes, we have analyzed a case of a powerful surge of solar flash activity early in September 2017 during approaching the minimum of 24th solar cycle was accompanied by significant disturbances of space weather. On September 6, 2017, a group of sunspots AR2673 generated a large solar flare of X9.3 class, the strongest flare over the past twelve years. Its explosion produced a coronal mass ejection partially directed towards the Earth. We carried out a statistical analysis of the catalogs of earthquakes USGS and EMSC for determination of the effect of solar flares on global seismic activity. New evidence of earthquake triggering due to the Sun-Earth interaction has been demonstrated by simple comparison of behavior of Earth's seismicity before and after the strong solar flare. The global number of earthquakes with magnitude of 2.5 to 5.5 within 11 days after the solar flare has increased by 30 to 100%. A possibility of electric/electromagnetic triggering of earthquake due to space weather disturbances is supported by results of field and laboratory studies, where the earthquakes (both natural and laboratory) were initiated by injection of electrical current into the Earth crust. For the specific case of artificial electric earthquake triggering the current density at a depth of earthquake, sources are comparable with estimations of a density of telluric currents induced by variation of space weather conditions due to solar flares. Acknowledgment: The work was supported by RFBR grant No. 18-05-00255.

Keywords: solar flare, earthquake activity, earthquake triggering, solar-terrestrial relations

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Authors: Khaled M. Nabil

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This paper introduces the Nested Vortexes conception of the universe structure and interprets all the physical phenomena according this conception. The paper first reviews recent physics theories, either in microscopic scale or macroscopic scale, to collect evidence that the space is not empty. But, these theories describe the property of the space medium without determining its structure. Determining the structure of space medium is essential to understand the mechanism that leads to its properties. Without determining the space medium structure, many phenomena; such as electric and magnetic fields, gravity, or wave-particle duality remain uninterpreted. Thus, this paper introduces a conception about the structure of the universe. It assumes that the universe is a medium of ultra-tiny homogeneous particles which are still undiscovered. Like any medium with certain movements, possibly because of a great asymmetric explosion, vortexes have occurred. A vortex condenses the ultra-tiny particles in its center forming a bigger particle, the bigger particles, in turn, could be trapped in a bigger vortex and condense in its center forming a much bigger particle and so on. This conception describes galaxies, stars, protons as particles at different levels. Existing of the particle’s vortexes make the consistency of the speed of light postulate is not true. This conception shows that the vortex motion dynamic agrees with the motion of all the universe particles at any level. An experiment has been carried out to detect the orbiting effect of aggregated vortexes of aligned atoms of a permanent magnet. Based on the described particle’s structure, the gravity force of a particle and attraction between particles as well as charge, electric and magnetic fields and quantum mechanics characteristics are interpreted. All augmented physics phenomena are solved.

Keywords: astrophysics, cosmology, particles’ structure model, particles’ forces

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Authors: Madhur Verma, Meena Rajput, Kamal Kishore

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Background: The general view that obesity is a problem of prosperous Western countries has been repealed with substantial evidence showing that middle-income countries like India are now at the heart of a fat explosion. Neck circumference has evolved as a promising index to measure obesity, because of the convenience of its use, even in culture sensitive population. Objectives: To determine whether neck circumference (NC) was associated with overweight and obesity and contributed to the prediction like other classical anthropometric indices. Methodology: Cross-sectional study consisting of 1080 adults (> 19 years) selected through Multi-stage random sampling between August 2013 and September 2014 using the pretested semi-structured questionnaire. After recruitment, the demographic and anthropometric parameters [BMI, Waist & Hip Circumference (WC, HC), Waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR), body fat percentage (BF %), neck circumference (NC)] were recorded & calculated as per standard procedures. Analysis was done using appropriate statistical tests. (SPSS, version 21.) Results: Mean age of study participants was 44.55+15.65 years. Overall prevalence of overweight & obesity as per modified criteria for Asian Indians (BMI ≥ 23 kg/m2) was 49.62% (Females-51.48%; Males-47.77%). Also, number of participants having high WHR, WHtR, BF%, WC & NC was 827(76.57%), 530(49.07%), 513(47.5%), 537(49.72%) & 376(34.81%) respectively. Variation of NC, BMI & BF% with age was non- significant. In both the genders, as per the Pearson’s correlational analysis, neck circumference was positively correlated with BMI (men, r=0.670 {p < 0.05}; women, r=0.564 {p < 0.05}), BF% (men, r=0.407 {p < 0.05}; women, r= 0.283 {p < 0.05}), WC (men, r=0.598{p < 0.05}; women, r=0.615 {p < 0.05}), HC (men, r=0.512{p < 0.05}; women, r=0.523{p < 0.05}), WHR (men, r= 0.380{p > 0.05}; women, r=0.022{p > 0.05}) & WHtR (men, r=0.318 {p < 0.05}; women, r=0.396{p < 0.05}). On ROC analysis, NC showed good discriminatory power to identify obesity with AUC (AUC for males: 0.822 & females: 0.873; p- value < 0.001) with maximum sensitivity and specificity at a cut-off value of 36.55 cms for males & 34.05cms for females. Conclusion: NC has fair validity as a community-based screener for overweight and obese individuals in the study context and has also correlated well with other classical indices.

Keywords: neck circumference, obesity, anthropometric indices, body fat percentage

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Authors: M. J. Gibbons, A. J. Robinson

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Increasing expectations on small form factor electronics to be more compact while increasing performance has driven conventional cooling technologies to a thermal management threshold. An emerging solution to this problem is electrospray (ES) cooling. ES cooling enables two phase cooling by utilising Coulomb forces for energy efficient fluid atomization. Generated charged droplets are accelerated to the grounded target surface by the applied electric field and surrounding gravitational force. While in transit the like charged droplets enable plume dispersion and inhibit droplet coalescence. If the electric field is increased in the cone-jet regime, a subsequent increase in the plume spray angle has been shown. Droplet segregation in the spray plume has been observed, with primary droplets in the plume core and satellite droplets positioned on the periphery of the plume. This segregation is facilitated by inertial and electrostatic effects. This result has been corroborated by numerous authors. These satellite droplets are usually more densely charged and move at a lower relative velocity to that of the spray core due to the radial decay of the electric field. Previous experimental research by Gomez and Tang has shown that the number of droplets deposited on the periphery can be up to twice that of the spray core. This result has been substantiated by a numerical models derived by Wilhelm et al., Oh et al. and Yang et al. Yang et al. showed from their numerical model, that by varying the extractor potential the dispersion radius of the plume also varies proportionally. This research aims to investigate this dispersion density and the role it plays in the local heat transfer coefficient profile (h) of ES cooling. This will be carried out for different extractor – target separation heights (H2), working fluid flow rates (Q), and extractor applied potential (V2). The plume dispersion will be recorded by spraying a 25 µm thick, joule heated steel foil and by recording the thermal footprint of the ES plume using a Flir A-40 thermal imaging camera. The recorded results will then be analysed by in-house developed MATLAB code.

Keywords: electronic cooling, electrospray, electrospray plume dispersion, spray cooling

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Authors: K. Omkar, D. Nayan

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Rapid urbanization is one of the consequences of rapid population explosion, which has also led to massive increase in number of motorized vehicles essential for carrying out all activities needed for sustaining urban livelihood. With this increased use of motorized vehicles over the time there has also been an increase in number of accidents. Study of road network and geometric features are essential to tackle problems of road accidents in any district or town. The increase in road accidents is one of the burning issues in the present society. Records show that there is one death at every 3.7 minutes because of road accident. It has been found from the research that, accidents occur due to, mistakes of the driver (86%) followed by bad street condition (5%), mistake of pedestrian (4%), as well as technical and maintenance defects (1%). Here, case study of Ahmedabad, Gujarat is taken up where first road safety level is assessed considering various parameters. The study confined to accident characteristics of all types of vehicles. For deeper analysis, road safety index for various stretches in Ahmedabad was found out. Crash rate for same stretches was found out. Based on various parameters priority was decided so that which stretch should be look out first to minimize road accidents on that stretch and which stretch should look out last. The major findings of the study are that accident severity of Ahmedabad has increased, but accident fatality risk has decreased; thus there is need to undertake some traffic engineering measures or make some traffic rules that are strictly followed by traffic. From the above study and literature studied it is found that Ahmedabad is suffering from similar problem of accidents and injuries and deaths caused by them, after properly investigating the issue short-term and long-term solutions to minimize road accidents have been presented in this paper.

Keywords: accident severity index, accident fatality rate, accident fatality risk, accident risk, road safety index

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Authors: Reza Ziaie Moayed, Saeideh Mohammadi

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Soft soil is used in many of civil engineering projects like coastal, marine and road projects. Because of low shear strength and stiffness of soft soils, large settlement and low bearing capacity will occur under superstructure loads. This will make the civil engineering activities more difficult and costlier. In the case of soft soils, improvement is a suitable method to increase the shear strength and stiffness for engineering purposes. In recent years, the artificial cementation of soil by cement and lime has been extensively used for soft soil improvement. Cement stabilization is a well-established technique for improving soft soils. Artificial cementation increases the shear strength and hardness of the natural soils. On the other hand, in soft soils, the use of piles to transfer loads to the depths of ground is usual. By using cement treated soil around the piles, high bearing capacity and low settlement in piles can be achieved. In the present study, lateral bearing capacity of short piles in cemented soils is investigated by numerical approach. For this purpose, three dimensional (3D) finite difference software, FLAC 3D is used. Cement treated soil has a strain hardening-softening behavior, because of breaking of bonds between cement agent and soil particle. To simulate such behavior, strain hardening-softening soil constitutive model is used for cement treated soft soil. Additionally, conventional elastic-plastic Mohr Coulomb constitutive model and linear elastic model are used for stress-strain behavior of natural soils and pile. To determine the parameters of constitutive models and also for verification of numerical model, the results of available triaxial laboratory tests on and insitu loading of piles in cement treated soft soil are used. Different parameters are considered in parametric study to determine the effective parameters on the bearing of the piles on cemented treated soils. In the present paper, the effect of various length and height of the artificial cemented area, different diameter and length of the pile and the properties of the materials are studied. Also, the effect of choosing a constitutive model for cemented treated soils in the bearing capacity of the pile is investigated.

Keywords: bearing capacity, cement-treated soils, FLAC 3D, pile

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Authors: Funmilayo Juliana Afolabi, Joke Haafkens, Paul De Beer

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Globally, there is a growing concern on reducing workplace accidents in the informal sector. However, there is a dearth of study on the perception of the informal workers on occupational risks they are exposed to. The way a worker perceives the workplace risk will influence his/her risk tolerance and risk behavior. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to have an in-depth understanding of the way the artisans perceive the risks at their workplace and how it influences their risk tolerance and risk behavior. This will help in designing meaningful intervention for the artisans and it will assist the policy makers in formulating a policy that will help them. Methods: Forty-three artisans were purposely selected for the study; data were generated through observation of the workplace and work practices of the artisans and in-depth interview from automobile artisans (Panel beater, Mechanic, Vulcanizer, and Painters) in Osun State, Nigeria. The transcriptions were coded and analyzed using MAXQDA software. Results: The perceived occupational risks among the study groups are a danger of being run over by oncoming vehicles while working by the roadside, a risk of vehicle falling on workers while working under the vehicle, cuts, and burns, fire explosion, falls from height and injuries from bursting of tires. The identified risk factors are carelessness of the workers, pressure from customers, inadequate tools, preternatural forces, God’s will and lack of apprentices that will assist them in the workplace. Furthermore, the study revealed that artisans engage in risky behavior like siphoning fuel with mouth because of perception that fuel is good for expelling worms and will make them free from any stomach upset. Conclusions: The study concluded that risky behaviors are influenced by culture, beliefs, and perception of the artisans. The study, therefore, suggested proper health and safety education for the artisans.

Keywords: automobile artisans, informal, occupational risks, Nigeria, sociological enquiry

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Authors: Olufunke Ayilara Aje-Famuyide

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The centrality of the Petroleum Industry in the world energy is undoubted. The world economy almost runs and depends on petroleum. Petroleum industry is a multi-trillion industry; it turns otherwise poor and underdeveloped countries into wealthy nations and thrusts them at the center of international diplomacy. Although these developing nations lack the necessary technology to explore and exploit petroleum resources they are not without help as developed nations, represented by their multinational corporations are ready and willing to provide both the technical and managerial expertise necessary for the development of this natural resource. However, the exploration of these petroleum resources comes with, sometimes, grave, concomitant consequences. These consequences are especially pronounced with respect to the environment. From the British Petroleum Oil rig explosion and the resultant oil spillage and pollution in New Mexico, United States to the Mobil Oil spillage along Nigerian coast, the story and consequence is virtually the same. Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region produces Nigeria’s petroleum which accounts for more than ninety-five percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Between 1999 and 2007, Nigeria earned more than $400 billion from petroleum exports. Nevertheless, petroleum exploration and exploitation has devastated the Niger Delta environment. From oil spillage which pollutes the rivers, farms and wetlands to gas flaring by the multi-national corporations; the consequences is similar-a region that has been devastated by petroleum exploitation. This paper thus seeks to examine the consequences and impact of petroleum pollution in the Niger Delta of Nigeria with particular reference on the right of the people of Niger Delta to a healthy environment. The paper further seeks to examine the relevant international, regional instrument and Nigeria’s municipal laws that are meant to protect the result of the people of the Niger Delta and their enforcement by the Nigerian State. It is quite worrisome that the Niger Delta Region and its people have suffered and are still suffering grave violations of their right to a healthy environment as a result of petroleum exploitation in their region. The Nigerian effort at best is half-hearted in its protection of the people’s right.

Keywords: environment, exploration, petroleum, pollution

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Authors: Kevin Moustapha

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Psychopathy is perceived today as being «the most important concept in the criminal justice system» and as «the most important legal notion of the early 21 th century». The explosion of research related to psychopathy seems to perfectly illustrate this trend. Traditionally, many studies tend to focus on links between insanity defense and psychopathy. That is why our purpose in this article is to analyze psychopathic disorders in the scope of judges sentencing in Canada. Indeed, in every Canadian case related to dangerous offenders, judges must balance between fairness and protection of the individuals rights of the accused and protection of society from dangerous predators who may commit future acts of physical or sexual violence. Increasingly, psychopathic disorders are taking an important part in judge sentencing, especially in Canada. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the high proportion of psychopath offenders incarcerated in North American prisons. Many decisions in Canadians courtrooms seem to point out that psychopathy is often used as a strong argument by the judges to preserve public safety. The fact that psychopathy is often associated with violence, recklessness and recidivism, it could explain why many judges consider psychopathic disorders as an aggravating factor. Generally, the judge reasoning is based on article 753 of Canadian Criminal Code related to dangerous offenders, which is used for individuals who show a pattern of repetitive and persistent aggressive behaviour. However, with cognitive neurosciences, the psychopath’s situation in courtrooms would probably change. Cerebral imaging and news data provided by the neurosciences show that emotional and volitional functions in psychopath’s brains are impaired. Understanding these new issues could enable some judges to recognize psychopathic disorders as a mitigating factor. Two important questions ought to be raised in this article: can exploring psychopaths ‘brains really change the judge sentencing in Canadian courtrooms? If yes, can judges consider psychopathy more as a mitigating factor than an aggravating factor?

Keywords: criminal law, judges sentencing, neurosciences, psychopathy

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Authors: Jithin S. Kumar, Ramesh Kannan Kandasami

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Geomaterials are generally porous in nature due to the presence of discrete particles and interconnected voids. The porosity present in these geomaterials play a critical role in many engineering applications such as CO2 sequestration, well bore strengthening, enhanced oil and hydrocarbon recovery, hydraulic fracturing, and subsurface waste storage. These applications involves solid-fluid interactions, which govern the changes in the porosity which in turn affect the permeability and stiffness of the medium. Injecting fluid into the geomaterials results in permeation which exhibits small or negligible deformation of the soil skeleton followed by cavity expansion/ fingering/ fracturing (different forms of instabilities) due to the large deformation especially when the flow rate is greater than the ability of the medium to permeate the fluid. The complexity of this problem increases as the geomaterial behaves like a solid and fluid under certain conditions. Thus it is important to understand this multiphysics problem where in addition to the permeation, the elastic-plastic deformation of the soil skeleton plays a vital role during fluid injection. The phenomenon of permeation and cavity expansion in porous medium has been studied independently through extensive experimental and analytical/ numerical models. The analytical models generally use Darcy's/ diffusion equations to capture the fluid flow during permeation while elastic-plastic (Mohr-Coulomb and Modified Cam-Clay) models were used to predict the solid deformations. Hitherto, the research generally focused on modelling cavity expansion without considering the effect of injected fluid coming into the medium. Very few studies have considered the effect of injected fluid on the deformation of soil skeleton. However, the porosity changes during the fluid injection and coupled elastic-plastic deformation are not clearly understood. In this study, the phenomenon of permeation and instabilities such as cavity and finger/ fracture formation will be quantified extensively by performing experiments using a novel experimental setup in addition to utilizing image processing techniques. This experimental study will describe the fluid flow and soil deformation characteristics under different boundary conditions. Further, a well refined coupled semi-analytical model will be developed to capture the physics involved in quantifying the deformation behaviour of geomaterial during fluid injection.

Keywords: solid-fluid interaction, permeation, poroelasticity, plasticity, continuum model

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Authors: Yawen Dai, Ping Cheng, Jian Ru Gong

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Photoelctrochemical (PEC) water splitting using semiconductors (SCs) provides a convenient way to convert sustainable but intermittent solar energy into clean hydrogen energy, and it has been regarded as one of most promising technology to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution in modern society. However, the record energy conversion efficiency of a PEC cell (~3%) is still far lower than the commercialization requirement (~10%). The sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) half reaction on photoanodes is a significant limiting factor of the PEC device efficiency, and electrocatalysts (ECs) are always deposited on SCs to accelerate the hole injection for OER. However, an active EC cannot guarantee enhanced PEC performance, since the newly emerged SC-EC interface complicates the interfacial charge behavior. Herein, α-Fe2O3 photoanodes coated with Co3O4 and CoO ECs are taken as the model system to glean fundamental understanding on the EC-dependent interfacial charge behavior. Intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used to investigate the competition between interfacial charge transfer and recombination, which was found to be dominated by the charge storage capacities of ECs. The combined results indicate that both ECs can store holes and increase the hole density on photoanode surface. It is like a double-edged sword that benefit the multi-hole participated OER, as well as aggravate the SC-EC interfacial charge recombination due to the Coulomb attraction, thus leading to a nonmonotonic PEC performance variation trend with the increasing surface hole density. Co3O4 has low hole storage capacity which brings limited interfacial charge recombination, and thus the increased surface holes can be efficiently utilized for OER to generate enhanced photocurrent. In contrast, CoO has overlarge hole storage capacity that causes severe interfacial charge recombination, which hinders hole transfer to electrolyte for OER. Therefore, the PEC performance of α-Fe2O3 is improved by Co3O4 but decreased by CoO despite the similar electrocatalytic activity of the two ECs. First-principle calculation was conducted to further reveal how the charge storage capacity depends on the EC’s intrinsic property, demonstrating that the larger hole storage capacity of CoO than that of Co3O4 is determined by their Co valence states and original Fermi levels. This study raises up a new strategy to manipulate interfacial charge behavior and the resultant PEC performance by the charge storage capacity of ECs, providing insightful guidance for the interface design in PEC devices.

Keywords: charge storage capacity, electrocatalyst, interfacial charge behavior, photoelectrochemistry, water-splitting

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Authors: V. Thomas, O. Delaune, W. Hennig, S. Hoover

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Measurement of radioactive isotopes of atmospheric xenon is used to detect, locate and identify any confined nuclear tests as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). In this context, the Alternative Energies and French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has developed a fixed device to continuously measure the concentration of these fission products, the SPALAX process. During its atmospheric transport, the radioactive xenon will undergo a significant dilution between the source point and the measurement station. Regarding the distance between fixed stations located all over the globe, the typical volume activities measured are near 1 mBq m⁻³. To avoid the constraints induced by atmospheric dilution, the development of a mobile detection system is in progress; this system will allow on-site measurements in order to confirm or infringe a suspicious measurement detected by a fixed station. Furthermore, this system will use beta/gamma coincidence measurement technique in order to drastically reduce environmental background (which masks such activities). The detector prototype consists of a gas cell surrounded by two large silicon wafers, coupled with two square NaI(Tl) detectors. The gas cell has a sample volume of 30 cm³ and the silicon wafers are 500 µm thick with an active surface area of 3600 mm². In order to minimize leakage current, each wafer has been segmented into four independent silicon pixels. This cell is sandwiched between two low background NaI(Tl) detectors (70x70x40 mm³ crystal). The expected Minimal Detectable Concentration (MDC) for each radio-xenon is in the order of 1-10 mBq m⁻³. Three 4-channels digital acquisition modules (Pixie-NET) are used to process all the signals. Time synchronization is ensured by a dedicated PTP-network, using the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol. We would like to present this system from its simulation to the laboratory tests.

Keywords: beta/gamma coincidence technique, low level measurement, radioxenon, silicon pixels

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Authors: A. F. Momin, D. V. Khakhar

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Granular materials consist of particulate particles found in nature and various industries that, due to gravity flow, behave macroscopically like liquids. A fundamental industrial unit operation is a hopper with inclined walls or a converging channel in which material flows downward under gravity and exits the storage bin through the bottom outlet. The simplest form of the flow corresponds to a wedge-shaped, quasi-two-dimensional geometry with smooth walls and radially directed gravitational force toward the apex of the wedge. These flows were examined using the Mohr-Coulomb criterion in the classic work of Savage (1965), while Ravi Prakash and Rao used the critical state theory (1988). The smooth-wall radial gravity (SWRG) wedge-shaped hopper is simulated using the discrete element method (DEM) to test existing theories. DEM simulations involve the solution of Newton's equations, taking particle-particle interactions into account to compute stress and velocity fields for the flow in the SWRG system. Our computational results are consistent with the predictions of Savage (1965) and Ravi Prakash and Rao (1988), except for the region near the exit, where both viscous and frictional effects are present. To further comprehend this behaviour, a parametric analysis is carried out to analyze the rheology of wedge-shaped hoppers by varying the orifice diameter, wedge angle, friction coefficient, and stiffness. The conclusion is that velocity increases as the flow rate increases but decreases as the wedge angle and friction coefficient increase. We observed no substantial changes in velocity due to varying stiffness. It is anticipated that stresses at the exit result from the transfer of momentum during particle collisions; for this reason, relationships between viscosity and shear rate are shown, and all data are collapsed into a single curve. In addition, it is demonstrated that viscosity and volume fraction exhibit power law correlations with the inertial number and that all the data collapse into a single curve. A continuum model for determining granular flows is presented using empirical correlations.

Keywords: discrete element method, gravity flow, smooth-wall, wedge-shaped hoppers

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Authors: Desiree Vandenberghe, Johan Albrecht

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Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for the vast majority of deaths in the European Union (EU) and represent a large share of total health care spending. A future increase in this health and financial burden is likely to be driven by population ageing, lifestyle changes and technological advances in medicine. Without adequate prevention measures, this burden can severely threaten population health and economic development. To tackle this challenge, a correct assessment of the current burden of NCDs is required, as well as a projection of potential increases of this burden. The contribution of this paper is to offer perspective on the evolution of the NCD burden towards the future and to give an indication of the potential of prevention policy. A Non-Homogenous, Semi-Markov model for the EU was constructed, which allowed for a projection of the cost burden for the four main NCDs (cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes mellitus) towards 2030 and 2050. This simulation is done based on multiple baseline scenarios that vary in demand and supply factors such as health status, population structure, and technological advances. Finally, in order to assess the potential of preventive measures to curb the cost explosion of NCDs, a simulation is executed which includes increased efforts for preventive health care measures. According to the Markov model, by 2030 and 2050, total costs (direct and indirect costs) in the EU could increase by 30.1% and 44.1% respectively, compared to 2015 levels. An ambitious prevention policy framework for NCDs will be required if the EU wants to meet this challenge of rising costs. To conclude, significant cost increases due to Non-Communicable Diseases are likely to occur due to demographic and lifestyle changes. Nevertheless, an ambitious prevention program throughout the EU can aid in making this cost burden manageable for future generations.

Keywords: non-communicable diseases, preventive health care, health policy, Markov model, scenario analysis

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Authors: Amir Shariffar, Haider Salman, Tanveer Siddique, Omar Manasreh

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According to the recent studies on metal-oxide memristors, researchers tend to improve the stability, endurance, and uniformity of resistive switching (RS) behavior in memristors. Specifically, the main challenge is to prevent abrupt ruptures in the memristor’s filament during the RS process. To address this problem, we are proposing a low-cost hybrid structure of metal oxide quantum dots (QDs) and thin films to control the formation of filaments in memristors. We aim to use metal oxide quantum dots because of their unique electronic properties and quantum confinement, which may improve the resistive switching behavior. QDs have discrete energy spectra due to electron confinement in three-dimensional space. Because of Coulomb repulsion between electrons, only a few free electrons are contained in a quantum dot. This fact might guide the growth direction for the conducting filaments in the metal oxide memristor. As a result, it is expected that QDs can improve the endurance and uniformity of RS behavior in memristors. Moreover, we use a hybrid structure of intrinsic n-type quantum dots and p-type thin films to introduce a potential barrier at the junction that can smooth the transition between high and low resistance states. A bottom-up approach is used for fabricating the proposed memristor using different types of metal-oxide QDs and thin films. We synthesize QDs including, zinc oxide, molybdenum trioxide, and nickel oxide combined with spin-coated thin films of titanium dioxide, copper oxide, and hafnium dioxide. We employ fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass as the substrate for deposition and bottom electrode. Then, the active layer composed of one type of quantum dots, and the opposite type of thin films is spin-coated onto the FTO. Lastly, circular gold electrodes are deposited with a shadow mask by using electron-beam (e-beam) evaporation at room temperature. The fabricated devices are characterized using a probe station with a semiconductor parameter analyzer. The current-voltage (I-V) characterization is analyzed for each device to determine the conduction mechanism. We evaluate the memristor’s performance in terms of stability, endurance, and retention time to identify the optimal memristive structure. Finally, we assess the proposed hypothesis before we proceed to the optimization process for fabricating the memristor.

Keywords: memristor, quantum dot, resistive switching, thin film

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Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan

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The rapid advancements in data collection, storage, and processing capabilities have led to an explosion of data in various domains. In this era of big data, mathematical sciences play a crucial role in uncovering valuable insights and driving informed decision-making through data analytics. The purpose of this abstract is to present the latest advances in mathematical sciences and their application in harnessing the power of data analytics. This abstract highlights the interdisciplinary nature of data analytics, showcasing how mathematics intersects with statistics, computer science, and other related fields to develop cutting-edge methodologies. It explores key mathematical techniques such as optimization, mathematical modeling, network analysis, and computational algorithms that underpin effective data analysis and interpretation. The abstract emphasizes the role of mathematical sciences in addressing real-world challenges across different sectors, including finance, healthcare, engineering, social sciences, and beyond. It showcases how mathematical models and statistical methods extract meaningful insights from complex datasets, facilitating evidence-based decision-making and driving innovation. Furthermore, the abstract emphasizes the importance of collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals. It recognizes the value of interdisciplinary collaborations and the need to bridge the gap between academia and industry to ensure the practical application of mathematical advancements in data analytics. The abstract highlights the significance of ongoing research in mathematical sciences and its impact on data analytics. It emphasizes the need for continued exploration and innovation in mathematical methodologies to tackle emerging challenges in the era of big data and digital transformation. In summary, this abstract sheds light on the advances in mathematical sciences and their pivotal role in unveiling the power of data analytics. It calls for interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge exchange, and ongoing research to further unlock the potential of mathematical methodologies in addressing complex problems and driving data-driven decision-making in various domains.

Keywords: mathematical sciences, data analytics, advances, unveiling

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Authors: Leo Laine, Morgan Johansson

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To meet the civilizations future needs for safe living and low environmental footprint, the engineers designing the complex systems of tomorrow will need efficient ways to model and optimize these systems for their intended purpose. For example, a civil defence shelter and its subsystem components needs to withstand, e.g. airblast and ground shock from decided design level explosion which detonates with a certain distance from the structure. In addition, the complex civil defence shelter needs to have functioning air filter systems to protect from toxic gases and provide clean air, clean water, heat, and electricity needs to also be available through shock and vibration safe fixtures and connections. Similar complex building systems can be found in any concentrated living or office area. In this paper, the authors use a multidomain modelling language called Modelica to model a concrete wall as a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system with elastoplastic properties with the implemented option of plastic hardening. The elastoplastic model was developed and implemented in the open source tool OpenModelica. The simulation model was tested on the case with a transient equivalent reflected pressure time history representing an airblast from 100 kg TNT detonating 15 meters from the wall. The concrete wall is approximately regarded as a concrete strip of 1.0 m width. This load represents a realistic threat on any building in a city like area. The OpenModelica model results were compared with an Excel implementation of a SDOF model with an elastic-plastic spring using simple fixed timestep central difference solver. The structural displacement results agreed very well with each other when it comes to plastic displacement magnitude, elastic oscillation displacement, and response times.

Keywords: airblast from explosives, elastoplastic spring model, Modelica modelling language, SDOF, structural response of concrete structure

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Authors: He Zhang, Jianxin Yi

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As a clean energy, hydrogen shows many advantages such as renewability, high heat value, and extensive sources and may play an important role in the future society. However, hydrogen is a combustible gas because of its low ignition energy (0.02mJ) and wide explosive limit (4% ~ 74% in air). It is very likely to cause fire hazard or explosion once leakage is happened and not detected in time. Mixed-potential type sensor has attracted much attention in monitoring and detecting hydrogen due to its high response, simple support electronics and long-term stability. Typically, this kind of sensor is consisted of a sensing electrode (SE), a reference electrode (RE) and a solid electrolyte. The SE and RE materials usually display different electrocatalytic abilities to hydrogen. So hydrogen could be detected by measuring the EMF change between the two electrodes. Previous reports indicate that a high-performance sensing electrode is important for improving the sensing characteristics of the sensor. In this report, a planar type mixed-potential hydrogen sensor using La₀.₈Sr₀.₂Cr₀.₅Mn₀.₅O₃₋δ (LSCM) as SE, Pt as RE and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as solid electrolyte was developed. The reason for selecting LSCM as sensing electrode is that it shows the high electrocatalytic ability to hydrogen in solid oxide fuel cells. The sensing performance of the fabricated LSCM/YSZ/Pt sensor was tested systemically. The experimental results show that the sensor displays high response to hydrogen. The response values for 100ppm and 1000ppm hydrogen at 450 ºC are -70 mV and -118 mV, respectively. The response time is an important parameter to evaluate a sensor. In this report, the sensor response time decreases with increasing hydrogen concentration and get saturated above 500ppm. The steady response time at 450 ºC is as short as 4s, indicating the sensor shows great potential in practical application to monitor hydrogen. An excellent response repeatability to 100ppm hydrogen at 450 ˚C and a good sensor reproducibility among three sensors were also observed. Meanwhile, the sensor exhibits excellent selectivity to hydrogen compared with several interfering gases such as NO₂, CH₄, CO, C₃H₈ and NH₃. Polarization curves were tested to investigate the sensing mechanism and the results indicated the sensor abide by the mixed-potential mechanism.

Keywords: fire hazard, H₂ sensor, mixed-potential, perovskite

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: Hsin Lee, Hsuan Lee

Abstract:

Legal artificial intelligence (LegalAI) has been increasing applications within legal systems, propelled by advancements in natural language processing (NLP). Compared with general documents, legal case documents are typically long text sequences with intrinsic logical structures. Most existing language models have difficulty understanding the long-distance dependencies between different structures. Another unique challenge is that while the Judiciary of Taiwan has released legal judgments from various levels of courts over the years, there remains a significant obstacle in the lack of labeled datasets. This deficiency makes it difficult to train models with strong generalization capabilities, as well as accurately evaluate model performance. To date, models in Taiwan have yet to be specifically trained on judgment data. Given these challenges, this research proposes a Longformer-based pre-trained language model explicitly devised for retrieving similar judgments in Taiwanese legal documents. This model is trained on a self-constructed dataset, which this research has independently labeled to measure judgment similarities, thereby addressing a void left by the lack of an existing labeled dataset for Taiwanese judgments. This research adopts strategies such as early stopping and gradient clipping to prevent overfitting and manage gradient explosion, respectively, thereby enhancing the model's performance. The model in this research is evaluated using both the dataset and the Average Entropy of Offense-charged Clustering (AEOC) metric, which utilizes the notion of similar case scenarios within the same type of legal cases. Our experimental results illustrate our model's significant advancements in handling similarity comparisons within extensive legal judgments. By enabling more efficient retrieval and analysis of legal case documents, our model holds the potential to facilitate legal research, aid legal decision-making, and contribute to the further development of LegalAI in Taiwan.

Keywords: legal artificial intelligence, computation and language, language model, Taiwanese legal cases

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Authors: Mina Shokry Hanna Saleh Tadros

Abstract:

The centrality of the Petroleum Industry in the world energy is undoubted. The world economy almost runs and depends on petroleum. Petroleum industry is a multi-trillion industry; it turns otherwise poor and underdeveloped countries into wealthy nations and thrusts them at the center of international diplomacy. Although these developing nations lack the necessary technology to explore and exploit petroleum resources they are not without help as developed nations, represented by their multinational corporations are ready and willing to provide both the technical and managerial expertise necessary for the development of this natural resource. However, the exploration of these petroleum resources comes with, sometimes, grave, concomitant consequences. These consequences are especially pronounced with respect to the environment. From the British Petroleum Oil rig explosion and the resultant oil spillage and pollution in New Mexico, United States to the Mobil Oil spillage along Egyptian coast, the story and consequence is virtually the same. Egypt’s delta Region produces Nigeria’s petroleum which accounts for more than ninety-five percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Between 1999 and 2007, Egypt earned more than $400 billion from petroleum exports. Nevertheless, petroleum exploration and exploitation has devastated the Delta environment. From oil spillage which pollutes the rivers, farms and wetlands to gas flaring by the multi-national corporations; the consequences is similar-a region that has been devastated by petroleum exploitation. This paper thus seeks to examine the consequences and impact of petroleum pollution in the Egypt Delta with particular reference on the right of the people of Niger Delta to a healthy environment. The paper further seeks to examine the relevant international, regional instrument and Nigeria’s municipal laws that are meant to protect the result of the people of the Egypt Delta and their enforcement by the Nigerian State. It is quite worrisome that the Egypt Delta Region and its people have suffered and are still suffering grave violations of their right to a healthy environment as a result of petroleum exploitation in their region. The Egypt effort at best is half-hearted in its protection of the people’s right.

Keywords: crude oil, fire, floating roof tank, lightning protection systemenvironment, exploration, petroleum, pollutionDuvernay petroleum system, oil generation, oil-source correlation, Re-Os

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: F. Murilo T. Luna, Vanessa F. Oliveira, Alysson Rocha, Expedito J. S. Parente, Andre V. Bueno, Matheus C. M. Farias, Celio L. Cavalcante Jr.

Abstract:

Aviation jetfuel used in aircraft gas-turbine engines is customarily obtained from the kerosene distillation fraction of petroleum (150-275°C). Mineral jetfuel consists of a hydrocarbon mixture containing paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics, with low olefins content. In order to ensure their safety, several stringent requirements must be met by jetfuels, such as: high energy density, low risk of explosion, physicochemical stability and low pour point. In this context, aviation fuels eventually obtained from biofeedstocks (which have been coined as ‘biojetfuel’), must be used as ‘drop in’, since adaptations in aircraft engines are not desirable, to avoid problems with their operation reliability. Thus, potential aviation biofuels must present the same composition and physicochemical properties of conventional jetfuel. Among the potential feedtstocks for aviation biofuel, the babaçu oil, extracted from a palm tree extensively found in some regions of Brazil, contains expressive quantities of short chain saturated fatty acids and may be an interesting choice for biojetfuel production. In this study, biojetfuel was synthesized through homogeneous transesterification of babaçu oil using methanol and its properties were compared with petroleum-based jetfuel through measurements of oxidative stability, physicochemical properties and low temperature properties. The transesterification reactions were carried out using methanol and after decantation/wash procedures, the methyl esters were purified by molecular distillation under high vacuum at different temperatures. The results indicate significant improvement in oxidative stability and pour point of the products when compared to the fresh oil. After optimization of operational conditions, potential biojetfuel samples were obtained, consisting mainly of C8 esters, showing low pour point and high oxidative stability. Jet engine tests are being conducted in an automated test bed equipped with pollutant emissions analysers to study the operational performance of the biojetfuel that was obtained and compare with a mineral commercial jetfuel.

Keywords: biojetfuel, babaçu oil, oxidative stability, engine tests

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Authors: Kazushige Wada, Mayuko Ueda

Abstract:

In the present study, we reanalyzed lapse errors in the last phase of a job, by re-counting near lapse errors and increasing the number of participants. We also examined the results of this study from the perspective of prospective memory (PM), which concerns future actions. This study was designed to investigate whether perceiving the importance of PM tasks caused lapse errors in the last phase of a job and to determine if such errors could be explained from the perspective of PM processing. Participants (N = 34) conducted a computerized clicking task, in which they clicked on 10 figures that they had learned in advance in 8 blocks of 10 trials. Participants were requested to click the check box in the start display of a block and to click the checking off box in the finishing display. This task was a PM task. As a measure of PM performance, we counted the number of omission errors caused by forgetting to check off in the finishing display, which was defined as a lapse error. The perceived importance was manipulated by different instructions. Half the participants in the highly important task condition were instructed that checking off was very important, because equipment would be overloaded if it were not done. The other half in the not important task condition was instructed only about the location and procedure for checking off. Furthermore, we controlled workload and the emotion of surprise to confirm the effect of demand capacity and attention. To manipulate emotions during the clicking task, we suddenly presented a photo of a traffic accident and the sound of a skidding car followed by an explosion. Workload was manipulated by requesting participants to press the 0 key in response to a beep. Results indicated too few forgetting induced lapse errors to be analyzed. However, there was a weak main effect of the perceived importance of the check task, in which the mouse moved to the “END” button before moving to the check box in the finishing display. Especially, the highly important task group showed more such near lapse errors, than the not important task group. Neither surprise, nor workload affected the occurrence of near lapse errors. These results imply that high perceived importance of PM tasks impair task performance. On the basis of the multiprocess framework of PM theory, we have suggested that PM task performance in this experiment relied not on monitoring PM tasks, but on spontaneous retrieving.

Keywords: prospective memory, perceived importance, lapse errors, multi process framework of prospective memory.

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Authors: Belyayev P. E., Makeyeva I. R., Mastyuk D. A., Pigasov E. E.

Abstract:

Previously, the phrase ”hydrogen safety” was often used in terms of NPP safety. Due to the rise of interest to “green” and, particularly, hydrogen power engineering, the problem of hydrogen safety at industrial facilities has become ever more urgent. In Russia, the industrial production of hydrogen is meant to be performed by placing a chemical engineering plant near NPP, which supplies the plant with the necessary energy. In this approach, the production of hydrogen involves a wide range of combustible gases, such as methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen itself. Considering probable incidents, sudden combustible gas outburst into open space with further ignition is less dangerous by itself than ignition of the combustible mixture in the presence of many pipelines, reactor vessels, and any kind of fitting frames. Even ignition of 2100 cubic meters of the hydrogen-air mixture in open space gives velocity and pressure that are much lesser than velocity and pressure in Chapman-Jouguet condition and do not exceed 80 m/s and 6 kPa accordingly. However, the space blockage, the significant change of channel diameter on the way of flame propagation, and the presence of gas suspension lead to significant deflagration acceleration and to its transition into detonation or quasi-detonation. At the same time, process parameters acquired from the experiments at specific experimental facilities are not general, and their application to different facilities can only have a conventional and qualitative character. Yet, conducting deflagration and detonation experimental investigation for each specific industrial facility project in order to determine safe infrastructure unit placement does not seem feasible due to its high cost and hazard, while the conduction of numerical experiments is significantly cheaper and safer. Hence, the development of a numerical method that allows the description of reacting flows in domains with complex geometry seems promising. The base for this method is the modification of Kuropatenko method for calculating shock waves recently developed by authors, which allows using it in Eulerian coordinates. The current work contains the results of the development process. In addition, the comparison of numerical simulation results and experimental series with flame propagation in shock tubes with orifice plates is presented.

Keywords: CFD, reacting flow, DDT, gas explosion

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Authors: Bandana Bhattacharya

Abstract:

‘Buddhism’, as such signifies the ‘ism’ that is based on Buddha’s life and teachings or that is concerned with the gospel of Buddha as recorded in the literature available in Pali, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Prakrit and even in the other non-Indian languages wherein it has been described a very abstruse, complex and lofty philosophy of life or ‘the way of life’ preached by Him (Buddha). It has another side too, i.e., the applicability of the tenets of Buddha according to the needs of the present society, where human life and outlook has been totally changed. Applied Buddhism signifies the applicability of the Buddha’s noble tenets. Along with the theological exposition and textual criticism of the Buddha’s discourses, it has now become almost obligatory for the Buddhist scholars to re-interpret Buddhism from modern perspectives. Basically Applied Buddhism defined a ‘way of life’ which may transform the higher quality of life or essence of life due to changed circumstances, places and time. Nowadays, if we observe the present situation of the world, we will find the current problems such as health, economic, politic, global warming, population explosion, pollution of all types including cultural scarcity essential commodities and indiscriminate use of human, natural and water resources are becoming more and more pronounced day by day, under such a backdrop of world situation. Applied Buddhism rather Buddhism may be the only instrument left now for mankind to address all such human achievements, lapses, and problems. Buddha’s doctrine is itself called ‘akālika, timeless’. On the eve of the Mahāparinibbāṇa at Kusinara, the Blessed One allows His disciples to change, modify and alter His minor teachings according to the needs of the future, although He has made some utterances, which would eternally remain fresh. Hence Buddhism has been able to occupy a prominent place in modern life, because of its timeless applicability, emanating from a set of eternal values. The logical and scientific outlook of Buddha may be traced in His very first sermon named the Dhammacakkapavattana-Sutta where He suggested to avoid the two extremes, namely, constantly attachment to sensual pleasures (Kāmasukhallikānuyoga) and devotion to self-mortification that is painful as well as unprofitable and asked to adopt Majjhimapaṭipadā, ‘Middle path’, which is very much applicable even today in every spheres of human life; and the absence of which is the root cause of all problems event at present. This paper will be a humble attempt to highlight the relevance of Buddhism in the present society.

Keywords: applied Buddhism, ecology, self-awareness, value

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: M. Ali Mandegari, S. Farzad, , J. F. Görgens

Abstract:

Sugar is one of the main agricultural industries in South Africa and approximately livelihoods of one million South Africans are indirectly dependent on sugar industry which is economically struggling with some problems and should re-invent in order to ensure a long-term sustainability. Second generation biorefinery is defined as a process to use waste fibrous for the production of biofuel, chemicals animal food, and electricity. Bioethanol is by far the most widely used biofuel for transportation worldwide and many challenges in front of bioethanol production were solved. Biorefinery annexed to the existing sugar mill for production of bioethanol and electricity is proposed to sugar industry and is addressed in this study. Since flowsheet development is the key element of the bioethanol process, in this work, a biorefinery (bioethanol and electricity production) annexed to a typical South African sugar mill considering 65ton/h dry sugarcane bagasse and tops/trash as feedstock was simulated. Aspen PlusTM V8.6 was applied as simulator and realistic simulation development approach was followed to reflect the practical behaviour of the plant. Latest results of other researches considering pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, enzyme production, bioethanol production and other supplementary units such as evaporation, water treatment, boiler, and steam/electricity generation units were adopted to establish a comprehensive biorefinery simulation. Steam explosion with SO2 was selected for pretreatment due to minimum inhibitor production and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) configuration was adopted for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of cellulose and hydrolyze. Bioethanol purification was simulated by two distillation columns with side stream and fuel grade bioethanol (99.5%) was achieved using molecular sieve in order to minimize the capital and operating costs. Also boiler and steam/power generation were completed using industrial design data. Results indicates that the annexed biorefinery can be self-energy sufficient when 35% of feedstock (tops/trash) bypass the biorefinery process and directly be loaded to the boiler to produce sufficient steam and power for sugar mill and biorefinery plant.

Keywords: biorefinery, self-energy sufficiency, tops/trash, bioethanol, electricity

Procedia PDF Downloads 538

Authors: Wighens Ngoie Ilunga, Pamela J. Welz, Olewaseun O. Oyekola, Daniel Ikhu-Omoregbe

Abstract:

Currently, most sludge from the wastewater treatment plants of edible oil factories is disposed to landfills, but landfill sites are finite and potential sources of environmental pollution. Production of biodiesel from wastewater sludge can contribute to energy production and waste minimization. However, conventional biodiesel production is energy and waste intensive. Generally, biodiesel is produced from the transesterification reaction of oils with alcohol (i.e., Methanol, ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst. Homogeneously catalysed transesterification is the conventional approach for large-scale production of biodiesel as reaction times are relatively short. Nevertheless, homogenous catalysis presents several challenges such as high probability of soap. The current study aimed to reuse wastewater sludge from the edible oil industry as a novel feedstock for both monounsaturated fats and bioethanol for the production of biodiesel. Preliminary results have shown that the fatty acid profile of the oilseed wastewater sludge is favourable for biodiesel production with 48% (w/w) monounsaturated fats and that the residue left after the extraction of fats from the sludge contains sufficient fermentable sugars after steam explosion followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis for the successful production of bioethanol [29% (w/w)] using a commercial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A novel nano-magnetic catalyst was synthesised from mineral processing alkaline tailings, mainly containing dolomite originating from cupriferous ores using a modified sol-gel. The catalyst elemental chemical compositions and structural properties were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and the BET for the surface area with 14.3 m²/g and 34.1 nm average pore diameter. The mass magnetization of the nano-magnetic catalyst was 170 emu/g. Both the catalytic properties and reusability of the catalyst were investigated. A maximum biodiesel yield of 78% was obtained, which dropped to 52% after the fourth transesterification reaction cycle. The proposed approach has the potential to reduce material costs, energy consumption and water usage associated with conventional biodiesel production technologies. It may also mitigate the impact of conventional biodiesel production on food and land security, while simultaneously reducing waste.

Keywords: biodiesel, bioethanol, edible oil wastewater sludge, nano-magnetism

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Authors: Kazunori Nomura, Hiromichi Ogi, Masaumi Nakahara, Sou Watanabe, Atsuhiro Shibata

Abstract:

Chemical Processing Facility of Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a basic research field for advanced back-end technology developments with using actual high-level radioactive materials such as irradiated fuels from the fast reactor, high-level liquid waste from reprocessing plant. In the nature of a research facility, various kinds of chemical reagents have been offered for fundamental tests. Most of them were treated properly and stored in the liquid waste vessel equipped in the facility, but some were not treated and remained at the experimental space as a kind of legacy waste. It is required to treat the waste in safety. On the other hand, we formulated the Medium- and Long-Term Management Plan of Japan Atomic Energy Agency Facilities. This comprehensive plan considers Chemical Processing Facility as one of the facilities to be decommissioned. Even if the plan is executed, treatment of the “legacy” waste beforehand must be a necessary step for decommissioning operation. Under this circumstance, we launched a collaborative research project called the STRAD project, which stands for Systematic Treatment of Radioactive liquid waste for Decommissioning, in order to develop the treatment processes for wastes of the nuclear research facility. In this project, decomposition methods of chemicals causing a troublesome phenomenon such as corrosion and explosion have been developed and there is a prospect of their decomposition in the facility by simple method. And solidification of aqueous or organic liquid wastes after the decomposition has been studied by adding cement or coagulants. Furthermore, we treated experimental tools of various materials with making an effort to stabilize and to compact them before the package into the waste container. It is expected to decrease the number of transportation of the solid waste and widen the operation space. Some achievements of these studies will be shown in this paper. The project is expected to contribute beneficial waste management outcome that can be shared world widely.

Keywords: chemical processing facility, medium- and long-term management plan of JAEA facilities, STRAD project, treatment of radioactive waste

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: M. Ali Mandegari, S. Farzad, J. F. Görgens

Abstract:

Sugar is one of the main agricultural industries in South Africa and approximately livelihoods of one million South Africans are indirectly dependent on sugar industry which is economically struggling with some problems and should re-invent in order to ensure a long-term sustainability. Second generation bio-refinery is defined as a process to use waste fibrous for the production of bio-fuel, chemicals animal food, and electricity. Bio-ethanol is by far the most widely used bio-fuel for transportation worldwide and many challenges in front of bio-ethanol production were solved. Bio-refinery annexed to the existing sugar mill for production of bio-ethanol and electricity is proposed to sugar industry and is addressed in this study. Since flow-sheet development is the key element of the bio-ethanol process, in this work, a bio-refinery (bio-ethanol and electricity production) annexed to a typical South African sugar mill considering 65ton/h dry sugarcane bagasse and tops/trash as feedstock was simulated. Aspen PlusTM V8.6 was applied as simulator and realistic simulation development approach was followed to reflect the practical behavior of the plant. Latest results of other researches considering pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, enzyme production, bio-ethanol production and other supplementary units such as evaporation, water treatment, boiler, and steam/electricity generation units were adopted to establish a comprehensive bio-refinery simulation. Steam explosion with SO2 was selected for pretreatment due to minimum inhibitor production and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) configuration was adopted for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of cellulose and hydrolyze. Bio-ethanol purification was simulated by two distillation columns with side stream and fuel grade bio-ethanol (99.5%) was achieved using molecular sieve in order to minimize the capital and operating costs. Also boiler and steam/power generation were completed using industrial design data. Results indicates 256.6 kg bio ethanol per ton of feedstock and 31 MW surplus power were attained from bio-refinery while the process consumes 3.5, 3.38, and 0.164 (GJ/ton per ton of feedstock) hot utility, cold utility and electricity respectively. Developed simulation is a threshold of variety analyses and developments for further studies.

Keywords: bio-refinery, bagasse, tops, trash, bio-ethanol, electricity

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Authors: Min Han, Di Wu, Lin Yuan, Fei Liu

Abstract:

Mechanical sensors have undergone a continuous evolution and have become an important part of many industries, ranging from manufacturing to process, chemicals, machinery, health-care, environmental monitoring, automotive, avionics, and household appliances. Concurrently, the microelectronics and microfabrication technology have provided us with the means of producing mechanical microsensors characterized by high sensitivity, small size, integrated electronics, on board calibration, and low cost. Here we report a new kind of mechanical sensors based on the quantum transport process of electrons in the closely spaced nanoparticle films covering a flexible polymer sheet. The nanoparticle films were fabricated by gas phase depositing of preformed metal nanoparticles with a controlled coverage on the electrodes. To amplify the conductance of the nanoparticle array, we fabricated silver interdigital electrodes on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) by mask evaporation deposition. The gaps of the electrodes ranged from 3 to 30μm. Metal nanoparticles were generated from a magnetron plasma gas aggregation cluster source and deposited on the interdigital electrodes. Closely spaced nanoparticle arrays with different coverage could be gained through real-time monitoring the conductance. In the film coulomb blockade and quantum, tunneling/hopping dominate the electronic conduction mechanism. The basic principle of the mechanical sensors relies on the mechanical deformation of the fabricated devices which are translated into electrical signals. Several kinds of sensing devices have been explored. As a strain sensor, the device showed a high sensitivity as well as a very wide dynamic range. A gauge factor as large as 100 or more was demonstrated, which can be at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the conventional metal foil gauges or even better than that of the semiconductor-based gauges with a workable maximum applied strain beyond 3%. And the strain sensors have a workable maximum applied strain larger than 3%. They provide the potential to be a new generation of strain sensors with performance superior to that of the currently existing strain sensors including metallic strain gauges and semiconductor strain gauges. When integrated into a pressure gauge, the devices demonstrated the ability to measure tiny pressure change as small as 20Pa near the atmospheric pressure. Quantitative vibration measurements were realized on a free-standing cantilever structure fabricated with closely-spaced nanoparticle array sensing element. What is more, the mechanical sensor elements can be easily scaled down, which is feasible for MEMS and NEMS applications.

Keywords: gas phase deposition, mechanical sensors, metallic nanoparticle arrays, quantum conductance

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Authors: A. Fathianpour, M. B. Jelodar, S. Wilkinson

Abstract:

This paper outlines the approaches taken to assess multi-hazard assessments. There is currently confusion in assessing multi-hazard impacts, and so this study aims to determine which of the available options are the most useful. The paper uses an international literature search, and analysis of current multi-hazard assessments and a case study to illustrate the effectiveness of the chosen method. Findings from this study will help those wanting to assess multi-hazards to undertake a straightforward approach. The paper is significant as it helps to interpret the various approaches and concludes with the preferred method. Many people in the world live in hazardous environments and are susceptible to disasters. Unfortunately, when a disaster strikes it is often compounded by additional cascading hazards, thus people would confront more than one hazard simultaneously. Hazards include natural hazards (earthquakes, floods, etc.) or cascading human-made hazards (for example, Natural Hazard Triggering Technological disasters (Natech) such as fire, explosion, toxic release). Multi-hazards have a more destructive impact on urban areas than one hazard alone. In addition, climate change is creating links between different disasters such as causing landslide dams and debris flows leading to more destructive incidents. Much of the prevailing literature deals with only one hazard at a time. However, recently sophisticated multi-hazard assessments have started to appear. Given that multi-hazards occur, it is essential to take multi-hazard risk assessment under consideration. This paper aims to review the multi-hazard assessment methods through articles published to date and categorize the strengths and disadvantages of using these methods in risk assessment. Napier City is selected as a case study to demonstrate the necessity of using multi-hazard risk assessments. In order to assess multi-hazard risk assessments, first, the current multi-hazard risk assessment methods were described. Next, the drawbacks of these multi-hazard risk assessments were outlined. Finally, the improvements to current multi-hazard risk assessments to date were summarised. Generally, the main problem of multi-hazard risk assessment is to make a valid assumption of risk from the interactions of different hazards. Currently, risk assessment studies have started to assess multi-hazard situations, but drawbacks such as uncertainty and lack of data show the necessity for more precise risk assessment. It should be noted that ignoring or partial considering multi-hazards in risk assessment will lead to an overestimate or overlook in resilient and recovery action managements.

Keywords: cascading hazards, disaster assessment, mullti-hazards, risk assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 112