Search results for: performance measurement.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 6673

Search results for: performance measurement.

6403 Wheel Diameter and Width Influence in Variability of Brake Data Measurement at Ministry of Transport Facilities

Authors: Carolina Senabre, Sergio Valero, Emilio Velasco

Abstract:

The brake systems of vehicles are tested periodically by a “brake tester” at Ministry of Transport (MOT) stations. This tester measures the effectiveness of vehicle. This parameter is established by the International Committee of Vehicle Inspection (CITA). In this paper, we present an investigation of the influence of the tire size on the measurements of brake force on three MOT brake testers. We performed an analysis of the vehicle braking capacity test at MOT stations. The influence of varying wheel diameter and width on the measurement of braking at MOT stations has been analyzed. Thereby, the MOT brake tester as a verification system for a vehicle has been evaluated.

Keywords: Brake tester, wheel diameter, Ministry of transport facilities.

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6402 A New Version of Unscented Kalman Filter

Authors: S. A. Banani, M. A. Masnadi-Shirazi

Abstract:

This paper presents a new algorithm which yields a nonlinear state estimator called iterated unscented Kalman filter. This state estimator makes use of both statistical and analytical linearization techniques in different parts of the filtering process. It outperforms the other three nonlinear state estimators: unscented Kalman filter (UKF), extended Kalman filter (EKF) and iterated extended Kalman filter (IEKF) when there is severe nonlinearity in system equation and less nonlinearity in measurement equation. The algorithm performance has been verified by illustrating some simulation results.

Keywords: Extended Kalman Filter, Iterated EKF, Nonlinearstate estimator, Unscented Kalman Filter.

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6401 Self-Healing Performance of Heavyweight Concrete with Steam Curing

Authors: Hideki Igawa, Yoshinori Kitsutaka, Takashi Yokomuro, Hideo Eguchi

Abstract:

In this study, the crack self-healing performance of the heavyweight concrete used in the walls of containers and structures designed to shield radioactive materials was investigated. A steam curing temperature that preserves self-healing properties and demolding strength was identified. The presented simultaneously mixing method using the expanding material and the fly ash in the process of admixture can maximize the self-curing performance. Also adding synthetic fibers in the heavyweight concrete improved the self-healing performance.

Keywords: Expanding material, heavyweight concrete, self-healing performance, synthetic fiber.

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6400 Assessment of Solid Insulating Material Using Partial Discharge Characteristics

Authors: Qasim Khan, Furkan Ahmad, Asfar A. Khan, M. Saad Alam, Faiz Ahmad

Abstract:

In this paper, partial discharge analysis is performed in cavities artificially created in insulation. The setup is according with Cigre-II Method. Circular Samples created from Perspex Sheet with different configuration with changing number of cavities. Assessment of insulation health can be performed by Partial Discharge measurement as this has been found to be important means of condition monitoring. The experiments are done using MPD 540, which is a modern partial discharge measurement system. By analyzing the PD activity obtained for various voids/cavities, it is observed that the PD voltages show variation for cavity’s diameter, depth even for its ratios. This can be employed for scrutiny of insulation system.

Keywords: Partial discharges, condition monitoring, MPD 540, cavities/defects, degradation and corrosion, PMMA.

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6399 Evaluating Service Quality of Online Auction by Fuzzy MCDM

Authors: Wei-Hsuan Lee, Chien-Hua Wang, Chin-Tzong Pang

Abstract:

This paper applies fuzzy set theory to evaluate the service quality of online auction. Service quality is a composition of various criteria. Among them many intangible attributes are difficult to measure. This characteristic introduces the obstacles for respondent in replying to the survey. So as to overcome this problem, we invite fuzzy set theory into the measurement of performance. By using AHP in obtaining criteria and TOPSIS in ranking, we found the most concerned dimension of service quality is Transaction Safety Mechanism and the least is Charge Item. Regarding to the most concerned attributes are information security, accuracy and information.

Keywords: AHP, Fuzzy set theory, TOPSIS, Online auction, Servicequality

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6398 Quality Management in Public e-Administration

Authors: J. Ruso, M. Krsmanovic, A. Trajkovic, Z. Rakicevic

Abstract:

Since the late 1970s, quality management has become an important tool for achieving a high quality of public e-administration services in many countries. Very important part of quality management in e-administration is measurement of quality indicators related to this sector. Therefore, this paper gives a description of e-administration, including statistics about it and other examples from many countries worldwide, as well as the explanation of quality management in public e-administration. The paper also gives a list and description of quality indicators relevant to e-administration, as part of quality management within the e-administration. Through a literature review and best practices, the paper aims to analyze quality indicators measurement and other parts of good quality management when it comes to the public e-administration and consequently to show the usefulness of quality management in public e-administration in order to provide services of high quality.

Keywords: e-Administration, quality indicators, quality management.

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6397 Water Saving in Arid Regions: Comparison of Innovative Techniques for Irrigation of Young Date Palms

Authors: R. Bourziza, A. Hammani, M. Kuper, A. Bouaziz

Abstract:

In oases, the surface water resources are becoming increasingly scarce and groundwater resources, which generally have a poor quality due to the high levels of salinity, are often overexploited. Water saving have therefore become imperative for better oases sustainability. If drip irrigation is currently recommended in Morocco for saving water and valuing, its use in the sub-desert areas does not keep water safe from high evaporation rates. An alternative to this system would be the use of subsurface drip irrigation. This technique is defined as an application of water under the soil surface through drippers, which deliver water at rates generally similar to surface drip irrigation. As subsurface drip irrigation is a recently introduced in Morocco, a better understanding of the infiltration process around a buried source, in local conditions, and its impact on plant growth is necessarily required. This study aims to contribute to improving the water use efficiency by testing the performance of subsurface irrigation system, especially in areas where water is a limited source. The objectives of this research are performance evaluation in arid conditions of the subsurface drip irrigation system for young date palms compared to the surface drip. In this context, an experimental test is installed at a farmer’s field in the area of Erfoud (Errachidia Province, southeastern Morocco), using the subsurface drip irrigation system in comparison with the classic drip system for young date palms. Flow measurement to calculate the uniformity of the application of water was done through two methods: a flow measurement of drippers above the surface and another one underground. The latter method has also helped us to estimate losses through evaporation for both irrigation techniques. In order to compare the effect of two irrigation modes, plants were identified for each type of irrigation to monitor certain agronomic parameters (cumulative numbers of palms and roots development). Experimentation referred to a distribution uniformity of about 88%; considered acceptable for subsurface drip irrigation while it is around 80% for the surface drip irrigation. The results also show an increase in root development and in the number of palm, as well as a substantial water savings due to lower evaporation losses compared to the classic drip irrigation. The results of this study showed that subsurface drip irrigation is an efficient technique, which allows sustainable irrigation in arid areas.

Keywords: Subsurface drip irrigation, Water conservation, Arid areas, Young date palms.

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6396 ORR Activity and Stability of Pt-Based Electrocatalysts in PEM Fuel Cell

Authors: S. Limpattayanate, M. Hunsom

Abstract:

A comparison of activity and stability of the as-formed Pt/C, Pt-Co and Pt-Pd/C electrocatalysts, prepared by a combined approach of impregnation and seeding, was performed. According to the activity test in a single Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) activity of the Pt-M/C electrocatalyst was slightly lower than that of Pt/C. The j0.9 V and E10 mA/cm2 of the as-prepared electrocatalysts increased in the order of Pt/C > Pt-Co/C > Pt-Pd/C. However, in the medium-to-high current density region, Pt-Pd/C exhibited the best performance. With regard to their stability in a 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte solution, the electrochemical surface area decreased as the number of rounds of repetitive potential cycling increased due to the dissolution of the metals within the catalyst structure. For long-term measurement, Pt- Pd/C was the most stable than the other three electrocatalysts.

Keywords: ORR activity, Stability, Pt-based electrocatalysts, PEM fuel cell.

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6395 Empirical Analysis of Velocity Behavior for Collaborative Robots in Transient Contact Cases

Authors: C. Schneider, M. M. Seizmeir, T. Suchanek, M. Hutter-Mironovová, M. Bdiwi, M. Putz

Abstract:

In this paper, a suitable measurement setup is presented to conduct force and pressure measurements for transient contact cases at the example of lathe machine tending. Empirical measurements were executed on a selected collaborative robot’s behavior regarding allowable operating speeds under consideration of sensor- and workpiece-specific factors. Comparisons between the theoretic calculations proposed in ISO/TS 15066 and the practical measurement results reveal a basis for future research. With the created database, preliminary risk assessment and economic assessment procedures of collaborative machine tending cells can be facilitated.

Keywords: biomechanical thresholds, collaborative robots, force and pressure measurements, machine tending, transient contact

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6394 Pattern Recognition Based Prosthesis Control for Movement of Forearms Using Surface and Intramuscular EMG Signals

Authors: Anjana Goen, D. C. Tiwari

Abstract:

Myoelectric control system is the fundamental component of modern prostheses, which uses the myoelectric signals from an individual’s muscles to control the prosthesis movements. The surface electromyogram signal (sEMG) being noninvasive has been used as an input to prostheses controllers for many years. Recent technological advances has led to the development of implantable myoelectric sensors which enable the internal myoelectric signal (MES) to be used as input to these prostheses controllers. The intramuscular measurement can provide focal recordings from deep muscles of the forearm and independent signals relatively free of crosstalk thus allowing for more independent control sites. However, little work has been done to compare the two inputs. In this paper we have compared the classification accuracy of six pattern recognition based myoelectric controllers which use surface myoelectric signals recorded using untargeted (symmetric) surface electrode arrays to the same controllers with multichannel intramuscular myolectric signals from targeted intramuscular electrodes as inputs. There was no significant enhancement in the classification accuracy as a result of using the intramuscular EMG measurement technique when compared to the results acquired using the surface EMG measurement technique. Impressive classification accuracy (99%) could be achieved by optimally selecting only five channels of surface EMG.

Keywords: Discriminant Locality Preserving Projections (DLPP), myoelectric signal (MES), Sparse Principal Component Analysis (SPCA), Time Frequency Representations (TFRs).

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6393 A Study on the Condition Monitoring of Transmission Line by On-line Circuit Parameter Measurement

Authors: Il Dong Kim, Jin Rak Lee, Young Jun Ko, Young Taek Jin

Abstract:

An on-line condition monitoring method for transmission line is proposed using electrical circuit theory and IT technology in this paper. It is reasonable that the circuit parameters such as resistance (R), inductance (L), conductance (g) and capacitance (C) of a transmission line expose the electrical conditions and physical state of the line. Those parameters can be calculated from the linear equation composed of voltages and currents measured by synchro-phasor measurement technique at both end of the line. A set of linear voltage drop equations containing four terminal constants (A, B ,C ,D ) are mathematical models of the transmission line circuits. At least two sets of those linear equations are established from different operation condition of the line, they may mathematically yield those circuit parameters of the line. The conditions of line connectivity including state of connecting parts or contacting parts of the switching device may be monitored by resistance variations during operation. The insulation conditions of the line can be monitored by conductance (g) and capacitance(C) measurements. Together with other condition monitoring devices such as partial discharge, sensors and visual sensing device etc.,they may give useful information to monitor out any incipient symptoms of faults. The prototype of hardware system has been developed and tested through laboratory level simulated transmission lines. The test has shown enough evident to put the proposed method to practical uses.

Keywords: Transmission Line, Condition Monitoring, Circuit Parameters, Synchro- phasor Measurement.

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6392 A POX Controller Module to Collect Web Traffic Statistics in SDN Environment

Authors: Wisam H. Muragaa, Kamaruzzaman Seman, Mohd Fadzli Marhusin

Abstract:

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new norm of networks. It is designed to facilitate the way of managing, measuring, debugging and controlling the network dynamically, and to make it suitable for the modern applications. Generally, measurement methods can be divided into two categories: Active and passive methods. Active measurement method is employed to inject test packets into the network in order to monitor their behaviour (ping tool as an example). Meanwhile the passive measurement method is used to monitor the traffic for the purpose of deriving measurement values. The measurement methods, both active and passive, are useful for the collection of traffic statistics, and monitoring of the network traffic. Although there has been a work focusing on measuring traffic statistics in SDN environment, it was only meant for measuring packets and bytes rates for non-web traffic. In this study, a feasible method will be designed to measure the number of packets and bytes in a certain time, and facilitate obtaining statistics for both web traffic and non-web traffic. Web traffic refers to HTTP requests that use application layer; while non-web traffic refers to ICMP and TCP requests. Thus, this work is going to be more comprehensive than previous works. With a developed module on POX OpenFlow controller, information will be collected from each active flow in the OpenFlow switch, and presented on Command Line Interface (CLI) and wireshark interface. Obviously, statistics that will be displayed on CLI and on wireshark interfaces include type of protocol, number of bytes and number of packets, among others. Besides, this module will show the number of flows added to the switch whenever traffic is generated from and to hosts in the same statistics list. In order to carry out this work effectively, our Python module will send a statistics request message to the switch requesting its current ports and flows statistics in every five seconds; while the switch will reply with the required information in a message called statistics reply message. Thus, POX controller will be notified and updated with any changes could happen in the entire network in a very short time. Therefore, our aim of this study is to prepare a list for the important statistics elements that are collected from the whole network, to be used for any further researches; particularly, those that are dealing with the detection of the network attacks that cause a sudden rise in the number of packets and bytes like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).

Keywords: Mininet, OpenFlow, POX controller, SDN.

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6391 Design of a Compact Herriott Cell for Heat Flux Measurement Applications

Authors: R. G. Ramírez-Chavarría, C. Sánchez-Pérez, V. Argueta-Díaz

Abstract:

In this paper we present the design of an optical device based on a Herriott multi-pass cell fabricated on a small sized acrylic slab for heat flux measurements using the deflection of a laser beam propagating inside the cell. The beam deflection is produced by the heat flux conducted to the acrylic slab due to a gradient in the refractive index. The use of a long path cell as the sensitive element in this measurement device, gives the possibility of high sensitivity within a small size device. We present the optical design as well as some experimental results in order to validate the device’s operation principle.

Keywords: Heat flux, herriott cell, optical beam deflection, thermal conductivity.

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6390 Determining Earthquake Performances of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings by Using ANN

Authors: Musa H. Arslan, Murat Ceylan, Tayfun Koyuncu

Abstract:

In this study, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analytical method has been developed for analyzing earthquake performances of the Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings. 66 RC buildings with four to ten storeys were subjected to performance analysis according to the parameters which are the existing material, loading and geometrical characteristics of the buildings. The selected parameters have been thought to be effective on the performance of RC buildings. In the performance analyses stage of the study, level of performance possible to be shown by these buildings in case of an earthquake was determined on the basis of the 4-grade performance levels specified in Turkish Earthquake Code-2007 (TEC-2007). After obtaining the 4-grade performance level, selected 23 parameters of each building have been matched with the performance level. In this stage, ANN-based fast evaluation algorithm mentioned above made an economic and rapid evaluation of four to ten storey RC buildings. According to the study, the prediction accuracy of ANN has been found about 74%.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, earthquake, performance, reinforced concrete.

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6389 Neural Network Monitoring Strategy of Cutting Tool Wear of Horizontal High Speed Milling

Authors: Kious Mecheri, Hadjadj Abdechafik, Ameur Aissa

Abstract:

The wear of cutting tool degrades the quality of the product in the manufacturing processes. The on line monitoring of the cutting tool wear level is very necessary to prevent the deterioration of the quality of machining. Unfortunately there is not a direct manner to measure the cutting tool wear on line. Consequently we must adopt an indirect method where wear will be estimated from the measurement of one or more physical parameters appearing during the machining process such as the cutting force, the vibrations, or the acoustic emission etc…. In this work, a neural network system is elaborated in order to estimate the flank wear from the cutting force measurement and the cutting conditions.

Keywords: Flank wear, cutting forces, high speed milling, signal processing, neural network.

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6388 Eco-innovation and Economic Performance in Industrial Clusters: Evidence from Italy

Authors: Sara Tessitore, Tiberio Daddi, Fabio Iraldo

Abstract:

The article aims to investigate the presence of a correlation between eco-innovation and economic performance within industrial districts. The case analyzed in this article is based on a study concerning a sample of 54 Italian industrial clusters entitled "Eco-Districts" that has compiled a list of the most eco-efficient districts at the national level. After selecting two districts, this study assesses the economic performance of the last three years through the analysis of trends in four indicators. The results show that only in some cases there is a connection between eco innovation and economic performance.

Keywords: clusters, industrial districts, eco-innovation, economic performance.

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6387 Real-Time Measurement Approach for Tracking the ΔV10 Estimate Value of DC EAF

Authors: Jin-Lung Guan, Jyh-Cherng Gu, Chun-Wei Huang, Hsin-Hung Chang

Abstract:

This investigation develops a revisable method for estimating the estimate value of equivalent 10 Hz voltage flicker (DV10) of a DC Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). This study also discusses three 161kV DC EAFs by field measurement, with those results indicating that the estimated DV10 value is significantly smaller than the survey value. The key point is that the conventional means of estimating DV10 is inappropriate. There is a main cause as the assumed Qmax is too small.

Although DC EAF is regularly operated in a constant MVA mode, the reactive power variation in the Main Transformer (MT) is more significant than that in the Furnace Transformer (FT). A substantial difference exists between estimated maximum reactive power fluctuation (DQmax) and the survey value from actual DC EAF operations. However, this study proposes a revisable method that can obtain a more accurate DV10 estimate than the conventional method.

Keywords: Voltage Flicker, dc EAF, Estimate Value, DV10.

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6386 Test Method Development for Evaluation of Process and Design Effect on Reinforced Tube

Authors: Cathal Merz, Gareth O’Donnell

Abstract:

Coil reinforced thin-walled (CRTW) tubes are used in medicine to treat problems affecting blood vessels within the body through minimally invasive procedures. The CRTW tube considered in this research makes up part of such a device and is inserted into the patient via their femoral or brachial arteries and manually navigated to the site in need of treatment. This procedure replaces the requirement to perform open surgery but is limited by reduction of blood vessel lumen diameter and increase in tortuosity of blood vessels deep in the brain. In order to maximize the capability of these procedures, CRTW tube devices are being manufactured with decreasing wall thicknesses in order to deliver treatment deeper into the body and to allow passage of other devices through its inner diameter. This introduces significant stresses to the device materials which have resulted in an observed increase in the breaking of the proximal segment of the device into two separate pieces after it has failed by buckling. As there is currently no international standard for measuring the mechanical properties of these CRTW tube devices, it is difficult to accurately analyze this problem. The aim of the current work is to address this discrepancy in the biomedical device industry by developing a measurement system that can be used to quantify the effect of process and design changes on CRTW tube performance, aiding in the development of better performing, next generation devices. Using materials testing frames, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging, experiment planning, analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests and regression analysis, test methods have been developed for assessing the impact of process and design changes on the device. The major findings of this study have been an insight into the suitability of buckle and three-point bend tests for the measurement of the effect of varying processing factors on the device’s performance, and guidelines for interpreting the output data from the test methods. The findings of this study are of significant interest with respect to verifying and validating key process and design changes associated with the device structure and material condition. Test method integrity evaluation is explored throughout.

Keywords: Buckling, coil reinforced thin-walled tubes, fracture, test method.

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6385 Performance and Availability Analyses of PV Generation Systems in Taiwan

Authors: H. S. Huang, J. C. Jao, K. L. Yen, C. T. Tsai

Abstract:

The purpose of this article applies the monthly final energy yield and failure data of 202 PV systems installed in Taiwan to analyze the PV operational performance and system availability. This data is collected by Industrial Technology Research Institute through manual records. Bad data detection and failure data estimation approaches are proposed to guarantee the quality of the received information. The performance ratio value and system availability are then calculated and compared with those of other countries. It is indicated that the average performance ratio of Taiwan-s PV systems is 0.74 and the availability is 95.7%. These results are similar with those of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Japan.

Keywords: availability, performance ratio, PV system, Taiwan

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6384 Inverse Heat Conduction Analysis of Cooling on Run Out Tables

Authors: M. S. Gadala, Khaled Ahmed, Elasadig Mahdi

Abstract:

In this paper, we introduced a gradient-based inverse solver to obtain the missing boundary conditions based on the readings of internal thermocouples. The results show that the method is very sensitive to measurement errors, and becomes unstable when small time steps are used. The artificial neural networks are shown to be capable of capturing the whole thermal history on the run-out table, but are not very effective in restoring the detailed behavior of the boundary conditions. Also, they behave poorly in nonlinear cases and where the boundary condition profile is different. GA and PSO are more effective in finding a detailed representation of the time-varying boundary conditions, as well as in nonlinear cases. However, their convergence takes longer. A variation of the basic PSO, called CRPSO, showed the best performance among the three versions. Also, PSO proved to be effective in handling noisy data, especially when its performance parameters were tuned. An increase in the self-confidence parameter was also found to be effective, as it increased the global search capabilities of the algorithm. RPSO was the most effective variation in dealing with noise, closely followed by CRPSO. The latter variation is recommended for inverse heat conduction problems, as it combines the efficiency and effectiveness required by these problems.

Keywords: Inverse Analysis, Function Specification, Neural Net Works, Particle Swarm, Run Out Table.

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6383 Error Estimates for Calculated Glomerular Filtration Rates

Authors: Simon Brown

Abstract:

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a measure of kidney function. It is usually estimated from serum concentrations of cystatin C or creatinine although there has been considerable debate in the literature about (i) the best equation to use and (ii) the variability in the correlation between the concentrations of creatinine and cystatin C. The equations for GFR can be written in a general form and from these I calculate the error of the GFR estimates associated with analyte measurement error. These show that the error of the GFR estimates is such that it is not possible to distinguish between the equations over much of the concentration range of either analyte. The general forms of the equations are also used to derive an expression for the concentration of cystatin C as a function of the concentration of creatinine. This equation shows that these analyte concentrations are not linearly related. Clinical reports of cystatin C and creatinine concentration are consistent with the expression derived.

Keywords: creatinine, cystatin C, error analysis, glomerularfiltration rate, measurement error.

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6382 Development of the Measurement Apparatus for the Effective Thermal Conductivity of Core Material

Authors: Jongmin Kim, Tae-Ho Song

Abstract:

A measurement apparatus is designed and fabricated to measure the effective thermal conductivity (keff) of a VIP (vacuum insulation panel) core specimen under various vacuum states and external loads. The apparatus consists of part for measuring keff, and parts for controlling external load and vacuum condition. Uncertainty of the apparatus is validated by measuring the standard reference material and comparing with commercial devices with VIP samples. Assessed uncertainty is maximum 2.5 % in case of the standard reference material, 10 % in case of VIP samples. Using the apparatus, keff of glass paper under various vacuum levels is examined.

Keywords: Effective thermal conductivity, guarded hot plate method, vacuum insulation panel

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6381 Non-Invasive Capillary Blood Flow Measurement: Laser Speckle and Laser Doppler

Authors: A.K.Jayanthy, N.Sujatha, M.Ramasubba Reddy

Abstract:

Microcirculation is essential for the proper supply of oxygen and nutritive substances to the biological tissue and the removal of waste products of metabolism. The determination of blood flow in the capillaries is therefore of great interest to clinicians. A comparison has been carried out using the developed non-invasive, non-contact and whole field laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) based technique and as well as a commercially available laser Doppler blood flowmeter (LDF) to evaluate blood flow at the finger tip and elbow and is presented here. The LSCI technique gives more quantitative information on the velocity of blood when compared to the perfusion values obtained using the LDF. Measurement of blood flow in capillaries can be of great interest to clinicians in the diagnosis of vascular diseases of the upper extremities.

Keywords: Blood flow, Laser Doppler flowmeter, LSCI, speckle

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6380 Investigating Daylight Quality in Malaysian Government Office Buildings Through Daylight Factor and Surface Luminance

Authors: Mohd Zin Kandar, Mohd Sabere Sulaiman, Yong Razidah Rashid, Dilshan Remaz Ossen, Aminatuzuhariah MAbdullah, Lim Yaik Wah, Mansour Nikpour

Abstract:

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in using daylight to save energy in buildings. In tropical regions, daylighting is always an energy saver. On the other hand, daylight provides visual comfort. According to standards, it shows that many criteria should be taken into consideration in order to have daylight utilization and visual comfort. The current standard in Malaysia, MS 1525 does not provide sufficient guideline. Hence, more research is needed on daylight performance. If architects do not consider daylight design, it not only causes inconvenience in working spaces but also causes more energy consumption as well as environmental pollution. This research had surveyed daylight performance in 5 selected office buildings from different area of Malaysian through experimental method. Several parameters of daylight quality such as daylight factor, surface luminance and surface luminance ratio were measured in different rooms in each building. The result of this research demonstrated that most of the buildings were not designed for daylight utilization. Therefore, it is very important that architects follow the daylight design recommendation to reduce consumption of electric power for artificial lighting while the sufficient quality of daylight is available.

Keywords: Daylight factor, Field measurement, Daylighting quality, Tropical

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6379 Activity Recognition by Smartphone Accelerometer Data Using Ensemble Learning Methods

Authors: Eu Tteum Ha, Kwang Ryel Ryu

Abstract:

As smartphones are equipped with various sensors, there have been many studies focused on using these sensors to create valuable applications. Human activity recognition is one such application motivated by various welfare applications, such as the support for the elderly, measurement of calorie consumption, lifestyle and exercise patterns analyses, and so on. One of the challenges one faces when using smartphone sensors for activity recognition is that the number of sensors should be minimized to save battery power. In this paper, we show that a fairly accurate classifier can be built that can distinguish ten different activities by using only a single sensor data, i.e., the smartphone accelerometer data. The approach that we adopt to deal with this twelve-class problem uses various methods. The features used for classifying these activities include not only the magnitude of acceleration vector at each time point, but also the maximum, the minimum, and the standard deviation of vector magnitude within a time window. The experiments compared the performance of four kinds of basic multi-class classifiers and the performance of four kinds of ensemble learning methods based on three kinds of basic multi-class classifiers. The results show that while the method with the highest accuracy is ECOC based on Random forest.

Keywords: Ensemble learning, activity recognition, smartphone accelerometer.

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6378 Optimal Current Control of Externally Excited Synchronous Machines in Automotive Traction Drive Applications

Authors: Oliver Haala, Bernhard Wagner, Maximilian Hofmann, Martin Marz

Abstract:

The excellent suitability of the externally excited synchronous machine (EESM) in automotive traction drive applications is justified by its high efficiency over the whole operation range and the high availability of materials. Usually, maximum efficiency is obtained by modelling each single loss and minimizing the sum of all losses. As a result, the quality of the optimization highly depends on the precision of the model. Moreover, it requires accurate knowledge of the saturation dependent machine inductances. Therefore, the present contribution proposes a method to minimize the overall losses of a salient pole EESM and its inverter in steady state operation based on measurement data only. Since this method does not require any manufacturer data, it is well suited for an automated measurement data evaluation and inverter parametrization. The field oriented control (FOC) of an EESM provides three current components resp. three degrees of freedom (DOF). An analytic minimization of the copper losses in the stator and the rotor (assuming constant inductances) is performed and serves as a first approximation of how to choose the optimal current reference values. After a numeric offline minimization of the overall losses based on measurement data the results are compared to a control strategy that satisfies cos (ϕ) = 1.

Keywords: Current control, efficiency, externally excited synchronous machine, optimization.

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6377 An Architecture for High Performance File SystemI/O

Authors: Mikulas Patocka

Abstract:

This paper presents an architecture of current filesystem implementations as well as our new filesystem SpadFS and operating system Spad with rewritten VFS layer targeted at high performance I/O applications. The paper presents microbenchmarks and real-world benchmarks of different filesystems on the same kernel as well as benchmarks of the same filesystem on different kernels – enabling the reader to make conclusion how much is the performance of various tasks affected by operating system and how much by physical layout of data on disk. The paper describes our novel features–most notably continuous allocation of directories and cross-file readahead – and shows their impact on performance.

Keywords: Filesystem, operating system, VFS, performance, readahead

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6376 Baseline Performance of Notebook Computer under Various Environmental and Usage Conditions for Prognostics

Authors: Sachin Kumar, Michael Pecht

Abstract:

A study was conducted to formally characterize notebook computer performance under various environmental and usage conditions. Software was developed to collect data from the operating system of the computer. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance parameters- variations, trends, and correlations, as well as the extreme value they can attain in various usage and environmental conditions. An automated software script was written to simulate user activity. The variability of each performance parameter was addressed by establishing the empirical relationship between performance parameters. These equations were presented as baseline estimates for performance parameters, which can be used to detect system deviations from normal operation and for prognostic assessment. The effect of environmental factors, including different power sources, ambient temperatures, humidity, and usage, on performance parameters of notebooks was studied.

Keywords: Health monitoring, Electronic prognostics, Reliability, Usage monitoring, Notebook computer.

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6375 An Experimental Study on Holdup Measurement in Fluidized Bed by Light Transmission

Authors: E. Shahbazali, N. Afrasiabi, A. A. Safekordi

Abstract:

Nowadays, fluidized bed plays an important part in industry. The design of this kind of reactor requires knowing the interfacial area between two phases and this interfacial area leads to calculate the solid holdup in the bed. Consequently achieving interfacial area between gas and solid in the bed experimentally is so significant. On interfacial area measurement in fluidized bed with gas has been worked, but light transmission technique has been used less. Therefore, in the current research the possibility of using of this technique and its accuracy are investigated. Measuring, a fluidized bed was designed and the problems were averted as far as possible. By using fine solid with equal shape and diameter and installing an optical system, the absorption of light during the time of fluidization has been measured. Results indicate that this method that its validity has been proved in the gas-liquid system, by different reasons have less application in gas-solid system. One important reason could be non-uniformity in such systems.

Keywords: Fluidization, Holdup, Light Transmission, Two phase system.

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6374 Adaptive Fuzzy Control of Stewart Platform under Actuator Saturation

Authors: Dongsu Wu, Hongbin Gu, Peng Li

Abstract:

A novel adaptive fuzzy trajectory tracking algorithm of Stewart platform based motion platform is proposed to compensate path deviation and degradation of controller-s performance due to actuator torque limit. The algorithm can be divided into two parts: the real-time trajectory shaping part and the joint space adaptive fuzzy controller part. For a reference trajectory in task space whenever any of the actuators is saturated, the desired acceleration of the reference trajectory is modified on-line by using dynamic model of motion platform. Meanwhile an additional action with respect to the difference between the nominal and modified trajectories is utilized in the non-saturated region of actuators to reduce the path error. Using modified trajectory as input, the joint space controller incorporates compute torque controller, leg velocity observer and fuzzy disturbance observer with saturation compensation. It can ensure stability and tracking performance of controller in present of external disturbance and position only measurement. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of proposed control scheme.

Keywords: Actuator saturation, adaptive fuzzy control, Stewartplatform, trajectory shaping, flight simulator

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