Search results for: Temporary work engineering
181 Evaluation of Settlement of Coastal Embankments Using Finite Elements Method
Authors: Sina Fadaie, Seyed Abolhassan Naeini
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Coastal embankments play an important role in coastal structures by reducing the effect of the wave forces and controlling the movement of sediments. Many coastal areas are underlain by weak and compressible soils. Estimation of during construction settlement of coastal embankments is highly important in design and safety control of embankments and appurtenant structures. Accordingly, selecting and establishing of an appropriate model with a reasonable level of complication is one of the challenges for engineers. Although there are advanced models in the literature regarding design of embankments, there is not enough information on the prediction of their associated settlement, particularly in coastal areas having considerable soft soils. Marine engineering study in Iran is important due to the existence of two important coastal areas located in the northern and southern parts of the country. In the present study, the validity of Terzaghi’s consolidation theory has been investigated. In addition, the settlement of these coastal embankments during construction is predicted by using special methods in PLAXIS software by the help of appropriate boundary conditions and soil layers. The results indicate that, for the existing soil condition at the site, some parameters are important to be considered in analysis. Consequently, a model is introduced to estimate the settlement of the embankments in such geotechnical conditions.
Keywords: Consolidation, coastal embankments, settlement, numerical methods, finite elements method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 777180 Trees for Air Pollution Tolerance to Develop Green Belts as an Ecological Mitigation
Authors: Rahma Al Maawali, Hameed Sulaiman
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Air pollution both from point and non-point sources is difficult to control once released in to the atmosphere. There is no engineering method known available to ameliorate the dispersed pollutants. The only suitable approach is the ecological method of constructing green belts in and around the pollution sources. Air pollution in Muscat, Oman is a serious concern due to ever increasing vehicles on roads. Identifying the air pollution tolerance levels of species is important for implementing pollution control strategies in the urban areas of Muscat. Hence, in the present study, Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) for ten avenue tree species was evaluated by analyzing four bio-chemical parameters, plus their Anticipated Performance Index (API) in field conditions. Based on the two indices, Ficus benghalensis was the most suitable one with the highest performance score. Conocarpus erectuse, Phoenix dactylifera, and Pithcellobium dulce were found to be good performers and are recommended for extensive planting. Azadirachta indica which is preferred for its dense canopy is qualified in the moderate category. The rest of the tree species expressed lower API score of less than 51, hence cannot be considered as suitable species for pollution mitigation plantation projects.Keywords: Air pollution tolerance index, avenue tree species, bio-chemical parameters, Muscat.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1357179 Optimization of Surface Roughness in Turning Process Utilizing Live Tooling via Taguchi Methodology
Authors: Weinian Wang, Joseph C. Chen
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The objective of this research is to optimize the process of cutting cylindrical workpieces utilizing live tooling on a HAAS ST-20 lathe. Surface roughness (Ra) has been investigated as the indicator of quality characteristics for machining process. Aluminum alloy was used to conduct experiments due to its wide range usages in engineering structures and components where light weight or corrosion resistance is required. In this study, Taguchi methodology is utilized to determine the effects that each of the parameters has on surface roughness (Ra). A total of 18 experiments of each process were designed according to Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array (OA) with four control factors at three levels of each and signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) were computed with Smaller the better equation for minimizing the system. The optimal parameters identified for the surface roughness of the turning operation utilizing live tooling were a feed rate of 3 inches/min(A3); a spindle speed of 1300 rpm(B3); a 2-flute titanium nitrite coated 3/8” endmill (C1); and a depth of cut of 0.025 inches (D2). The mean surface roughness of the confirmation runs in turning operation was 8.22 micro inches. The final results demonstrate that Taguchi methodology is a sufficient way of process improvement in turning process on surface roughness.
Keywords: Live tooling, surface roughness, Taguchi Parameter Design, CNC turning operation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 791178 Estimation of the Parameters of Muskingum Methods for the Prediction of the Flood Depth in the Moudjar River Catchment
Authors: Fares Laouacheria, Said Kechida, Moncef Chabi
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The objective of the study was based on the hydrological routing modelling for the continuous monitoring of the hydrological situation in the Moudjar river catchment, especially during floods with Hydrologic Engineering Center–Hydrologic Modelling Systems (HEC-HMS). The HEC-GeoHMS was used to transform data from geographic information system (GIS) to HEC-HMS for delineating and modelling the catchment river in order to estimate the runoff volume, which is used as inputs to the hydrological routing model. Two hydrological routing models were used, namely Muskingum and Muskingum routing models, for conducting this study. In this study, a comparison between the parameters of the Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge routing models in HEC-HMS was used for modelling flood routing in the Moudjar river catchment and determining the relationship between these parameters and the physical characteristics of the river. The results indicate that the effects of input parameters such as the weighting factor "X" and travel time "K" on the output results are more significant, where the Muskingum routing model was more sensitive to input parameters than the Muskingum-Cunge routing model. This study can contribute to understand and improve the knowledge of the mechanisms of river floods, especially in ungauged river catchments.
Keywords: HEC-HMS, hydrological modelling, Muskingum routing model, Muskingum-Cunge routing model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1179177 The Emoji Method: An Approach for Identifying and Formulating Problem Ideas
Authors: Thorsten Herrmann, Alexander Laukemann, Hansgeorg Binz, Daniel Roth
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For the analysis of already identified and existing problems, the pertinent literature provides a comprehensive collection of approaches as well as methods in order to analyze the problems in detail. But coming up with problems, which are assets worth pursuing further, is often challenging. However, the importance of well-formulated problem ideas and their influence of subsequent creative processes are incontestable and proven. In order to meet the covered challenges, the Institute for Engineering Design and Industrial Design (IKTD) developed the Emoji Method. This paper presents the Emoji Method, which support designers to generate problem ideas in a structured way. Considering research findings from knowledge management and innovation management, research into emojis and emoticons reveal insights by means of identifying and formulating problem ideas within the early design phase. The simple application and the huge supporting potential of the Emoji Method within the early design phase are only few of the many successful results of the conducted evaluation. The Emoji Method encourages designers to identify problem ideas and describe them in a structured way in order to start focused with generating solution ideas for the revealed problem ideas.
Keywords: Emojis, problem ideas, innovation management, knowledge management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1069176 A New Correlation between SPT and CPT for Various Soils
Authors: Fauzi Jarushi, S. AlKaabim, Paul Cosentino
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The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the most common in situ test for soil investigations. On the other hand, the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is considered one of the best investigation tools. Due to the fast and accurate results that can be obtained it complaints the SPT in many applications like field explorations, design parameters, and quality control assessments. Many soil index and engineering properties have been correlated to both of SPT and CPT. Various foundation design methods were developed based on the outcome of these tests. Therefore it is vital to correlate these tests to each other so that either one of the tests can be used in the absence of the other, especially for preliminary evaluation and design purposes. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the SPT and CPT for different type of sandy soils in Florida. Data for this research were collected from number of projects sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), six sites served as the subject of SPT-CPT correlations. The correlations were established between the cone resistance (qc), sleeve friction (fs) and the uncorrected SPT blow counts (N) for various soils. A positive linear relationship was found between qc, fs and N for various sandy soils. In general, qc versus N showed higher correlation coefficients than fs versus N. qc/N ratios were developed for different soil types and compared to literature values, the results of this research revealed higher ratios than literature values.
Keywords: In situ tests, Correlation, SPT, CPT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16548175 Auto Rickshaw Impacts with Pedestrians: A Computational Analysis of Post-Collision Kinematics and Injury Mechanics
Authors: A. J. Al-Graitti, G. A. Khalid, P. Berthelson, A. Mason-Jones, R. Prabhu, M. D. Jones
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Motor vehicle related pedestrian road traffic collisions are a major road safety challenge, since they are a leading cause of death and serious injury worldwide, contributing to a third of the global disease burden. The auto rickshaw, which is a common form of urban transport in many developing countries, plays a major transport role, both as a vehicle for hire and for private use. The most common auto rickshaws are quite unlike ‘typical’ four-wheel motor vehicle, being typically characterised by three wheels, a non-tilting sheet-metal body or open frame construction, a canvas roof and side curtains, a small drivers’ cabin, handlebar controls and a passenger space at the rear. Given the propensity, in developing countries, for auto rickshaws to be used in mixed cityscapes, where pedestrians and vehicles share the roadway, the potential for auto rickshaw impacts with pedestrians is relatively high. Whilst auto rickshaws are used in some Western countries, their limited number and spatial separation from pedestrian walkways, as a result of city planning, has not resulted in significant accident statistics. Thus, auto rickshaws have not been subject to the vehicle impact related pedestrian crash kinematic analyses and/or injury mechanics assessment, typically associated with motor vehicle development in Western Europe, North America and Japan. This study presents a parametric analysis of auto rickshaw related pedestrian impacts by computational simulation, using a Finite Element model of an auto rickshaw and an LS-DYNA 50th percentile male Hybrid III Anthropometric Test Device (dummy). Parametric variables include auto rickshaw impact velocity, auto rickshaw impact region (front, centre or offset) and relative pedestrian impact position (front, side and rear). The output data of each impact simulation was correlated against reported injury metrics, Head Injury Criterion (front, side and rear), Neck injury Criterion (front, side and rear), Abbreviated Injury Scale and reported risk level and adds greater understanding to the issue of auto rickshaw related pedestrian injury risk. The parametric analyses suggest that pedestrians are subject to a relatively high risk of injury during impacts with an auto rickshaw at velocities of 20 km/h or greater, which during some of the impact simulations may even risk fatalities. The present study provides valuable evidence for informing a series of recommendations and guidelines for making the auto rickshaw safer during collisions with pedestrians. Whilst it is acknowledged that the present research findings are based in the field of safety engineering and may over represent injury risk, compared to “Real World” accidents, many of the simulated interactions produced injury response values significantly greater than current threshold curves and thus, justify their inclusion in the study. To reduce the injury risk level and increase the safety of the auto rickshaw, there should be a reduction in the velocity of the auto rickshaw and, or, consideration of engineering solutions, such as retro fitting injury mitigation technologies to those auto rickshaw contact regions which are the subject of the greatest risk of producing pedestrian injury.
Keywords: Auto Rickshaw, finite element analysis, injury risk level, LS-DYNA, pedestrian impact.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1309174 Effective Defect Prevention Approach in Software Process for Achieving Better Quality Levels
Authors: Suma. V., T. R. Gopalakrishnan Nair
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Defect prevention is the most vital but habitually neglected facet of software quality assurance in any project. If functional at all stages of software development, it can condense the time, overheads and wherewithal entailed to engineer a high quality product. The key challenge of an IT industry is to engineer a software product with minimum post deployment defects. This effort is an analysis based on data obtained for five selected projects from leading software companies of varying software production competence. The main aim of this paper is to provide information on various methods and practices supporting defect detection and prevention leading to thriving software generation. The defect prevention technique unearths 99% of defects. Inspection is found to be an essential technique in generating ideal software generation in factories through enhanced methodologies of abetted and unaided inspection schedules. On an average 13 % to 15% of inspection and 25% - 30% of testing out of whole project effort time is required for 99% - 99.75% of defect elimination. A comparison of the end results for the five selected projects between the companies is also brought about throwing light on the possibility of a particular company to position itself with an appropriate complementary ratio of inspection testing.Keywords: Defect Detection and Prevention, Inspections, Software Engineering, Software Process, Testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1526173 Numerical Study of Steel Structures Responses to External Explosions
Authors: Mohammad Abdallah
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Due to the constant increase in terrorist attacks, the research and engineering communities have given significant attention to building performance under explosions. This paper presents a methodology for studying and simulating the dynamic responses of steel structures during external detonations, particularly for accurately investigating the impact of incrementing charge weight on the members total behavior, resistance and failure. Prediction damage method was introduced to evaluate the damage level of the steel members based on five scenarios of explosions. Johnson–Cook strength and failure model have been used as well as ABAQUS finite element code to simulate the explicit dynamic analysis, and antecedent field tests were used to verify the acceptance and accuracy of the proposed material strength and failure model. Based on the structural response, evaluation criteria such as deflection, vertical displacement, drift index, and damage level; the obtained results show the vulnerability of steel columns and un-braced steel frames which are designed and optimized to carry dead and live load to resist and endure blast loading.
Keywords: Steel structure, blast load, terrorist attacks, charge weight, damage level.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 752172 Numerical Investigation on Performance of Expanded Polystyrene Geofoam Block in Protecting Buried Lifeline Structures
Authors: M. Abdollahi, S. N. Moghaddas Tafreshi
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Expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam is often used in below ground applications in geotechnical engineering. A most recent configuration system implemented in roadways to protect lifelines such as buried pipes, electrical cables and culvert systems could be consisted of two EPS geofoam blocks, “posts” placed on each side of the structure, an EPS block capping, “beam” put atop two posts, and soil cover on the beam. In this configuration, a rectangular void space will be built atop the lifeline. EPS blocks will stand all the imposed vertical forces due to their strength and deformability, thus the lifeline will experience no vertical stress. The present paper describes the results of a numerical study on the post and beam configuration subjected to the static loading. Three-dimensional finite element analysis using ABAQUS software is carried out to investigate the effect of different parameters such as beam thickness, soil thickness over the beam, post height to width ratio, EPS density, and free span between two posts, on the stress distribution and the deflection of the beam. The results show favorable performance of EPS geofoam for protecting sensitive infrastructures.Keywords: Beam, EPS block, numerical analysis, post, stress distribution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1133171 An Integrated Supply Chain Management to Manufacturing Industries
Authors: Kittipong Tissayakorn, Fumio Akagi, Yu Song
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Manufacturers have been exploring innovative strategies to achieve and sustain competitive advantages as they face a new era of intensive global competition. Such strategy is known as Supply Chain Management (SCM), which has gained a tremendous amount of attention from both researchers and practitioners over the last decade. Supply chain management (SCM) is considered as the most popular operating strategy for improving organizational competitiveness in the twenty-first century. It has attracted a lot of attention recently due to its role involving all of the activities in industrial organizations, ranging from raw material procurement to final product delivery to customers. Well-designed supply chain systems can substantially improve efficiency and product quality, and eventually enhance customer satisfaction and profitability. In this paper, a manufacturing engineering perspective on supply chain integration is presented. Research issues discussed include the product and process design for the supply chain, design evaluation of manufacturing in the supply chain, agent-based techniques for supply chain integration, intelligent information for sharing across the supply chain, and a development of standards for product, process, and production data exchange to facilitate electronic commerce. The objective is to provide guidelines and references for manufacturing engineers and researchers interested in supply chain integration.
Keywords: Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Integration, Manufacturing Industries.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3967170 Experimental Studies on Treated Sub-base Soil with Fly Ash and Cement for Sustainable Design Recommendations
Authors: M. Jayakumar, Lau Chee Sing
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The pavement constructions on soft and expansive soils are not durable and unable to sustain heavy traffic loading. As a result, pavement failures and settlement problems will occur very often even under light traffic loading due to cyclic and rolling effects. Geotechnical engineers have dwelled deeply into this matter, and adopt various methods to improve the engineering characteristics of soft fine-grained soils and expansive soils. The problematic soils are either replaced by good and better quality material or treated by using chemical stabilization with various binding materials. Increased the strength and durability are also the part of the sustainability drive to reduce the environment footprint of the built environment by the efficient use of resources and waste recycle materials. This paper presents a series of laboratory tests and evaluates the effect of cement and fly ash on the strength and drainage characteristics of soil in Miri. The tests were performed at different percentages of cement and fly ash by dry weight of soil. Additional tests were also performed on soils treated with the combinations of fly ash with cement and lime. The results of this study indicate an increase in unconfined compression strength and a decrease in hydraulic conductivity of the treated soil.
Keywords: Pavement failure, soft soil, sustainability, stabilization, fly ash, strength and permeability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3420169 Experimental Study on Recycled Aggregate Pervious Concrete
Authors: Ji Wenzhan, Zhang Tao, Li Guoyou
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Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world. At the same time, the world produces a large amount of construction waste each year. Waste concrete is processed and treated, and the recycled aggregate is used to make pervious concrete, which enables the construction waste to be recycled. Pervious concrete has many advantages such as permeability to water, protection of water resources, and so on. This paper tests the recycled aggregate obtained by crushing high-strength waste concrete (TOU) and low-strength waste concrete (PU), and analyzes the effect of porosity, amount of cement, mineral admixture and recycled aggregate on the strength of permeable concrete. The porosity is inversely proportional to the strength, and the amount of cement used is proportional to the strength. The mineral admixture can effectively improve the workability of the mixture. The quality of recycled aggregates had a significant effect on strength. Compared with concrete using "PU" aggregates, the strength of 7d and 28d concrete using "TOU" aggregates increased by 69.0% and 73.3%, respectively. Therefore, the quality of recycled aggregates should be strictly controlled during production, and the mix ratio should be designed according to different use environments and usage requirements. This test prepared a recycled aggregate permeable concrete with a compressive strength of 35.8 MPa, which can be used for light load roads and provides a reference for engineering applications.
Keywords: Recycled aggregate, pervious concrete, compressive strength, permeability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 716168 Identifying Karst Pattern to Prevent Bell Spring from Being Submerged in Daryan Dam Reservoir
Authors: H. Shafaattalab Dehghani, H. R. Zarei
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The large karstic Bell spring with a discharge ranging between 250 and 5300 lit/ sec is one of the most important springs of Kermanshah Province. This spring supplies drinking water of Nodsheh City and its surrounding villages. The spring is located in the reservoir of Daryan Dam and its mouth would be submerged after impounding under a water column of about 110 m height. This paper has aimed to render an account of the karstification pattern around the spring under consideration with the intention of preventing Bell Spring from being submerged in Daryan Dam Reservoir. The studies comprise engineering geology and hydrogeology investigations. Some geotechnical activities included in these studies include geophysical studies, drilling, excavation of exploratory gallery and shaft and diving. The results depict that Bell is a single-conduit siphon spring with 4 m diameter and 85 m height that 32 m of the conduit is located below the spring outlet. To survive the spring, it was decided to plug the outlet and convey the water to upper elevations under the natural pressure of the aquifer. After plugging, water was successfully conveyed to elevation 837 meter above sea level (about 120 m from the outlet) under the natural pressure of the aquifer. This signifies the accuracy of the studies done and proper recognition of the karstification pattern of Bell Spring. This is a unique experience in karst problems in Iran.
Keywords: Bell spring, karst, Daryan Dam, submerged.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1205167 Safety Culture Implementation Based on Occupational Health and Safety Assessment
Authors: Nyambayar Davaadorj, Ichiro Koshijima
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Safety or the state of being safe can be described as a condition of being not dangerous or not harmful. It is necessary for an individual to avoid dangerous situations every day. Also, an organization is subject to legal requirements for the health and safety of persons inside and around the immediate workplace, or who are exposed to the workplace activities. Although it might be difficult to keep a situation where complete safety is ensured, efforts must nonetheless be made to consider ways of removing any potential danger within an organization. In order to ensure a safe working environment, the capability of responding (i.e., resilience) to signals (i.e., information concerning events that could pose future problems that must be taken into account) that occur in and around corporations is necessary. The ability to evaluate this essential point is thus one way in which safety and security can be managed. This study focuses on OHSAS18001, an internationally applied standard for the construction and operation of occupational health and safety management systems, by using IDEF0 for Function Modeling (IDEF0) and the Resilience Matrix originally made by Bracco. Further, this study discusses a method for evaluating a manner in which Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) systematically functions within corporations. Based on the findings, this study clarifies the potential structural objection for corporations when implementing and operating the OHSAS standard.
Keywords: OHSAS18001, IDEF0, safety culture, resilience engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422166 Inversion of Electrical Resistivity Data: A Review
Authors: Shrey Sharma, Gunjan Kumar Verma
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High density electrical prospecting has been widely used in groundwater investigation, civil engineering and environmental survey. For efficient inversion, the forward modeling routine, sensitivity calculation, and inversion algorithm must be efficient. This paper attempts to provide a brief summary of the past and ongoing developments of the method. It includes reviews of the procedures used for data acquisition, processing and inversion of electrical resistivity data based on compilation of academic literature. In recent times there had been a significant evolution in field survey designs and data inversion techniques for the resistivity method. In general 2-D inversion for resistivity data is carried out using the linearized least-square method with the local optimization technique .Multi-electrode and multi-channel systems have made it possible to conduct large 2-D, 3-D and even 4-D surveys efficiently to resolve complex geological structures that were not possible with traditional 1-D surveys. 3-D surveys play an increasingly important role in very complex areas where 2-D models suffer from artifacts due to off-line structures. Continued developments in computation technology, as well as fast data inversion techniques and software, have made it possible to use optimization techniques to obtain model parameters to a higher accuracy. A brief discussion on the limitations of the electrical resistivity method has also been presented.Keywords: Resistivity, inversion, optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6053165 Experimental Investigation on Residual Stresses in Welded Medium-Walled I-shaped Sections Fabricated from Q460GJ Structural Steel Plates
Authors: Qian Zhu, Shidong Nie, Bo Yang, Gang Xiong, Guoxin Dai
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GJ steel is a new type of high-performance structural steel which has been increasingly adopted in practical engineering. Q460GJ structural steel has a nominal yield strength of 460 MPa, which does not decrease significantly with the increase of steel plate thickness like normal structural steel. Thus, Q460GJ structural steel is normally used in medium-walled welded sections. However, research works on the residual stress in GJ steel members are few though it is one of the vital factors that can affect the member and structural behavior. This article aims to investigate the residual stresses in welded I-shaped sections fabricated from Q460GJ structural steel plates by experimental tests. A total of four full scale welded medium-walled I-shaped sections were tested by sectioning method. Both circular curve correction method and straightening measurement method were adopted in this study to obtain the final magnitude and distribution of the longitudinal residual stresses. In addition, this paper also explores the interaction between flanges and webs. And based on the statistical evaluation of the experimental data, a multilayer residual stress model is proposed.
Keywords: Q460GJ structural steel, residual stresses, sectioning method, Welded medium-walled I-shaped sections.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1042164 Improved Multi–Objective Firefly Algorithms to Find Optimal Golomb Ruler Sequences for Optimal Golomb Ruler Channel Allocation
Authors: Shonak Bansal, Prince Jain, Arun Kumar Singh, Neena Gupta
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Recently nature–inspired algorithms have widespread use throughout the tough and time consuming multi–objective scientific and engineering design optimization problems. In this paper, we present extended forms of firefly algorithm to find optimal Golomb ruler (OGR) sequences. The OGRs have their one of the major application as unequally spaced channel–allocation algorithm in optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems in order to minimize the adverse four–wave mixing (FWM) crosstalk effect. The simulation results conclude that the proposed optimization algorithm has superior performance compared to the existing conventional computing and nature–inspired optimization algorithms to find OGRs in terms of ruler length, total optical channel bandwidth and computation time.Keywords: Channel allocation, conventional computing, four–wave mixing, nature–inspired algorithm, optimal Golomb ruler, Lévy flight distribution, optimization, improved multi–objective Firefly algorithms, Pareto optimal.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1141163 Energy Efficiency Analysis of Discharge Modes of an Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage System
Authors: Shane D. Inder, Mehrdad Khamooshi
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Efficient energy storage is a crucial factor in facilitating the uptake of renewable energy resources. Among the many options available for energy storage systems required to balance imbalanced supply and demand cycles, compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a proven technology in grid-scale applications. This paper reviews the current state of micro scale CAES technology and describes a micro-scale advanced adiabatic CAES (A-CAES) system, where heat generated during compression is stored for use in the discharge phase. It will also describe a thermodynamic model, developed in EES (Engineering Equation Solver) to evaluate the performance and critical parameters of the discharge phase of the proposed system. Three configurations are explained including: single turbine without preheater, two turbines with preheaters, and three turbines with preheaters. It is shown that the micro-scale A-CAES is highly dependent upon key parameters including; regulator pressure, air pressure and volume, thermal energy storage temperature and flow rate and the number of turbines. It was found that a micro-scale AA-CAES, when optimized with an appropriate configuration, could deliver energy input to output efficiency of up to 70%.
Keywords: CAES, adiabatic compressed air energy storage, expansion phase, micro generation, thermodynamic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1105162 Scour Depth Prediction around Bridge Piers Using Neuro-Fuzzy and Neural Network Approaches
Authors: H. Bonakdari, I. Ebtehaj
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The prediction of scour depth around bridge piers is frequently considered in river engineering. One of the key aspects in efficient and optimum bridge structure design is considered to be scour depth estimation around bridge piers. In this study, scour depth around bridge piers is estimated using two methods, namely the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Therefore, the effective parameters in scour depth prediction are determined using the ANN and ANFIS methods via dimensional analysis, and subsequently, the parameters are predicted. In the current study, the methods’ performances are compared with the nonlinear regression (NLR) method. The results show that both methods presented in this study outperform existing methods. Moreover, using the ratio of pier length to flow depth, ratio of median diameter of particles to flow depth, ratio of pier width to flow depth, the Froude number and standard deviation of bed grain size parameters leads to optimal performance in scour depth estimation.
Keywords: Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, ANFIS, artificial neural network, ANN, bridge pier, scour depth, nonlinear regression, NLR.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 912161 Sedimentation and its Challenges for Operation and Maintenance of Hydraulic Structures using SHARC Software- A Case Study of Eastern Intake in Dez Diversion Dam in Iran
Authors: M.R. Mansoujian, N. Hedayat, M. Mashal, H, Kiamanesh
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Analytical investigation of the sedimentation processes in the river engineering and hydraulic structures is of vital importance as this can affect water supply for the cultivating lands in the command area. The reason being that gradual sediment formation behind the reservoir can reduce the nominal capacity of these dams. The aim of the present paper is to analytically investigate sedimentation process along the river course and behind the storage reservoirs in general and the Eastern Intake of the Dez Diversion weir in particular using the SHARC software. Results of the model indicated the water level at 115.97m whereas the real time measurement from the river cross section was 115.98 m which suggests a significantly close relation between them. The average transported sediment load in the river was measured at 0.25mm , from which it can be concluded that nearly 100% of the suspended loads in river are moving which suggests no sediment settling but indicates that almost all sediment loads enters into the intake. It was further showed the average sediment diameter entering the intake to be 0.293 mm which in turn suggests that about 85% of suspended sediments in the river entre the intake. Comparison of the results from the SHARC model with those obtained form the SSIIM software suggests quite similar outputs but distinguishing the SHARC model as more appropriate for the analysis of simpler problems than other model.Keywords: SHARC, Eastern Intake, Dez Diversion Weir.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1584160 A Case Study of Mobile Game Based Learning Design for Gender Responsive STEM Education
Authors: Raluca Ionela Maxim
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Designing a gender responsive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) mobile game based learning solution (mGBL) is a challenge in terms of content, gamification level and equal engagement of girls and boys. The goal of this case study was to research and create a high-fidelity prototype design of a mobile game that contains role-models as avatars that guide and expose girls and boys to STEM learning content. For this research purpose it was applied the methodology of design sprint with five-phase process that combines design thinking principles. The technique of this methodology comprises smart interviews with STEM experts, mind-map creation, sketching, prototyping and usability testing of the interactive prototype of the gender responsive STEM mGBL. The results have shown that the effect of the avatar/role model had a positive impact. Therefore, by exposing students (boys and girls) to STEM role models in an mGBL tool is helpful for the decreasing of the gender inequalities in STEM fields.
Keywords: Design thinking, design sprint, gender-responsive STEM education, mobile game based learning, role-models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1347159 A Model of Technological Platform for the Knowledge Management Organization
Authors: Nieto B. W, Luna A. C, Ramos R. J.
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This paper describes an experience of research, development and innovation applied in Industrial Naval at (Science and Technology Corporation for the Development of Shipbuilding Industry, Naval in Colombia (COTECMAR) particularly through processes of research, innovation and technological development, based on theoretical models related to organizational knowledge management, technology management and management of human talent and integration of technology platforms. It seeks ways to facilitate the initial establishment of environments rich in information, knowledge and content-supported collaborative strategies on dynamic processes missionary, seeking further development in the context of research, development and innovation of the Naval Engineering in Colombia, making it a distinct basis for the generation of knowledge assets from COTECMAR. The integration of information and communication technologies, supported on emerging technologies (mobile technologies, wireless, digital content via PDA, and content delivery services on the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0) as a view of the strategic thrusts in any organization facilitates the redefinition of processes for managing information and knowledge, enabling the redesign of workflows, the adaptation of new forms of organization - preferably in networking and support the creation of symbolic-inside-knowledge promotes the development of new skills, knowledge and attitudes of the knowledge workerKeywords: Management Knowledge, Information andCommunication Technologies, Knowledge Worker.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3059158 Sliding Joints and Soil-Structure Interaction
Authors: Radim Cajka, Pavlina Mateckova, Martina Janulikova, Marie Stara
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Use of a sliding joint is an effective method to decrease the stress in foundation structure where there is a horizontal deformation of subsoil (areas afflicted with underground mining) or horizontal deformation of a foundation structure (pre-stressed foundations, creep, shrinkage, temperature deformation). A convenient material for a sliding joint is a bitumen asphalt belt. Experiments for different types of bitumen belts were undertaken at the Faculty of Civil Engineering - VSB Technical University of Ostrava in 2008. This year an extension of the 2008 experiments is in progress and the shear resistance of a slide joint is being tested as a function of temperature in a temperature controlled room. In this paper experimental results of temperature dependant shear resistance are presented. The result of the experiments should be the sliding joint shear resistance as a function of deformation velocity and temperature. This relationship is used for numerical analysis of stress/strain relation between foundation structure and subsoil. Using a rheological slide joint could lead to a decrease of the reinforcement amount, and contribute to higher reliability of foundation structure and thus enable design of more durable and sustainable building structures.Keywords: Pre-stressed foundations, sliding joint, soil-structure interaction, subsoil horizontal deformation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2003157 Unmet English Needs of the Non-Engineering Staff: The Case of Algerian Hydrocarbon Industry
Authors: N. Khiati
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The present paper attempts to report on some findings that emerged out of a larger scale doctorate research into English language needs of a renowned Algerian company of Hydrocarbon industry. From a multifaceted English for specific purposes (ESP) research perspective, the paper considers the English needs of the finance/legal department staff in the midst of the conflicting needs perspectives involving both objective needs indicators (i.e., the pressure of globalised business) and the general negative attitudes among the administrative -mainly jurists- staff towards English (favouring a non-adaptation strategy). The researcher’s unearthing of the latter’s needs is an endeavour to concretise the concepts of unmet, or unconscious needs, among others. This is why, these initially uncovered hidden needs will be detailed questioning educational background, namely previous language of instruction; training experiences and expectations; as well as the actual communicative practices derived from the retrospective interviews and preliminary quantitative data of the questionnaire. Based on these rough clues suggesting real needs, the researcher will tentatively propose some implications for both pre-service and in-service training organisers as well as for educational policy makers in favour of an English course in legal English for the jurists mainly from pre-graduate phases to in-service training.
Keywords: English for specific purposes, ESP, legal and finance staff, needs analysis, unmet/unconscious needs, training implications.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 878156 Study on Plasma Creation and Propagation in a Pulsed Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster
Authors: Tony Schönherr, Kimiya Komurasaki, Georg Herdrich
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The performance and the plasma created by a pulsed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster for small satellite application is studied to understand better the ablation and plasma propagation processes occurring during the short-time discharge. The results can be applied to improve the quality of the thruster in terms of efficiency, and to tune the propulsion system to the needs required by the satellite mission. Therefore, plasma measurements with a high-speed camera and induction probes, and performance measurements of mass bit and impulse bit were conducted. Values for current sheet propagation speed, mean exhaust velocity and thrust efficiency were derived from these experimental data. A maximum in current sheet propagation was found by the high-speed camera measurements for a medium energy input and confirmed by the induction probes. A quasilinear tendency between the mass bit and the energy input, the current action integral respectively, was found, as well as a linear tendency between the created impulse and the discharge energy. The highest mean exhaust velocity and thrust efficiency was found for the highest energy input.Keywords: electric propulsion, low-density plasma, pulsed magnetoplasmadynamicthruster, space engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2509155 Building an Interactive Web-Based GIS System for Planning of Geological Survey Works
Authors: Wu Defu, Kiefer Chiam, Yang Kin Seng
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The planning of geological survey works is an iterative process which involves planner, geologist, civil engineer and other stakeholders, who perform different roles and have different points of view. Traditionally, the team used paper maps or CAD drawings to present the proposal which is not an efficient way to present and share idea on the site investigation proposal such as sitting of borehole location or seismic survey lines. This paper focuses on how a GIS approach can be utilised to develop a webbased system to support decision making process in the planning of geological survey works and also to plan site activities carried out by Singapore Geological Office (SGO). The authors design a framework of building an interactive web-based GIS system, and develop a prototype, which enables the users to obtain rapidly existing geological information and also to plan interactively borehole locations and seismic survey lines via a web browser. This prototype system is used daily by SGO and has shown to be effective in increasing efficiency and productivity as the time taken in the planning of geological survey works is shortened. The prototype system has been developed using the ESRI ArcGIS API 3.7 for Flex which is based on the ArcGIS 10.2.1 platform.
Keywords: Engineering geology, Flex, Geological survey planning, Geoscience, GIS, Site investigation, WebGIS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3666154 A Study on the Developing Method of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) Software Based On Cloud Computing Environment
Authors: Byung-Kon Kim
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According as the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry projects have grown more complex and larger, the number of utilization of BIM for 3D design and simulation is increasing significantly. Therefore, typical applications of BIM such as clash detection and alternative measures based on 3-dimenstional planning are expanded to process management, cost and quantity management, structural analysis, check for regulation, and various domains for virtual design and construction. Presently, commercial BIM software is operated on single-user environment, so initial cost is so high and the investment may be wasted frequently. Cloud computing that is a next-generation internet technology enables simple internet devices (such as PC, Tablet, Smart phone etc) to use services and resources of BIM software. In this paper, we suggested developing method of the BIM software based on cloud computing environment in order to expand utilization of BIM and reduce cost of BIM software. First, for the benchmarking, we surveyed successful case of BIM and cloud computing. And we analyzed needs and opportunities of BIM and cloud computing in AEC Industry. Finally, we suggested main functions of BIM software based on cloud computing environment and developed a simple prototype of cloud computing BIM software for basic BIM model viewing.
Keywords: Construction IT, BIM(Building Information Modeling), Cloud Computing, BIM Service Based Cloud Computing, Viewer Based BIM Server, 3D Design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4085153 3-D Reconstruction of Objects Using Digital Fringe Projection: Survey and Experimental Study
Authors: R. Talebi, A. Abdel-Dayem, J. Johnson
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Three-dimensional reconstruction of small objects has been one of the most challenging problems over the last decade. Computer graphics researchers and photography professionals have been working on improving 3D reconstruction algorithms to fit the high demands of various real life applications. Medical sciences, animation industry, virtual reality, pattern recognition, tourism industry, and reverse engineering are common fields where 3D reconstruction of objects plays a vital role. Both lack of accuracy and high computational cost are the major challenges facing successful 3D reconstruction. Fringe projection has emerged as a promising 3D reconstruction direction that combines low computational cost to both high precision and high resolution. It employs digital projection, structured light systems and phase analysis on fringed pictures. Research studies have shown that the system has acceptable performance, and moreover it is insensitive to ambient light. This paper presents an overview of fringe projection approaches. It also presents an experimental study and implementation of a simple fringe projection system. We tested our system using two objects with different materials and levels of details. Experimental results have shown that, while our system is simple, it produces acceptable results.Keywords: Digital fringe projection, 3D reconstruction, phase unwrapping, phase shifting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5212152 Gaits Stability Analysis for a Pneumatic Quadruped Robot Using Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Soofiyan Atar, Adil Shaikh, Sahil Rajpurkar, Pragnesh Bhalala, Aniket Desai, Irfan Siddavatam
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Deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) algorithms leverage the symbolic power of complex controllers by automating it by mapping sensory inputs to low-level actions. Deep RL eliminates the complex robot dynamics with minimal engineering. Deep RL provides high-risk involvement by directly implementing it in real-world scenarios and also high sensitivity towards hyperparameters. Tuning of hyperparameters on a pneumatic quadruped robot becomes very expensive through trial-and-error learning. This paper presents an automated learning control for a pneumatic quadruped robot using sample efficient deep Q learning, enabling minimal tuning and very few trials to learn the neural network. Long training hours may degrade the pneumatic cylinder due to jerk actions originated through stochastic weights. We applied this method to the pneumatic quadruped robot, which resulted in a hopping gait. In our process, we eliminated the use of a simulator and acquired a stable gait. This approach evolves so that the resultant gait matures more sturdy towards any stochastic changes in the environment. We further show that our algorithm performed very well as compared to programmed gait using robot dynamics.
Keywords: model-based reinforcement learning, gait stability, supervised learning, pneumatic quadruped
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