Search results for: Cost contribution arrangements

Authors: Chutarat Boontho

Abstract:

The purposes of this study were as follows to evaluate the economic value of Phu Kradueng National Park by the travel cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM) and to estimate the demand for traveling and the willingness to pay. The data for this study were collected by conducting two large scale surveys on users and non-users. A total of 1,016 users and 1,034 non-users were interviewed. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis, logistic regression model and the consumer surplus (CS) was the integral of demand function for trips. The survey found, were as follows: 1)Using the travel cost method which provides an estimate of direct benefits to park users, we found that visitors- total willingness to pay per visit was 2,284.57 bath, of which 958.29 bath was travel cost, 1,129.82 bath was expenditure for accommodation, food, and services, and 166.66 bath was consumer surplus or the visitors -net gain or satisfaction from the visit (the integral of demand function for trips). 2) Thai visitors to Phu Kradueng National Park were further willing to pay an average of 646.84 bath per head per year to ensure the continued existence of Phu Kradueng National Park and to preserve their option to use it in the future. 3) Thai non-visitors, on the other hand, are willing to pay an average of 212.61 bath per head per year for the option and existence value provided by the Park. 4) The total economic value of Phu Kradueng National Park to Thai visitors and non-visitors taken together stands today at 9,249.55 million bath per year. 5) The users- average willingness to pay for access to Phu Kradueng National Park rises from 40 bath to 84.66 bath per head per trip for improved services such as road improvement, increased cleanliness, and upgraded information. This paper was needed to investigate of the potential market demand for bio prospecting in Phu Kradueng national Park and to investigate how a larger share of the economic benefits of tourism could be distributed income to the local residents.

Keywords: Contingent Valuation Method, Travel Cost Method, Consumer surplus.

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Authors: V. Sulakatko, F. U. Vogdt, I. Lill

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Construction technology and on-site construction activities have a direct influence on the life cycle costs of energy efficiently renovated apartment buildings. The systematic inadequacies of the External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) which occur during the construction phase increase the risk for all stakeholders, reduce mechanical durability and increase the life cycle costs of the building. The economic effect of these shortcomings can be minimised if the risk of the most significant on-site activities is recognised. The objective of the presented ETICS economic assessment concept is to evaluate the economic influence of on-site shortcomings and reveal their significance to the foreseeable future repair costs. The model assembles repair techniques, discusses their direct cost calculation methods, argues over the proper usage of net present value over the life cycle of the building, and proposes a simulation tool to evaluate the risk of on-site activities. As the technique is dependent on the selected real interest rate, a sensitivity analysis is anticipated to determine the validity of the recommendations. After the verification of the model on the sample buildings by the industry, it is expected to increase economic rationality of resource allocation and reduce high-risk systematic shortcomings during the construction process of ETICS.

Keywords: Activity-based cost estimating, Cost estimation, ETICS, Life cycle costing.

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Authors: Karanja Kibicho, Anthony Sayers

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Due to adverse pressure gradient along the diverging walls of wide-angled diffusers, the attached flow separates from one wall and remains attached permanently to the other wall in a process called stalling. Stalled diffusers render the whole fluid flow system, in which they are part of, very inefficient. There is then an engineering need to try to understand the whole process of diffuser stall if any meaningful attempts to improve on diffuser efficiency are to be made. In this regard, this paper provides a data bank contribution for the mean flow-field in wide-angled diffusers where the complete velocity and static pressure fields, and pressure recovery data for diffusers in the fully stalled flow regime are experimentally measured. The measurements were carried out at Reynolds numbers between 1.07×105 and 2.14×105 based on inlet hydraulic diameter and centreline velocity for diffusers whose divergence angles were between 30Ôùª and 50Ôùª. Variation of Reynolds number did not significantly affect the velocity and static pressure profiles. The wall static pressure recovery was found to be more sensitive to changes in the Reynolds number. By increasing the velocity from 10 m/s to 20 m/s, the wall static pressure recovery increased by 8.31%. However, as the divergence angle was increased, a similar increase in the Reynolds number resulted in a higher percentage increase in pressure recovery. Experimental results showed that regardless of the wall to which the flow was attached, both the velocity and pressure fields were replicated with discrepancies below 2%.

Keywords: Two-dimensional, wide-angled, diffuser, stall, separated flows, subsonic flows, diffuser flow regimes

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Authors: M. A. At-Tasneem, N. T. Rao, T. M. Y. S. Tuan Ya, M. S. Idris, M. Ammar

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River flow over micro hydro power (MHP) turbines of multiple arrays arrangement is simulated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to obtain the flow characteristics. In this paper, CFD software is used to simulate the water flow over MHP turbines as they are placed in a river. Multiple arrays arrangement of MHP turbines lead to generate large amount of power. In this study, a river model is created and simulated in CFD software to obtain the water flow characteristic. The process then continued by simulating different types of arrays arrangement in the river model. A MHP turbine model consists of a turbine outer body and static propeller blade in it. Five types of arrangements are used which are parallel, series, triangular, square and rhombus with different spacing sizes. The velocity profiles on each MHP turbines are identified at the mouth of each turbine bodies. This study is required to obtain the arrangement with increasing spacing sizes that can produce highest power density through the water flow variation.

Keywords: Micro hydro power, CFD, arrays arrangement, spacing sizes, velocity profile, power.

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Authors: H. Kazemi Karegar, S. Jalilzadeh, V. Nabaei, A. Shabani

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In this paper, the problem of finding the optimal topological configuration of a deregulated distribution network is considered. The new features of this paper are proposing a multiobjective function and its application on deregulated distribution networks for finding the optimal configuration. The multi-objective function will be defined for minimizing total Energy Supply Costs (ESC) and energy losses subject to load flow constraints. The optimal configuration will be obtained by using Binary Genetic Algorithm (BGA).The proposed method has been tested to analyze a sample and a practical distribution networks.

Keywords: Binary Genetic Algorithm, Deregulated Distribution Network, Minimizing Cost, Reconfiguration.

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Authors: Boon Yih Mah

Abstract:

Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI)’s contribution towards language development can be divided into linguistic and non-linguistic perspectives. In linguistic perspective, WeCWI focuses on the literacy and language discoveries, while the cognitive and psychological discoveries are the hubs in non-linguistic perspective. In linguistic perspective, WeCWI draws attention to free reading and enterprises, which are supported by the language acquisition theories. Besides, the adoption of process genre approach as a hybrid guided writing approach fosters literacy development. Literacy and language developments are interconnected in the communication process; hence, WeCWI encourages meaningful discussion based on the interactionist theory that involves input, negotiation, output, and interactional feedback. Rooted in the elearning interaction-based model, WeCWI promotes online discussion via synchronous and asynchronous communications, which allows interactions happened among the learners, instructor, and digital content. In non-linguistic perspective, WeCWI highlights on the contribution of reading, discussion, and writing towards cognitive development. Based on the inquiry models, learners’ critical thinking is fostered during information exploration process through interaction and questioning. Lastly, to lower writing anxiety, WeCWI develops the instructional tool with supportive features to facilitate the writing process. To bring a positive user experience to the learner, WeCWI aims to create the instructional tool with different interface designs based on two different types of perceptual learning style.

Keywords: WeCWI, literacy discovery, language discovery, cognitive discovery, psychological discovery.

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Authors: Bu Seog Ju, Woo Young Jung

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The cost of damage to the non-structural systems in critical facilities like nuclear power plants and hospitals can exceed 80% of the total cost of damage during an earthquake. The failure of nonstructural components, especially, piping systems led to leakage of water and subsequent shut-down of hospitals immediately after the event. Consequently, the evaluation of performance of these types of structural configurations has become necessary to mitigate the risk and to achieve reliable designs. This paper focuses on a methodology to evaluate the static and dynamic characteristics of complex actual piping system based on NFPA-13 and SMACNA guidelines. The result of this study revealed that current piping system subjected to design lateral force and design spectrum based on UBC-97 was failed in both cases and mode shapes between piping system and building structure were very different

Keywords: Nonstructural component, piping, hospital, seismic, bracing.

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Authors: Xu Huang, Jing Fan, Maonian Wu, Yonggen Gu

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This paper discusses the design of an indoor mobile robot positioning system. The problem of indoor positioning is solved through Wi-Fi fingerprint positioning to implement a low cost deployment. A wireless fingerprint matching algorithm based on the similarity of unequal length sequences is presented. Candidate sequences selection is defined as a set of mappings, and detection errors caused by wireless hotspot stability and the change of interior pattern can be corrected by transforming the unequal length sequences into equal length sequences. The presented scheme was verified experimentally to achieve the accuracy requirements for an indoor positioning system with low deployment cost.

Keywords: Fingerprint match, indoor positioning, mobile robot positioning system, Wi-Fi, wireless fingerprint.

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Authors: Ei Phyo Wai, Nay Min Tun

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Computation of facility location problem for every location in the country is not easy simultaneously. Solving the problem is described by using cluster computing. A technique is to design parallel algorithm by using local search with single swap method in order to solve that problem on clusters. Parallel implementation is done by the use of portable parallel programming, Message Passing Interface (MPI), on Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster. In this paper, it presents the algorithm that used local search with single swap method and implementation of the system of a facility to be opened by using MPI on cluster. If large datasets are considered, the process of calculating a reasonable cost for a facility becomes time consuming. The result shows parallel computation of facility location problem on cluster speedups and scales well as problem size increases.

Keywords: cluster, cost, demand, facility location

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Authors: M. Israil Hossain, T. P. Tiwari, Ashrafuzzaman Gulandaz, Nusrat Jahan

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Two-wheel tractor (power tiller) is a common tillage tool in Bangladesh agriculture for easy access in fragmented land with affordable price of small farmers. Traditional maize sheller needs to be carried from place to place by hooking with two-wheel tractor (2WT) and set up again for shelling operation which takes longer time for preparation of maize shelling. The mobile maize sheller eliminates the transportation problem and can start shelling operation instantly any place as it is attached together with 2WT. It is counterclockwise rotating cylinder, axial flow type sheller, and grain separated with a frictional force between spike tooth and concave. The maize sheller is attached with nuts and bolts in front of the engine base of 2WT. The operating power of the sheller comes from the fly wheel of the engine of the tractor through ‘V” belt pulley arrangement. The average shelling capacity of the mobile sheller is 2.0 t/hr, broken kernel 2.2%, and shelling efficiency 97%. The average maize shelling cost is Tk. 0.22/kg and traditional custom hire rate is Tk.1.0/kg, respectively (1 US$=Tk.78.0). The service provider of the 2WT can transport the mobile maize sheller long distance in operator’s seating position. The manufacturers started the fabrication of mobile maize sheller. This mobile maize sheller is also compatible for the other countries where 2WT is available for farming operation.

Keywords: Cost effective, mobile maize sheller, maize shelling capacity, small farmers, two-wheel tractor.

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Authors: F. S. Al-Anzi, M. Sarfraz, A. Elmi, A. R. Khan

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Researchers are responding to the environmental challenges of Kuwait in localized, innovative, effective and economic ways. One of the vital and significant examples of the natural challenges is lack or water and desertification. In this research, the project team focuses on redesigning a prototype, using Value Engineering Methodology, which would provide similar functionalities to the well-known technology of Waterboxx kits while reducing the capital and operational costs and simplifying the process of manufacturing and usability by regular farmers. The design employs used tires and recycled plastic sheets as raw materials. Hence, this approach is going to help not just fighting desertification but also helping in getting rid of ever growing huge tire dumpsters in Kuwait, as well as helping in avoiding hazards of tire fires yielding in a safer and friendlier environment. Several alternatives for implementing the prototype have been considered. The best alternative in terms of value has been selected after thorough Function Analysis System Technique (FAST) exercise has been developed. A prototype has been fabricated and tested in a controlled simulated lab environment that is being followed by real environment field testing. Water and soil analysis conducted on the site of the experiment to cross compare between the composition of the soil before and after the experiment to insure that the prototype being tested is actually going to be environment safe. Experimentation shows that the design was equally as effective as, and may exceed, the original design with significant savings in cost. An estimated total cost reduction using the VE approach of 43.84% over the original design. This cost reduction does not consider the intangible costs of environmental issue of waste recycling which many further intensify the total savings of using the alternative VE design. This case study shows that Value Engineering Methodology can be an important tool in innovating new designs for reducing costs.

Keywords: Desertification, functional analysis, scrap tires, value engineering, waste recycling, water irrigation rationing.

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Authors: Ruedee Niyomrath

Abstract:

The purposes of this research is aim to build the energy saving stove for stew coconut sugar. The research started from explores ceramic raw materials in local area, create the appropriate mixture of ceramic raw materials for construction material of stove, and make it by ceramic process. It includes design and build the energy saving stove, experiment the efficiency of energy saving stove as to thermal efficiency, energy saving, performance of time, and energy cost efficiency, transfer the knowledge for community, stove manufacturers, and technicians. The findings must be useful to the coconut sugar enterprises producing, to reduce the cost of production, preserve natural resources, and environments.

Keywords: Ceramic raw material, Energy saving stove, Stove design, Performance of stove, Stove for stew coconut sugar.

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Authors: Suwimon Saneewong Na Ayuttaya, Chainarong Chaktranond, Phadungsak Rattanadecho

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This study numerically investigates the effects of Electrohydrodynamic on flow patterns and heat transfer enhancement within a cavity which is on the lower wall of channel. In this simulation, effects of using ground wire and ground plate on the flow patterns are compared. Moreover, the positions of electrode wire respecting with ground are tested in the range of angles θ = 0 - 180^o. High electrical voltage exposes to air is 20 kV. Bulk mean velocity and temperature of inlet air are controlled at 0.1 m/s and 60 ^OC, respectively. The result shows when electric field is applied, swirling flow is appeared in the channel. In addition, swirling flow patterns in the main flow of using ground plate are widely spreader than that of using ground wire. Moreover, direction of swirling flow also affects the flow pattern and heat transfer in a cavity. These cause the using ground wire to give the maximum temperature and heat transfer higher than using ground plate. Furthermore, when the angle is at θ = 60^o, high shear flow effect is obtained. This results show high strength of swirling flow and effective heat transfer enhancement.

Keywords: Swirling Flow, Heat Transfer, Electrohydrodynamic, Numerical Analysis.

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Authors: Bharti B. Parmar, Vivek J. Pandya

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The issue of unintentional islanding detection of grid connected synchronous distributed generation (SDG) remains the most challenging task faced by the distributed generation (DG) industry as SDG is highly capable of prolonging an island. This paper gives an insight of anti-islanding detection techniques mainly applied for SDG. Different techniques conclude that it is challenging to point out a generic method for a distinct purpose as the application of particular practice depends on nature of the end use and system dependent elements. Also, the setup and operational cost affect the selection of anti-islanding technique to achieve minimal compromising between cost and system quality. A test bench is created in the MATLAB/Simulink^® to demonstrate the results of a 33 kV system. The results are highly satisfactory and they are according to the current practices.

Keywords: Synchronous distributed generation, islanding, point of common coupling, loss of grid.

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Authors: Nesli Aydin

Abstract:

Waste management decision making in developing countries has moved towards being more pragmatic, transparent, sustainable and comprehensive. Turkey is required to make its waste related legislation compatible with European Legislation as it is a candidate country of the European Union. Improper Turkish practices such as open burning and open dumping practices must be abandoned urgently, and robust waste management systems have to be structured. The determination of an optimum waste management system in any region requires a comprehensive analysis in which many criteria are taken into account by stakeholders. In conducting this sort of analysis, there are two main criteria which are evaluated by waste management analysts; economic viability and environmentally friendliness. From an analytical point of view, a central characteristic of sustainable development is an economic-ecological integration. It is predicted that building a robust waste management system will need significant effort and cooperation between the stakeholders in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study aims to provide data regarding the cost and environmental burdens of waste treatment technologies such as an incinerator, an autoclave (with different capacities), a hydroclave and a microwave coupled with updated information on calculation methods, and a framework for comparing any proposed scenario performances on a cost and environmental basis.

Keywords: Decision making, economic viability, environmentally friendliness, stakeholder, waste management systems.

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Authors: Dragan D. Stamenkovic, Vladimir M. Popovic

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Warranty is a powerful marketing tool for the manufacturer and a good protection for both the manufacturer and the customer. However, warranty always involves additional costs to the manufacturer, which depend on product reliability characteristics and warranty parameters. This paper presents an approach to optimisation of warranty parameters for known product failure distribution to reduce the warranty costs to the manufacturer while retaining the promotional function of the warranty. Combination free replacement and pro-rata warranty policy is chosen as a model and the length of free replacement period and pro-rata policy period are varied, as well as the coefficients that define the pro-rata cost function. Multiparametric warranty optimisation is done by using genetic algorithm. Obtained results are guideline for the manufacturer to choose the warranty policy that minimises the costs and maximises the profit.

Keywords: costs, genetic algorithm, optimisation, warranty.

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Authors: H. L. Chan, T. M. Choi, C. L. Hui, S. F. Ng

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In this study, we explore the use of information for inventory decision in the healthcare organization (HO). We consider the scenario when the HO can make use of the information collected from some correlated products to enhance its inventory planning. Motivated by our real world observations that HOs adopt RFID and bar-coding system for information collection purpose, we examine the effectiveness of these systems for inventory planning with Bayesian information updating. We derive the optimal ordering decision and study the issue of Pareto improvement in the supply chain. Our analysis demonstrates that RFID system will outperform the bar-coding system when the RFID system installation cost and the tag cost reduce to a level that is comparable with that of the barcoding system. We also show how an appropriately set wholesale pricing contract can achieve Pareto improvement in the HO supply chain.

Keywords: Efficient consumer response program, healthcare, inventory management, RFID system, bar-coding system.

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Authors: Abdul Baqi, Zaid Mohammad

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Reinforced concrete stair slabs with mid landings i.e. Dog-legged shaped are conventionally designed as per specifications of standard codes of practices which guide about the effective span according to the varying support conditions. Presently, the behavior of such slabs has been investigated using Finite Element method. A single flight stair slab with landings on both sides and supported at ends on wall, and a multi flight stair slab with landings and six different support arrangements have been analyzed. The results obtained for stresses, strains and deflections are used to describe the behavior of such stair slabs, including locations of critical moments and deflections. Values of critical moments obtained by F.E. analysis have also have been compared with that obtained from conventional analysis. Analytical results show that the moments are also critical near the kinks i.e. junction of mid-landing and inclined waist slab. This change in the behavior of dog-legged stair slab may be due to continuity of the material in transverse direction in two landings adjoining the waist slab, hence additional stiffness achieved. This change in the behavior is generally not taken care of in conventional method of design.

Keywords: Dog-legged, Stair slab, F.E. Analysis, Landing, Reinforced concrete.

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Authors: Seyedvahid Najafi, Viliam Makis

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In recent years, maintenance optimization has attracted special attention due to the growth of industrial systems complexity. Maintenance costs are high for many systems, and preventive maintenance is effective when it increases operations' reliability and safety at a reduced cost. The novelty of this research is to consider general repair in the modeling of multi-unit series systems and solve the maintenance problem for such systems using the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. We propose an opportunistic maintenance policy for a series system composed of two main units. Unit 1, which is more expensive than unit 2, is subjected to condition monitoring, and its deterioration is modeled using a gamma process. Unit 1 hazard rate is estimated by the proportional hazards model (PHM), and two hazard rate control limits are considered as the thresholds of maintenance interventions for unit 1. Maintenance is performed on unit 2, considering an age control limit. The objective is to find the optimal control limits and minimize the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The proposed algorithm is applied to a numerical example to compare the effectiveness of the proposed policy (policy Ⅰ) with policy Ⅱ, which is similar to policy Ⅰ, but instead of general repair, replacement is performed. Results show that policy Ⅰ leads to lower average cost compared with policy Ⅱ. 

Keywords: Condition-based maintenance, proportional hazards model, semi-Markov decision process, two-unit series systems.

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Authors: Firas Mohamad Al-Sabek

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The purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates. It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM. A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM. The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company. Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM. Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company. If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so. The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid. Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM. While if no quality measures are present within the team, the project will suffer a commercial failure. Based on literature, more factors can be examined and added to the model. In addition, more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results. Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantment.

Keywords: Construction project, total quality management, management commitment, cost, theoretical framework.

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Authors: Reza Fazeli, Vitor Leal, Jorge Pinho de Sousa

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Planning the transition period for the adoption of alternative fuel-technology powertrains is a challenging task that requires sophisticated analysis tools. In this study, a system dynamic approach was applied to analyze the bi-directional interaction between the development of the refueling station network and vehicle sales. Besides, the developed model was used to estimate the transition cost to reach a predefined target (share of alternative fuel vehicles) in different scenarios. Several scenarios have been analyzed to investigate the effectiveness and cost of incentives on the initial price of vehicles, and on the evolution of fuel and refueling stations. Obtained results show that a combined set of incentives will be more effective than just a single specific type of incentives.

Keywords: adoption of Alternative Fuel Vehicles, System Dynamic Analysis, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles

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Authors: Seyed Saeid Tabaee, Omid Bahar

Abstract:

Nowadays, energy dissipation devices are commonly used in structures. High rate of energy absorption during earthquakes is the benefit of using such devices, which results in damage reduction of structural elements, specifically columns. The hysteretic damping capacity of energy dissipation devices is the key point that it may adversely make analysis and design process complicated. This effect may be generally represented by Equivalent Viscous Damping (EVD). The equivalent viscous damping might be obtained from the expected hysteretic behavior regarding to the design or maximum considered displacement of a structure. In this paper, the hysteretic damping coefficient of a steel Moment Resisting Frame (MRF), which its performance is enhanced by a Buckling Restrained Brace (BRB) system has been evaluated. Having foresight of damping fraction between BRB and MRF is inevitable for seismic design procedures like Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) method. This paper presents an approach to calculate the damping fraction for such systems by carrying out the dynamic nonlinear time history analysis (NTHA) under harmonic loading, which is tuned to the natural system frequency. Two MRF structures, one equipped with BRB and the other without BRB are simultaneously studied. Extensive analysis shows that proportion of each system damping fraction may be calculated by its shear story portion. In this way, contribution of each BRB in the floors and their general contribution in the structural performance may be clearly recognized, in advance.

Keywords: Buckling restrained brace, Direct displacement based design, Dual systems, Hysteretic damping, Moment resisting frames.

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Authors: M. S. Annie Christi

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Transportation Problem (TP) is based on supply and demand of commodities transported from one source to the different destinations. Usual methods for finding solution of TPs are North-West Corner Rule, Least Cost Method Vogel’s Approximation Method etc. The transportation costs tend to vary at each time. We can use fuzzy numbers which would give solution according to this situation. In this study the Best Candidate Method (BCM) is applied. For ranking Centroid Ranking Technique (CRT) and Robust Ranking Technique have been adopted to transform the fuzzy TP and the above methods are applied to EDWARDS Vacuum Company, Crawley, in West Sussex in the United Kingdom. A Comparative study is also given. We see that the transportation cost can be minimized by the application of CRT under BCM.

Keywords: Best candidates method, centroid ranking technique, robust ranking technique, transportation problem, fuzzy transportation problem.

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Authors: K. Somprasonk, R. Boondiskulchok

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Medical services are usually provided in hospitals; however, in developing country, some rural residences have fewer opportunities to access in healthcare services due to the limitation of transportation communication. Therefore, in Thailand, there are charitable organizations operating to provide medical treatments to these people by shifting the medical services to operation sites; this is commonly known as mobile medical service. Operation routing is important for the organization to reduce its transportation cost in order to focus more on other important activities; for instance, the development of medical apparatus. VRP is applied to solve the problem of high transportation cost of the studied organization with the searching techniques of saving algorithm to find the minimum total distance of operation route and satisfy available time constraints of voluntary medical staffs.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Mobile Medical Service Planning, Saving Algorithm, Vehicle Routing Problem

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Authors: O. Maklouf, Ahmed Abdulla

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A general decline in the cost, size, and power requirements of electronics is accelerating the adoption of integrated GPS/INS technologies in consumer applications such Land Vehicle Navigation. Researchers have looking for ways to eliminate additional components from product designs. One possibility is to drop one or more of the relatively expensive gyroscopes from microelectromechanical system (MEMS) versions of inertial measurement units (IMUs). For land vehicular use, the most important gyroscope is the vertical gyro that senses the heading of the vehicle and two horizontal accelerometers for determining the velocity of the vehicle. This paper presents a simplified integration algorithm for strap down (ParIMU)\GPS combination, with data post processing for the determination of 2-D components of position (trajectory), velocity and heading. In the present approach we have neglected earth rotation and gravity variations, because of the poor gyroscope sensitivities of the low-cost IMU and because of the relatively small area of the trajectory.

Keywords: GPS, ParIMU, INS, Kalman Filter.

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Authors: G. V. Byrd, B. B. Ghaley, E. Hayashi

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In urban farming, research and innovation are taking place at an unprecedented pace, and soilless growing technologies are emerging at different rates motivated by different objectives in various parts of the world. Local food production is ultimately a main objective everywhere, but adoption rates and expressions vary with socio-economic drivers. Herein, the status of hydroponics and aquaponics is summarized for four countries with diverse socio-economic settings: Europe (Denmark), Asia (Japan and Nepal) and North America (US). In Denmark, with a strong environmental ethic, soilless growing is increasing in urban agriculture because it is considered environmentally friendly. In Japan, soil-based farming is being replaced with commercial plant factories using advanced technology such as complete environmental control and computer monitoring. In Nepal, where rapid loss of agricultural land is occurring near cities, dozens of hydroponics and aquaponics systems have been built in the past decade, particularly in “non-traditional” sites such as roof tops to supplement family food. In the US, where there is also strong interest in locally grown fresh food, backyard and commercial systems have proliferated. Nevertheless, soilless growing is still in the research and development and early adopter stages, and the broad contribution of hydroponics and aquaponics to food security is yet to be fully determined. Nevertheless, current adoption of these technologies in diverse environments in different socio-economic settings highlights the potential contribution to food security with social and environmental benefits which contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: Aquaponics, hydroponics, soilless agriculture, urban agriculture.

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Authors: Ahmad Rouhani

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Iran has several potential for using renewable energies, so use them could significantly contribute to energy supply. The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential of the country and select the appropriate DG technologies with consideration the potential and primary energy resources in the regions. In this context, hybrid energy systems proportionate with the potential of different regions will be determined based on technical, economic, and environmental aspect. In the following the proposed structure will be optimized in terms of size and cost. DG technologies used in this project include photovoltaic system, wind turbine, diesel generator and battery bank. The HOMER software is applied for choosing the appropriate structure and the optimization of system sizing. The results have been analyzed in terms of technical and economic. The performance and the cost of each project demonstrate the appropriate structure of hybrid energy system in that region.

Keywords: Feasibility, Hybrid Energy System, Iran, Renewable Energy.

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Authors: Mehdi Seifbarghy, Sajjad Jalali, Seyed Habib A. Rahmati

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This paper provides a framework in order to incorporate reliability issue as a sign of disruption in distribution systems and partial covering theory as a response to limitation in coverage radios and economical preferences, simultaneously into the traditional literatures of capacitated facility location problems. As a result we develop a bi-objective model based on the discrete scenarios for expected cost minimization and demands coverage maximization through a three echelon supply chain network by facilitating multi-capacity levels for provider side layers and imposing gradual coverage function for distribution centers (DCs). Additionally, in spite of objectives aggregation for solving the model through LINGO software, a branch of LP-Metric method called Min- Max approach is proposed and different aspects of corresponds model will be explored.

Keywords: Reliability Cost, Partial Covering, LP-Metric

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Authors: F. Haghjoo, M. Sarlak, S.M. Shahrtash

Abstract:

In order to perform on-line measuring and detection of PD signals, a total solution composing of an HFCT, A/D converter and a complete software package is proposed. The software package includes compensation of HFCT contribution, filtering and noise reduction using wavelet transform and soft calibration routines. The results have shown good performance and high accuracy.

Keywords: Partial Discharge, Measurement, On-line, HFCT

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Authors: Joko Pitono, Adi Soeprijanto, Takashi Hiyama

Abstract:

This paper present an efficient and reliable technique of optimization which combined fuel cost economic optimization and emission dispatch using the Sigmoid Decreasing Inertia Weight Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) to reduce the cost of fuel and pollutants resulting from fuel combustion by keeping the output of generators, bus voltages, shunt capacitors and transformer tap settings within the security boundary. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated on IEEE 30-bus system with six generating units. The results clearly show that the proposed algorithm gives better and faster speed convergence then linearly decreasing inertia weight.

Keywords: Optimal Power Flow, Combined Economic Emission Dispatch, Sigmoid decreasing Inertia Weight, Particle Swarm Optimization.

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