Search results for: Fuel Cost

Authors: Ferdi Sönmez, Nihal Yorulmaz

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Decision making on the true planning of the public transportation systems to serve potential users is a must for metropolitan areas. To take attraction of travelers to projected modes of transport, adequately fair overall travel times should be provided. In this fashion, other benefits such as lower traffic congestion, road safety and lower noise and atmospheric pollution may be earned. The congestion which comes with increasing demand of public transportation is becoming a part of our lives and making residents’ life difficult. Hence, regulations should be done to reduce this congestion. To provide a constructive and balanced regulation in public transportation systems, right stations should be located in right places. In this study, it is aimed to design and implement a Decision Support System (DSS) Application to determine the optimal bus stop places for public transport in Istanbul which is one of the biggest and oldest cities in the world. Required information is gathered from IETT (Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel) Enterprises which manages all public transportation services in Istanbul Metropolitan Area. By using the most real-like values, cost assignments are made. The cost is calculated with the help of equations produced by bi-level optimization model. For this study, 300 buses, 300 drivers, 10 lines and 110 stops are used. The user cost of each station and the operator cost taken place in lines are calculated. Some components like cost, security and noise pollution are considered as significant factors affecting the solution of set covering problem which is mentioned for identifying and locating the minimum number of possible bus stops. Preliminary research and model development for this study refers to previously published article of the corresponding author. Model results are represented with the intent of decision support to the specialists on locating stops effectively.

Keywords: User cost, bi-level optimization model, decision support, operator cost, transportation.

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Authors: Gideon J. Bonthuys, Marco van Dijk, Jay N. Bhagwan

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Small scale hydropower used to play a very important role in the provision of energy to urban and rural areas of South Africa. The national electricity grid, however, expanded and offered cheap, coal generated electricity and a large number of hydropower systems were decommissioned. Unfortunately, large numbers of households and communities will not be connected to the national electricity grid for the foreseeable future due to high cost of transmission and distribution systems to remote communities due to the relatively low electricity demand within rural communities and the allocation of current expenditure on upgrading and constructing of new coal fired power stations. This necessitates the development of feasible alternative power generation technologies. A feasibility and implementation model was developed to assist in designing and financially evaluating small-scale hydropower (SSHP) plants. Several sites were identified using the model. The SSHP plants were designed for the selected sites and the designs for the different selected sites were priced using pricing models (civil, mechanical and electrical aspects). Following feasibility studies done on the designed and priced SSHP plants, a feasibility analysis was done and a design chart developed for future similar potential SSHP plant projects. The methodology followed in conducting the feasibility analysis for other potential sites consisted of developing cost and income/saving formulae, developing net present value (NPV) formulae, Capital Cost Comparison Ratio (CCCR) and levelised cost formulae for SSHP projects for the different types of plant installations. It included setting up a model for the development of a design chart for a SSHP, calculating the NPV, CCCR and levelised cost for the different scenarios within the model by varying different parameters within the developed formulae, setting up the design chart for the different scenarios within the model and analyzing and interpreting results. From the interpretation of the develop design charts for feasible SSHP in can be seen that turbine and distribution line cost are the major influences on the cost and feasibility of SSHP. High head, short transmission line and islanded mini-grid SSHP installations are the most feasible and that the levelised cost of SSHP is high for low power generation sites. The main conclusion from the study is that the levelised cost of SSHP projects indicate that the cost of SSHP for low energy generation is high compared to the levelised cost of grid connected electricity supply; however, the remoteness of SSHP for rural electrification and the cost of infrastructure to connect remote rural communities to the local or national electricity grid provides a low CCCR and renders SSHP for rural electrification feasible on this basis.

Keywords: Feasibility, cost, rural electrification, small-scale hydropower.

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Authors: Ji Hyeong Park, Ji Hye Jeon, Hyo Seon Park

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Environmental pollution problems have been globally main concern in all fields including economy, society and culture into the 21st century. Beginning with the Kyoto Protocol, the reduction on the emissions of greenhouse gas such as CO2 and SOX has been a principal challenge of our day. As most buildings unlike durable goods in other industries have a characteristic and long life cycle, they consume energy in quantity and emit much CO2. Thus, for green building construction, more research is needed to reduce the CO2 emissions at each stage in the life cycle. However, recent studies are focused on the use and maintenance phase. Also, there is a lack of research on the initial design stage, especially the structure design. Therefore, in this study, we propose an optimal design plan considering CO2 emissions and cost in composite buildings simultaneously by applying to the structural design of actual building.

Keywords: Multi-objective optimization, CO2 emissions, structural cost, encased composite structure

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Authors: Alexander Hendricks, Sean Nevin, Clayton Wikoff, Melissa Dougherty, Jacob Orlita, Rafiqul Noorani

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Knee orthotics play an important role in aiding in the recovery of those with knee injuries, especially athletes. However, structural knee orthotics is often very expensive, ranging between $300 and $800. The primary reason for this project was to answer the question: can 3D printed orthotics represent a viable and cost-effective alternative to present structural knee orthotics? The primary objective for this research project was to design a knee orthotic for athletes with knee injuries for a low-cost under $100 and evaluate its effectiveness. The initial design for the orthotic was done in SolidWorks, a computer-aided design (CAD) software available at Loyola Marymount University. After this design was completed, finite element analysis (FEA) was utilized to understand how normal stresses placed upon the knee affected the orthotic. The knee orthotic was then adjusted and redesigned to meet a specified factor-of-safety of 3.25 based on the data gathered during FEA and literature sources. Once the FEA was completed and the orthotic was redesigned based from the data gathered, the next step was to move on to 3D-printing the first design of the knee brace. Subsequently, physical therapy movement trials were used to evaluate physical performance. Using the data from these movement trials, the CAD design of the brace was refined to accommodate the design requirements. The final goal of this research means to explore the possibility of replacing high-cost, outsourced knee orthotics with a readily available low-cost alternative.

Keywords: Knee Orthotics, 3D printing, finite element analysis.

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Authors: Prashant Kumar Tiwari, Yog Raj Sood

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This paper proposes an investment cost recovery based efficient and fast sequential optimization approach to optimal allocation of thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC) in competitive power market. The optimization technique has been used with an objective to maximizing the social welfare and minimizing the device installation cost by suitable location and rating of TCSC in the system. The effectiveness of proposed approach for location of TCSC has been compared with some existing methods of TCSC placement, in terms of its impact on social welfare, TCSC investment recovery and optimal generation as well as load patterns. The results have been obtained on modified IEEE 14-bus system.

Keywords: Double auction market, Investment cost recovery, Optimal location, Social welfare, TCSC

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Authors: Safwan Altarazi, Raghad Hemeimat, Mousa Wakileh, Ra'ad Qsous, Aya Khreisat

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With the development of the Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products in many applications, the challenge of investigating the raw material composition and reducing the cost have both become more and more important. Considerable research has been done investigating the effect of additives on the PVC products. Most of the PVC composites research investigates only the effect of single/few factors, at a time. This isolated consideration of the input factors does not take in consideration the interaction effect of the different factors. This paper implements a mixture experimental design approach to find out a cost-effective PVC composition for the production of electrical-insulation cables considering the ASTM Designation (D) 6096. The results analysis showed that a minimum cost can be achieved through using 20% virgin PVC, 18.75% recycled PVC, 43.75% CaCO3 with participle size 10 microns, 14% DOP plasticizer, and 3.5% CPW plasticizer. For maximum UTS the compound should consist of: 17.5% DOP, 62.5% virgin PVC, and 20.0% CaCO3 of particle size 5 microns. Finally, for the highest ductility the compound should be made of 35% virgin PVC, 20% CaCO3 of particle size 5 microns, and 45.0% DOP plasticizer.

Keywords: ASTM 6096, mixture experimental-design approach, PVC electrical cable insulation, recycled PVC.

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Authors: Ziyad Aljarboua

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In this paper, we present a technical and an economic assessment of several sources of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia; mainly solar, wind, hydro and biomass. We analyze the environmental and climatic conditions in relation to these sources and give an overview of some of the existing clean energy technologies. Using standardized cost and efficiency data, we carry out a cost benefit analysis to understand the economic factors influencing the sustainability of energy production from renewable sources in light of the energy cost and demand in the Saudi market. Finally, we take a look at the Saudi petroleum industry and the existing sources of conventional energy and assess the potential of building a successful market for renewable energy under the constraints imposed by the flow of subsidized cheap oil. We show that while some renewable energy resources are well suited for distributed or grid connected generation in the kingdom, their viability is greatly undercut by the well developed and well capitalized oil industry.

Keywords: Energy strategy, energy policy, renewable energy, Saudi Arabia, oil.

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Authors: ER. Yashpaul Singh, A. Swarup

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This research paper evaluates and compares the performance of equal cost adaptive multi-path routing algorithms taking the transport protocols TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) using network simulator ns2 and concludes which one is better.

Keywords: Multi-path routing algorithm, Datagram, Virtual Circuit, Throughput, Network services.

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Authors: Sher Shermin Azmiri Khan, Syeda Jannatul Ferdous, Sushmita Chakraborty

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Over the last decades, biomedical engineering prosthetics become one of the most essential grounds. Prosthetic hands are rapidly evolving. Therefore, for designing prosthetic components, it is essential to improve quality such as make it affordable and improve patient comfort and mobility by making them lightweight and easy to wear. In this paper, we proposed a myoelectric controlled prosthesis hand. We can fabricate and manufacture customized cost-effective, small volumes of 3D printed hand which is interesting. The total weight of an adult hand is about 1000 gm including a battery. The prosthetic hand is built up with low-cost materials and techniques, the cost of manufacturing will be approximately US$145. The hand can grip objects of different shapes and sizes. The 3D printed hand can rotate its wrist like a human hand. The prosthetic hand is capable of showing some types of human gestures.

Keywords: Prosthetic Hand, sEMG, 3D printing, Arduino.

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Authors: Markus Siepermann, Christoph Siepermann

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This paper presents the concept and realisation of an e-learning tool that provides predefined or automatically generated exercises concerning logistics cost accounting. Students may practise where and whenever they like to via the Internet. Their solutions are marked automatically by the tool while considering consecutive faults and without any intervention of lecturers.

Keywords: Automatic marking, e-learning environment, onlinepracticing, randomly-generated exercises.

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Authors: Lalith Edirisinghe, Zhihong Jin, A.W. Wijeratne, Hansa Edirisinghe, Lakshmi Ranwala Rashika Mudunkotuwa

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A paradigm shift in container inventory management (CIM) is a long-awaited industry need. Virtual container yard (VCY) is a concept developed in 2013 and its primary objective is to minimize shipping transport cost through implementing container exchange between carriers. Shipping lines always try to maintain lower container idle time and provide higher customer satisfaction. However, it is disappointing to note that carriers turn a blind eye to the escalating cost resulted from the present inefficient CIM mechanism. The cost of empty container management is simply transferred to the importers and exporters as freight adjustments. It also creates an environmental hazard. Therefore, it has now become a problem for the society. Therefore, a paradigm shift may be required as the present CIM system is not working for common interests of human beings as it should be.

Keywords: Virtual container yard, imbalance, management, inventory, container inventory management.

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Authors: André Smith, Amr Abdel-Dayem

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The stereo matching problem, while having been present for several decades, continues to be an active area of research. The goal of this research is to find correspondences between elements found in a set of stereoscopic images. With these pairings, it is possible to infer the distance of objects within a scene, relative to the observer. Advancements in this field have led to experimentations with various techniques, from graph-cut energy minimization to artificial neural networks. At the basis of these techniques is a cost function, which is used to evaluate the likelihood of a particular match between points in each image. While at its core, the cost is based on comparing the image pixel data; there is a general lack of consistency as to what image data representation to use. This paper presents an experimental analysis to compare the effectiveness of more common image data representations. The goal is to determine the effectiveness of these data representations to reduce the cost for the correct correspondence relative to other possible matches.

Keywords: Colour data, local stereo matching, stereo correspondence, disparity map.

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Authors: P. S. Prakash, S. Selvan

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QoS Routing aims to find paths between senders and receivers satisfying the QoS requirements of the application which efficiently using the network resources and underlying routing algorithm to be able to find low-cost paths that satisfy given QoS constraints. The problem of finding least-cost routing is known to be NP-hard or complete and some algorithms have been proposed to find a near optimal solution. But these heuristics or algorithms either impose relationships among the link metrics to reduce the complexity of the problem which may limit the general applicability of the heuristic, or are too costly in terms of execution time to be applicable to large networks. In this paper, we concentrate an algorithm that finds a near-optimal solution fast and we named this algorithm as optimized Delay Constrained Routing (ODCR), which uses an adaptive path weight function together with an additional constraint imposed on the path cost, to restrict search space and hence ODCR finds near optimal solution in much quicker time.

Keywords: QoS, Delay, Routing, Optimization.

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Authors: Sankar Chandrasekar, Rana Niranchan V.S., Joseph Sidharth Leon

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As the demand and prices of various petroleum products have been on the rise in recent years, there is a growing need for alternative fuels. Biodiesel, which consists of alkyl monoesters of fatty acids from vegetable oils and animal fats, is considered as an alternative to petroleum diesel. Biodiesel has comparable performance with that of diesel and has lower brake specific fuel consumption than diesel with significant reduction in emissions of CO, hydrocarbons (HC) and smoke with however, a slight increase in NOx emissions. This paper analyzes the effect of cooled exhaust gas recirculation in the combustion characteristics of a direct injection compression ignition engine using biodiesel blended fuel as opposed to the conventional system. The combustion parameters such as cylinder pressure, heat release rate, delay period and peak pressure were analyzed at various loads. The maximum cylinder pressure reduces as the fraction of biodiesel increases in the blend the maximum rate of pressure rise was found to be higher for diesel at higher engine loads.

Keywords: Cylinder pressure, delay period, EGR, heat release.

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Authors: Sultan Alharby, Nick Harris, Alex Weddell, Jeff Reeve

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The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) has received much attention over the last five years. It is predicted that the IoT will influence every aspect of our lifestyles in the near future. Wireless Sensor Networks are one of the key enablers of the operation of IoTs, allowing data to be collected from the surrounding environment. However, due to limited resources, nature of deployment and unattended operation, a WSN is vulnerable to various types of attack. Security is paramount for reliable and safe communication between IoT embedded devices, but it does, however, come at a cost to resources. Nodes are usually equipped with small batteries, which makes energy conservation crucial to IoT devices. Nevertheless, security cost in terms of energy consumption has not been studied sufficiently. Previous research has used a security specification of 802.15.4 for IoT applications, but the energy cost of each security level and the impact on quality of services (QoS) parameters remain unknown. This research focuses on the cost of security at the IoT media access control (MAC) layer. It begins by studying the energy consumption of IEEE 802.15.4 security levels, which is followed by an evaluation for the impact of security on data latency and throughput, and then presents the impact of transmission power on security overhead, and finally shows the effects of security on memory footprint. The results show that security overhead in terms of energy consumption with a payload of 24 bytes fluctuates between 31.5% at minimum level over non-secure packets and 60.4% at the top security level of 802.15.4 security specification. Also, it shows that security cost has less impact at longer packet lengths, and more with smaller packet size. In addition, the results depicts a significant impact on data latency and throughput. Overall, maximum authentication length decreases throughput by almost 53%, and encryption and authentication together by almost 62%.

Keywords: Internet of Things, IEEE 802.15.4, security cost evaluation, wireless sensor network, energy consumption.

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Authors: Mahidin, Yanna Syamsuddin, Samsul Rizal

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In order to fulfill world energy demand, several efforts have been done to look for new and renewable energy candidates to substitute oil and gas. Biomass is one of new and renewable energy sources, which is abundant in Indonesia. Palm kernel shell is a kind of biomass discharge from palm oil industries as a waste. On the other hand, Jatropha curcas that is easy to grow in Indonesia is also a typical energy source either for bio-diesel or biomass. In this study, biomass was used as co-fuel in briquetting of low-rank coal to suppress the release of emission (such as CO, NO_x and SO_x) during coal combustion. Desulfurizer, CaO-base, was also added to ensure the SO_x capture is effectively occurred. Ratio of coal to palm kernel shell (w/w) in the bio-briquette were 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, 80:20 and 90:10, while ratio of calcium to sulfur (Ca/S) in mole/mole were 1:1; 1.25:1; 1.5:1; 1.75:1 and 2:1. The bio-briquette then subjected to physical characterization and combustion test. The results show that the maximum weight loss in the durability measurement was ±6%. In addition, the highest stove efficiency for each desulfurizer was observed at the coal/PKS ratio of 90:10 and Ca/S ratio of 1:1 (except for the scallop shell desulfurizer that appeared at two Ca/S ratios; 1.25:1 and 1.5:1, respectively), i.e. 13.8% for the lime; 15.86% for the oyster shell; 14.54% for the scallop shell and 15.84% for the green mussel shell desulfurizers.

Keywords: Biomass, low-rank coal, bio-briquette, new and renewable energy, palm kernel shell.

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Authors: Majid Tolouei-Rad, Ankit Shah

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Drilling is the most common machining operation and it forms the highest machining cost in many manufacturing activities including automotive engine production. The outcome of this operation depends upon many factors including utilization of proper cutting tool geometry, cutting tool material and the type of coating used to improve hardness and resistance to wear, and also cutting parameters. With the availability of a large array of tool geometries, materials and coatings, is has become a challenging task to select the best tool and cutting parameters that would result in the lowest machining cost or highest profit rate. This paper describes an algorithm developed to help achieve good performances in drilling operations by automatically determination of proper cutting tools and cutting parameters. It also helps determine machining sequences resulting in minimum tool changes that would eventually reduce machining time and cost where multiple tools are used.

Keywords: Cutting tool, drilling, machining, algorithm.

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Authors: Zhang Tianci, Ding Meng, Zuo Hongfu, Zeng Lina, Sun Zejun

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Automation of airport operations can greatly improve ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage, speeds are allocated at control points, which ensure smooth speed profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method for the second-stage problem, since it only has a small set of discrete variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented methodology performs well on real world speed profile design problems.

Keywords: Airport ground movement, fuel consumption, particle swarm optimization, smoothness, speed profile design.

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Authors: Ebrahim Safarian, Kadir Bilen, Akif Ceviz

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The turbocharger and turbocharging have been the inherent component of diesel engines, so that critical parameters of such engines, as BSFC (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption) or thermal efficiency, fuel consumption, BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure), the power density output and emission level have been improved extensively. In general, the turbocharger can be considered as the most complex component of diesel engines, because it has closely interrelated turbomachinery concepts of the turbines and the compressors to thermodynamic fundamentals of internal combustion engines and stress analysis of all components. In this paper, a waste gate for a conventional single stage radial turbine is investigated by consideration of turbochargers operation constrains and engine operation conditions, without any detail designs in the turbine and the compressor. Amount of opening waste gate which extended between the ranges of full opened and closed valve, is demonstrated by limiting compressor boost pressure ratio. Obtaining of an optimum point by regard above mentioned items is surveyed by three linked meanline modeling programs together which consist of Turbomatch®, Compal®, Rital® madules in concepts NREC® respectively.

Keywords: Turbocharger, Wastegate, diesel engine, CONCEPT NREC programs.

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Authors: Julio Manuel de Luis Ruiz, Javier Sedano Cibrián, Rubén Pérez Álvarez, Raúl Pereda García, Felipe Piña García

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Nowadays it is common to resort to aerial photography to carry out the prospection and/or exploration of archaeological sites. In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been applied as the vehicles that carry the sensor. This implies certain advantages, such as the possibility of including low-cost sensors, given that these vehicles can carry the sensor at relatively low altitudes. Due to this, low-cost dual sensors have recently begun to be used. This new equipment can collaborate with classic Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) in the exploration of archaeological sites, but this entails the need for a methodological setting to optimize the acquisition, processing and exploitation of the information provided by low-cost dual sensors. This research focuses on the design of an appropriate workflow to obtain 3D models with low-cost sensors carried on UAVs, both in the RGB and thermal domains. All the foregoing has been applied to the archaeological site of Juliobriga, located in Cantabria (Spain). To this end, a flight with this type of sensors has been planned, developed and analyzed. It has been applied to the archaeological site of Juliobriga (Cantabria, Spain). A strong dependence of the thermal sensor on the GSD, and the capability of this technique to interpret underground materials. This research allows to state that the thermal nature of the site does not provide main information about the site itself, but with combination with other types of information, such as the DEM, the typology of materials, etc., can produce very positive results with respect to the exploration and knowledge of the site. 

Keywords: process optimization, RGB models, thermal models, UAV, workflow

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Authors: Megha Rao, Søren H. Jensen, Xiufu Sun, Anke Hagen, Mogens B. Mogensen

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Solid oxide electrolysis cells have an immense potential in converting CO₂ and H₂O into syngas during co-electrolysis operation. The produced syngas can be further converted into hydrocarbons. This kind of technology is called power-to-gas or power-to-liquid. To produce hydrocarbons via this route, durability of the cells is still a challenge, which needs to be further investigated in order to improve the cells. In this work, various nickel-yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) fuel electrode supported or YSZ electrolyte supported cells, cerium gadolinium oxide (CGO) barrier layer, and an oxygen electrode are investigated for durability under co-electrolysis conditions in both galvanostatic and potentiostatic conditions. While changing the gas on the oxygen electrode, keeping the fuel electrode gas composition constant, a change in the gas concentration arc was observed by impedance spectroscopy. Measurements of open circuit potential revealed the presence of leaks in the setup. It is speculated that the change in concentration impedance may be related to the leaks. Furthermore, the cells were also tested under pressurized conditions to find an inter-play between the leak rate and the pressure. A mathematical modeling together with electrochemical and microscopy analysis is presented.

Keywords: Co-electrolysis, solid oxide electrolysis cells, leaks, durability, gas concentration.

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Authors: Sittichai Kaewkuekool, Vanchai Laemlaksakul

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At the present, auto part industries have become higher challenge in strategy market. As this consequence, manufacturers need to have better response to customers in terms of quality, cost, and delivery time. Moreover, they need to have a good management in factory to comply with international standard maximum capacity and lower cost. This would lead companies to have to order standard part from aboard and become the major cost of inventory. The development of auto part research by recycling materials experiment is to compare the auto parts from recycle materials to international auto parts (CKD). Factors studied in this research were the recycle material ratios of PU-foam, felt, and fabric. Results of recycling materials were considered in terms of qualities and properties on the parameters such as weight, sound absorption, water absorption, tensile strength, elongation, and heat resistance with the CKD. The results were showed that recycling materials would be used to replace for the CKD.

Keywords: International auto parts, recycling materials.

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Authors: Thomas Behan, Zaiyi Liao, Lian Zhao, Chunting Yang

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In this paper, low end Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are applied to accelerate integer neural networks. The use of DSPs to accelerate neural networks has been a topic of study for some time, and has demonstrated significant performance improvements. Recently, work has been done on integer only neural networks, which greatly reduces hardware requirements, and thus allows for cheaper hardware implementation. DSPs with Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) that support floating or fixed point arithmetic are generally more expensive than their integer only counterparts due to increased circuit complexity. However if the need for floating or fixed point math operation can be removed, then simpler, lower cost DSPs can be used. To achieve this, an integer only neural network is created in this paper, which is then accelerated by using DSP instructions to improve performance.

Keywords: Digital Signal Processor (DSP), Integer Neural Network(INN), Low Cost Neural Network, Integer Neural Network DSPImplementation.

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Authors: C. Scott-Young, D. Samson

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Team efficacy beliefs show promise in enhancing team performance. Using a model-based quantitative research design, we investigated the antecedents and performance consequences of generalized team efficacy (potency) in a sample of 56 capital projects executed by 15 Fortune 500 companies in the process industries. Empirical analysis of our field survey identified that generalized team efficacy beliefs were positively associated with an objective measure of project cost performance. Regression analysis revealed that team competence, empowering leadership, and performance feedback all predicted generalized team efficacy beliefs. Tests of mediation revealed that generalized team efficacy fully mediated between these three inputs and project cost performance.

Keywords: Team efficacy, Potency, Leadership, Feedback, Project cost.

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Authors: P. Keerthika, P. Suresh

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Grid is an environment with millions of resources which are dynamic and heterogeneous in nature. A computational grid is one in which the resources are computing nodes and is meant for applications that involves larger computations. A scheduling algorithm is said to be efficient if and only if it performs better resource allocation even in case of resource failure. Resource allocation is a tedious issue since it has to consider several requirements such as system load, processing cost and time, user’s deadline and resource failure. This work attempts in designing a resource allocation algorithm which is cost-effective and also targets at load balancing, fault tolerance and user satisfaction by considering the above requirements. The proposed Budget Constrained Load Balancing Fault Tolerant algorithm with user satisfaction (BLBFT) reduces the schedule makespan, schedule cost and task failure rate and improves resource utilization. Evaluation of the proposed BLBFT algorithm is done using Gridsim toolkit and the results are compared with the algorithms which separately concentrates on all these factors. The comparison results ensure that the proposed algorithm works better than its counterparts.

Keywords: Grid Scheduling, Load Balancing, fault tolerance, makespan, cost, resource utilization.

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Authors: Rosshairy Abd Rahman, Chooi-Leng Ang, Razamin Ramli

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Feed is one of the factors which play an important role in determining a successful development of an aquaculture industry. It is always critical to produce the best aquaculture diet at a minimum cost in order to trim down the operational cost and gain more profit. However, the feed mix problem becomes increasingly difficult since many issues need to be considered simultaneously. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review the current techniques used by nutritionist and researchers to tackle the issues. Additionally, this paper introduce an enhance algorithm which is deemed suitable to deal with all the issues arise. The proposed technique refers to Hybrid Genetic Algorithm which is expected to obtain the minimum cost diet for farmed animal, while satisfying nutritional requirements. Hybrid GA technique with artificial bee algorithm is expected to reduce the penalty function and provide a better solution for the feed mix problem.

Keywords: Artificial bee algorithm, feed mix problem, hybrid genetic algorithm.

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Authors: A. K. Pradhan, M. K. Mohanty, S. K. Kar

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The power system utility has started to think about the green power technology in order to have an eco-friendly environment. The green power technology utilizes renewable energy sources for reduction of GHG emissions. Odisha state (India) is very rich in potential of renewable energy sources especially in solar energy (about 300 solar days), for installation of grid connected photovoltaic system. This paper focuses on the utilization of photovoltaic systems in an Institute building of Bhubaneswar city, Odisha. Different data like solar insolation (kW/m²/day), sunshine duration has been collected from metrological stations for Bhubaneswar city. The required electrical power and cost are calculated for daily load of 1.0 kW. The HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model of Electric Renewable) software is used to estimate system size and its performance analysis. The simulation result shows that the cost of energy (COE) is $ 0.194/kWh, the Operating cost is $63/yr and the net present cost (NPC) is $3,917. The energy produced from PV array is 1,756kWh/yr and energy purchased from grid is 410kWh/yr. The AC primary load consumption is 1314 kWh/yr and the Grid sales are 746 kWh/yr. One battery is connected in parallel with 12V DC Bus and the usable nominal capacity 2.4 kWh with 9.6 h autonomy capacity.

Keywords: Economic assessment, HOMER, Optimization, Photovoltaic (PV), Renewable energy.

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Authors: K. Saravanan

Abstract:

An electrical power system has some negative aspects such as flickering and deviations of voltage/power. This can be eliminated using energy storage devices that will provide a backup energy at the time of voltage/power deviations. Energy-storage devices get charging when system voltage/power is higher than reference value and discharging when system voltage/power is lower than reference value, it is acting as catalysts to provide energy boost. In this paper, a dynamic control of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) integrated with superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is developed to improve the power quality, power oscillation damping, and dynamic voltage stability through the transmission line. UPFC inter-connected to SMES through an interface with DC-DC chopper. This inter-connected system is capable of injecting (absorbing) the real and reactive power into (from) the system at the beginning of stability problems. In this paper, the simulation results of UPFC integrated with SMES and UPFC integrated with fuel cells (FCs) are compared using MATLAB/Simulink software package.

Keywords: UPFC, SMES, power system stability, flexible ac transmission systems, fuel cells, chopper.

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Authors: Behrooz Movahedi

Abstract:

Fe-based amorphous feedstock powders are used as the matrix into which various ratios of hard B4C nanoparticles (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 vol.%) as reinforcing agents were prepared using a planetary high-energy mechanical milling. The ball-milled nanocomposite feedstock powders were also sprayed by means of high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) technique. The characteristics of the powder particles and the prepared coating depending on their microstructures and nanohardness were examined in detail using nanoindentation tester. The results showed that the formation of the Fe-based amorphous phase was noticed over the course of high-energy ball milling. It is interesting to note that the nanocomposite coating is divided into two regions, namely, a full amorphous phase region and homogeneous dispersion of B4C nanoparticles with a scale of 10–50 nm in a residual amorphous matrix. As the B4C content increases, the nanohardness of the composite coatings increases, but the fracture toughness begins to decrease at the B4C content higher than 20 vol.%. The optimal mechanical properties are obtained with 15 vol.% B4C due to the suitable content and uniform distribution of nanoparticles. Consequently, the changes in mechanical properties of the coatings were attributed to the changes in the brittle to ductile transition by adding B4C nanoparticles.

Keywords: Fe-based amorphous, B4C nanoparticles, nanocomposite coating, HVOF.

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Authors: Gautham Das, Edward Morrone, Erik Treble, Clinton Binder

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a low-cost filter regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS is a commonly used man-made chemical that can be found in a variety of household and industrial products with deleterious effects on humans. The filter consists of a combination of low-cost materials which could be locally procured. Water testing results for 4 different PFAS contaminants indicated that for Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) regulation is 7 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), the ATSDR regulation is 10.5 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the ATSDR regulation is 11 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), the ATSDR regulation is 70 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. The results indicated a 74% reduction in PFAS concentration in filtered samples. Statistical data through regression analysis showed 0.9 validity of the sample data. Initial tests show the efficiency of the proposed filter described could be far greater if tested at a greater scale. It is highly recommended further testing to be conducted to validate the data for an innovative solution to a ubiquitous problem.

Keywords: PFAS, PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, low-cost filter.

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