Search results for: Matrix fraction description
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1635

Search results for: Matrix fraction description

735 Effect of Fuel Lean Reburning Process on NOx Reduction and CO Emission

Authors: Changyeop Lee, Sewon Kim

Abstract:

Reburning is a useful technology in reducing nitric oxide through injection of a secondary hydrocarbon fuel. In this paper, an experimental study has been conducted to evaluate the effect of fuel lean reburning on NOx/CO reduction in LNG flame. Experiments were performed in flames stabilized by a co-flow swirl burner, which was mounted at the bottom of the furnace. Tests were conducted using LNG gas as the reburn fuel as well as the main fuel. The effects of reburn fuel fraction and injection manner of the reburn fuel were studied when the fuel lean reburning system was applied. The paper reports data on flue gas emissions and temperature distribution in the furnace for a wide range of experimental conditions. At steady state, temperature distribution and emission formation in the furnace have been measured and compared. This paper makes clear that in order to decrease both NOx and CO concentrations in the exhaust when the pulsated fuel lean reburning system was adapted, it is important that the control of some factors such as frequency and duty ratio. Also it shows the fuel lean reburning is also effective method to reduce NOx as much as reburning.

Keywords: Fuel lean reburn, NOx, CO, LNG flame.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2201
734 The Applicability of Distillation as an Alternative Nuclear Reprocessing Method

Authors: Dominik Böhm, Konrad Czerski

Abstract:

A customized two-stage model has been developed to simulate, analyse, and visualize distillation of actinides as a useful alternative low-pressure separation method in the nuclear recycling cases. Under the most optimal conditions of idealized thermodynamic equilibrium stages and under total reflux of distillate the investigated cases of chloride systems for the separation of such actinides are (A) UCl4-CsCl-PuCl3 and (B) ThCl4-NaCl-PuCl3. Simulatively, uranium tetrachloride in case A is successfully separated by distillation into a six-stage distillation column, and thorium tetrachloride from case B into an eight-stage distillation column. For this, a permissible mole fraction value of 1E-06 has been assumed for the residual impurification degree. With further separation effort of eleven to seventeen required separation stages, the monochlorides of plutonium trichloride from both systems A and B are simulatively shown to be separated as high pure distillation products.

Keywords: Conceptual design of a pyroprocessing unit, molten salt recovery, simulation of total-reflux distillation column, used nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 615
733 Speciation Analysis by Solid-Phase Microextraction and Application to Atrazine

Authors: K. Benhabib, X. Pierens, V-D Nguyen, G. Mimanne

Abstract:

The main hypothesis of the dynamics of solid phase microextraction (SPME) is that steady-state mass transfer is respected throughout the SPME extraction process. It considers steady-state diffusion is established in the two phases and fast exchange of the analyte at the solid phase film/water interface. An improved model is proposed in this paper to handle with the situation when the analyte (atrazine) is in contact with colloid suspensions (carboxylate latex in aqueous solution). A mathematical solution is obtained by substituting the diffusion coefficient by the mean of diffusion coefficient between analyte and carboxylate latex, and also thickness layer by the mean thickness in aqueous solution. This solution provides an equation relating the extracted amount of the analyte to the extraction a little more complicated than previous models. It also gives a better description of experimental observations. Moreover, the rate constant of analyte obtained is in satisfactory agreement with that obtained from the initial curve fitting.

Keywords: Pesticide, SPME methods, polyacrylate, steady state.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 696
732 Vibration of FGM Cylindrical Shells under Effect Clamped-simply Support Boundary Conditions using Hamilton's Principle

Authors: M.R.Isvandzibaei, E.Bidokh, M.R.Alinaghizadeh, A.Nasirian, A.Moarrefzadeh

Abstract:

In this paper a study on the vibration of thin cylindrical shells with ring supports and made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties vary along the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law. The cylindrical shells have ring supports which are arbitrarily placed along the shell and impose zero lateral deflections. The study is carried out based on third order shear deformation shell theory (T.S.D.T). The analysis is carried out using Hamilton-s principle. The governing equations of motion of FGM cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of ring support position and the influence of boundary conditions. The present analysis is validated by comparing results with those available in the literature.

Keywords: Vibration, FGM, Cylindrical shell, Hamilton'sprinciple, Ring support.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1480
731 PMF, Cesium and Rubidium Nanoparticles Induce Apoptosis in A549 Cells

Authors: Faten. A. Khorshid, Gehan. A. Raouf, Salem. M. El-Hamidy, Gehan. S. Al-amri, Nourah. A. Alotaibi, Taha A. Kumosani

Abstract:

Cancer becomes one of the leading cause of death in many countries over the world. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of human lung cancer cells (A549) treated with PMF (natural product extracted from PM 701) for different time intervals were examined. Second derivative and difference method were taken in comparison studies. Cesium (Cs) and Rubidium (Rb) nanoparticles in PMF were detected by Energy Dispersive X-ray attached to Scanning Electron Microscope SEM-EDX. Characteristic changes in protein secondary structure, lipid profile and changes in the intensities of DNA bands were identified in treated A549 cells spectra. A characteristic internucleosomal ladder of DNA fragmentation was also observed after 30 min of treatment. Moreover, the pH values were significantly increases upon treatment due to the presence of Cs and Rb nanoparticles in the PMF fraction. These results support the previous findings that PMF is selective anticancer agent and can produce apoptosis to A549 cells.

Keywords: Apoptosis, FTIR spectroscopy, pH therapy, Scanning Electron Microscope- Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEMEDX).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4334
730 A New Sufficient Conditions of Stability for Discrete Time Non-autonomous Delayed Hopfield Neural Networks

Authors: Adnene Arbi, Chaouki Aouiti, Abderrahmane Touati

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider the uniform asymptotic stability, global asymptotic stability and global exponential stability of the equilibrium point of discrete Hopfield neural networks with delays. Some new stability criteria for system are derived by using the Lyapunov functional method and the linear matrix inequality approach, for estimating the upper bound of Lyapunov functional derivative.

Keywords: Hopfield neural networks, uniform asymptotic stability, global asymptotic stability, exponential stability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1970
729 Profit and Nonprofit Sports Clubs: Financial and Organizational Comparison in Poland

Authors: Wojciech B. Cieśliński, Igor Perechuda

Abstract:

The paper identifies the features of Polish sports clubs in the particular organizational forms: profit and nonprofit. Identification and description of these features is carried out in terms of financial efficiency of the given organizational form. Under the terms of the efficiency the research allows you to specify the advantages of particular organizational sports club form and the following limitations. Paper considers features of sports clubs in range of Polish conditions as legal regulations. The sources of the functioning efficiency of sports clubs may lie in the organizational forms in which they operate. Each of the available forms can be considered either a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise. Depending on this classification there are different capabilities of increasing organizational and financial efficiency of a given sports club. Authors start with general classification and difference between for-profit and non-profit sport clubs. Next identifies specific financial and organizational conditions of both organizational form and then show examples of mixed activity forms and their efficiency effect.

Keywords: Financial efficiency, for-profit, non-profit, sports club.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2039
728 Simulation of Enhanced Biomass Gasification for Hydrogen Production using iCON

Authors: Mohd K. Yunus, Murni M. Ahmad, Abrar Inayat, Suzana Yusup

Abstract:

Due to the environmental and price issues of current energy crisis, scientists and technologists around the globe are intensively searching for new environmentally less-impact form of clean energy that will reduce the high dependency on fossil fuel. Particularly hydrogen can be produced from biomass via thermochemical processes including pyrolysis and gasification due to the economic advantage and can be further enhanced through in-situ carbon dioxide removal using calcium oxide. This work focuses on the synthesis and development of the flowsheet for the enhanced biomass gasification process in PETRONAS-s iCON process simulation software. This hydrogen prediction model is conducted at operating temperature between 600 to 1000oC at atmospheric pressure. Effects of temperature, steam-to-biomass ratio and adsorbent-to-biomass ratio were studied and 0.85 mol fraction of hydrogen is predicted in the product gas. Comparisons of the results are also made with experimental data from literature. The preliminary economic potential of developed system is RM 12.57 x 106 which equivalent to USD 3.77 x 106 annually shows economic viability of this process.

Keywords: Biomass, Gasification, Hydrogen, iCON.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2608
727 A Fully-Automated Disturbance Analysis Vision for the Smart Grid Based on Smart Switch Data

Authors: Bernardo Cedano, Ahmed H. Eltom, Bob Hay, Jim Glass, Raga Ahmed

Abstract:

The deployment of smart grid devices such as smart meters and smart switches (SS) supported by a reliable and fast communications system makes automated distribution possible, and thus, provides great benefits to electric power consumers and providers alike. However, more research is needed before the full utility of smart switch data is realized. This paper presents new automated switching techniques using SS within the electric power grid. A concise background of the SS is provided, and operational examples are shown. Organization and presentation of data obtained from SS are shown in the context of the future goal of total automation of the distribution network. The description of application techniques, the examples of success with SS, and the vision outlined in this paper serve to motivate future research pertinent to disturbance analysis automation.

Keywords: Disturbance automation, electric power grid, smart grid, smart switch.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 992
726 Flexural Properties of Halloysite Nanotubes-Polyester Nanocomposites Exposed to Aggressive Environment

Authors: Mohd Shahneel Saharudin, Jiacheng Wei, Islam Shyha, Fawad Inam

Abstract:

This study aimed to investigate the effect of aggressive environment on the flexural properties of halloysite nanotubes-polyester nanocomposites. Results showed that the addition of halloysite nanotubes into polyester matrix was found to improve flexural properties of the nanocomposites in dry condition and after water-methanol exposure. Significant increase in surface roughness was also observed and measured by Alicona Infinite Focus optical microscope.

Keywords: Halloysite nanotubes, polymer degradation, flexural properties, surface roughness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 973
725 Modern Detection and Description Methods for Natural Plants Recognition

Authors: Masoud Fathi Kazerouni, Jens Schlemper, Klaus-Dieter Kuhnert

Abstract:

Green planet is one of the Earth’s names which is known as a terrestrial planet and also can be named the fifth largest planet of the solar system as another scientific interpretation. Plants do not have a constant and steady distribution all around the world, and even plant species’ variations are not the same in one specific region. Presence of plants is not only limited to one field like botany; they exist in different fields such as literature and mythology and they hold useful and inestimable historical records. No one can imagine the world without oxygen which is produced mostly by plants. Their influences become more manifest since no other live species can exist on earth without plants as they form the basic food staples too. Regulation of water cycle and oxygen production are the other roles of plants. The roles affect environment and climate. Plants are the main components of agricultural activities. Many countries benefit from these activities. Therefore, plants have impacts on political and economic situations and future of countries. Due to importance of plants and their roles, study of plants is essential in various fields. Consideration of their different applications leads to focus on details of them too. Automatic recognition of plants is a novel field to contribute other researches and future of studies. Moreover, plants can survive their life in different places and regions by means of adaptations. Therefore, adaptations are their special factors to help them in hard life situations. Weather condition is one of the parameters which affect plants life and their existence in one area. Recognition of plants in different weather conditions is a new window of research in the field. Only natural images are usable to consider weather conditions as new factors. Thus, it will be a generalized and useful system. In order to have a general system, distance from the camera to plants is considered as another factor. The other considered factor is change of light intensity in environment as it changes during the day. Adding these factors leads to a huge challenge to invent an accurate and secure system. Development of an efficient plant recognition system is essential and effective. One important component of plant is leaf which can be used to implement automatic systems for plant recognition without any human interface and interaction. Due to the nature of used images, characteristic investigation of plants is done. Leaves of plants are the first characteristics to select as trusty parts. Four different plant species are specified for the goal to classify them with an accurate system. The current paper is devoted to principal directions of the proposed methods and implemented system, image dataset, and results. The procedure of algorithm and classification is explained in details. First steps, feature detection and description of visual information, are outperformed by using Scale invariant feature transform (SIFT), HARRIS-SIFT, and FAST-SIFT methods. The accuracy of the implemented methods is computed. In addition to comparison, robustness and efficiency of results in different conditions are investigated and explained.

Keywords: SIFT combination, feature extraction, feature detection, natural images, natural plant recognition, HARRIS-SIFT, FAST-SIFT.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 729
724 Enhanced Traveling Salesman Problem Solving by Genetic Algorithm Technique (TSPGA)

Authors: Buthainah Fahran Al-Dulaimi, Hamza A. Ali

Abstract:

The well known NP-complete problem of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is coded in genetic form. A software system is proposed to determine the optimum route for a Traveling Salesman Problem using Genetic Algorithm technique. The system starts from a matrix of the calculated Euclidean distances between the cities to be visited by the traveling salesman and a randomly chosen city order as the initial population. Then new generations are then created repeatedly until the proper path is reached upon reaching a stopping criterion. This search is guided by a solution evaluation function.

Keywords: Genetic algorithms, traveling salesman problem solving, optimization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2559
723 Establishment of Air Quality Zones in Italy

Authors: M. G. Dirodi, G. Gugliotta, C. Leonardi

Abstract:

Member States shall establish zones and agglomerations throughout their territory to assess and manage air quality in order to comply with European directives. In Italy decree 155/2010, transposing Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, merged into a single act the previous provisions on ambient air quality assessment and management, including those resulting from the implementation of Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. Decree 155/2010 introduced stricter rules for identifying zones on the basis of the characteristics of the territory in spite of considering pollution levels, as it was in the past. The implementation of such new criteria has reduced the great variability of the previous zoning, leading to a significant reduction of the total number of zones and to a complete and uniform ambient air quality assessment and management throughout the Country. The present document is related to the new zones definition in Italy according to Decree 155/2010. In particular the paper contains the description and the analysis of the outcome of zoning and classification.

Keywords: Zones, agglomerations, air quality assessment, classification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2129
722 Ethylene Epoxidation in a Low-Temperature Parallel Plate Dielectric Barrier Discharge System: Effects of Ethylene Feed Position and O2/C2H4 Feed Molar Ratio

Authors: Bunphot Paosombat, Thitiporn Suttikul, Sumaeth Chavadej

Abstract:

The effects of ethylene (C2H4) feed position and O2/C2H4 feed molar ratio on ethylene epoxidation in a parallel dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) were studied. The results showed that the ethylene feed position fraction of 0.5 and the feed molar ratio of O2/C2H4 of 0.2:1 gave the highest EO selectivity of 34.3% and the highest EO yield of 5.28% with low power consumptions of 2.11×10-16 Ws/molecule of ethylene converted and 6.34×10-16 Ws/molecule of EO produced when the DBD system was operated under the best conditions: an applied voltage of 19 kV, an input frequency of 500 Hz and a total feed flow rate of 50 cm3/min. The separate ethylene feed system provided much higher epoxidation activity as compared to the mixed feed system which gave EO selectivity of 15.5%, EO yield of 2.1% and the power consumption of EO produced of 7.7×10-16 Ws/molecule.

Keywords: Dielectric Barrier Discharge, C2H4 Feed Position, Epoxidation, Ethylene Oxide

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1702
721 Forward Kinematics Analysis of a 3-PRS Parallel Manipulator

Authors: Ghasem Abbasnejad, Soheil Zarkandi, Misagh Imani

Abstract:

In this article the homotopy continuation method (HCM) to solve the forward kinematic problem of the 3-PRS parallel manipulator is used. Since there are many difficulties in solving the system of nonlinear equations in kinematics of manipulators, the numerical solutions like Newton-Raphson are inevitably used. When dealing with any numerical solution, there are two troublesome problems. One is that good initial guesses are not easy to detect and another is related to whether the used method will converge to useful solutions. Results of this paper reveal that the homotopy continuation method can alleviate the drawbacks of traditional numerical techniques.

Keywords: Forward kinematics, Homotopy continuationmethod, Parallel manipulators, Rotation matrix

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2660
720 Tensile Behavior of Spheroidizing Heat Treated High Carbon Steel

Authors: Seok Hong Min, Tae Kwon Ha

Abstract:

Spheroidization heat treatment was conducted on the  SK85 high carbon steel sheets with various initial microstructures  obtained after cold rolling by various reduction ratios at a couple of  annealing temperatures. On the high carbon steel sheet with fine  pearlite microstructure, obtained by soaking at 800oC for 2hr in a box furnace and then annealing at 570oC for 5min in a salt bath furnace followed by water quenching, cold rolling was conducted by reduction ratios of 20, 30, and 40%. Heat treatment for spheroidization was carried out at 600 and 720oC for the various time intervals from 0.1 to 32 hrs. Area fraction of spheroidized cementite was measured with an image analyzer as a function of cold reduction ratios and duration times. Tensile tests were carried out at room temperature on the spheoidized high carbon steel.

 

Keywords: High carbon steel, SK85, pearlite, cementite, shperoidization, tensile behavior.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4134
719 Combustion, Emission and Performance Characteristics of a Light Duty Diesel Engine Fuelled with Methanol Diesel Blends

Authors: Mishra Chinmaya, Pal Anuj, Tomar Vishvendra Singh, Kumar Naveen

Abstract:

Combustion, emission and performance characterization of a single cylinder diesel engine using methanol diesel blends was carried out. The blends were 5% (v/v) methanol in diesel (MD05) and 10% (v/v) methanol in diesel (MD10). The problem of solubility of methanol and diesel was addressed by an agitator placed inside the fuel tank to prevent phase separation. The results indicated that total combustion duration was reduced by15.8% for MD05 and 31.27% for MD10compared to the baseline data. Ignition delay was increased with increasing methanol volume fraction in the test fuel. Total cyclic heat release was reduced by 1.5% for MD05 and 6.7% for MD10 as compared to diesel baseline. Emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons along with smoke were reduced and that of nitrogen oxides were increased with rising methanol contents in the test fuel. Full load brake thermal efficiency was marginally reduced with increased methanol composition in the blend.

Keywords: Combustion, diesel engine, emission, methanol, performance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3261
718 Carbon Disulfide Production via Hydrogen Sulfide Methane Reformation

Authors: H. Hosseini, M. Javadi, M. Moghiman, M. H. Ghodsi Rad

Abstract:

Carbon disulfide is widely used for the production of viscose rayon, rubber, and other organic materials and it is a feedstock for the synthesis of sulfuric acid. The objective of this paper is to analyze possibilities for efficient production of CS2 from sour natural gas reformation (H2SMR) (2H2S+CH4 =CS2 +4H2) . Also, the effect of H2S to CH4 feed ratio and reaction temperature on carbon disulfide production is investigated numerically in a reforming reactor. The chemical reaction model is based on an assumed Probability Density Function (PDF) parameterized by the mean and variance of mixture fraction and β-PDF shape. The results show that the major factors influencing CS2 production are reactor temperature. The yield of carbon disulfide increases with increasing H2S to CH4 feed gas ratio (H2S/CH4≤4). Also the yield of C(s) increases with increasing temperature until the temperature reaches to 1000°K, and then due to increase of CS2 production and consumption of C(s), yield of C(s) drops with further increase in the temperature. The predicted CH4 and H2S conversion and yield of carbon disulfide are in good agreement with result of Huang and TRaissi.

Keywords: Carbon disulfide, sour natural gas, H2SMR, probability density function.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5259
717 Photomechanical Analysis of Wooden Testing Bodies under Flexural Loadings

Authors: J. Gazzola, I. M. Dal Fabbro, J. Soriano, M. V. G. Silva, S. Rodrigues

Abstract:

Application of wood in rural construction is diffused all around the world since remote times. However, its inclusion in structural design deserves strong support from broad knowledge of material properties. The pertinent literature reveals the application of optical methods in determining the complete field displacement on bodies exhibiting regular as well as irregular surfaces. The use of moiré techniques in experimental mechanics consists in analyzing the patterns generated on the body surface before and after deformation. The objective of this research work is to study the qualitative deformation behavior of wooden testing specimens under specific loading situations. The experiment setup follows the literature description of shadow moiré methods. Results indicate strong anisotropy influence of the generated displacement field. Important qualitative as well as quantitative stress and strain distribution were obtained wooden members which are applicable to rural constructions.

Keywords: Moiré methods, wooden structural material, rural constructions.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1529
716 OCIRS: An Ontology-based Chinese Idioms Retrieval System

Authors: Hu Haibo, Tu Chunmei, Fu Chunlei, Fu Li, Mao Fan, Ma Yuan

Abstract:

Chinese Idioms are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions with specific meanings and stereotypes structure which are widely used in classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular written and spoken Chinese today. Currently, Chinese Idioms are retrieved in glossary with key character or key word in morphology or pronunciation index that can not meet the need of searching semantically. OCIRS is proposed to search the desired idiom in the case of users only knowing its meaning without any key character or key word. The user-s request in a sentence or phrase will be grammatically analyzed in advance by word segmentation, key word extraction and semantic similarity computation, thus can be mapped to the idiom domain ontology which is constructed to provide ample semantic relations and to facilitate description logics-based reasoning for idiom retrieval. The experimental evaluation shows that OCIRS realizes the function of searching idioms via semantics, obtaining preliminary achievement as requested by the users.

Keywords: Chinese idiom, idiom retrieval, semantic searching, ontology, semantics similarity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1719
715 Effects of Paste Content on Flow Characteristics of SCC Containing Local Natural Pozzolan

Authors: Muhammad Nouman Haral, Abdulaziz I. Al-Negheimesh, Galal Fares, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Abdulrahman M. Alhozaimy

Abstract:

Natural pozzolan (NP) is one of the potential prehistoric alternative binders in the construction industry. It has been investigated as cement replacement in ordinary concrete by several researchers for many purposes. Various supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash, limestone dust and silica fume are widely used in the production of SCC; however, limited studies to address the effect of NP on the properties of SCC are documented. The current research is composed of different SCC paste and concrete mixtures containing different replacement levels of local NP as an alternative SCM. The effect of volume of paste containing different amounts of local NP related to W/B ratio and cement content on SCC fresh properties was assessed. The variations in the fresh properties of SCC paste and concrete represented by slump flow (flowability) and the flow rate were determined and discussed. The results indicated that the flow properties of SCC paste and concrete mixtures, at their optimized superplasticizer dosages, were affected by the binder content of local NP and the total volume fraction of SCC paste.

Keywords: Binder, fresh properties, natural pozzolan, paste, SCC.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2786
714 The Effects of Aggregate Sizes and Fiber Volume Fraction on Bending Toughness and Direct Tension of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho, Jae-Heum Moon, Jang-Hwa Lee

Abstract:

In order to supplement the brittle property of concrete, fibers are added into concrete mixtures. Compared to general concrete, various characteristics such as tensile strength, bending strength, bending toughness, and resistance to crack are superior, and even when cracks occur, improvements on toughness as well as resistance to shock are excellent due to the growth of fracture energy. Increased function of steel fiber reinforced concrete can be differentiated depending on the fiber dispersion, and sand percentage can be an important influence on the fiber dispersion. Therefore, in this research, experiments were planned on sand percentage in order to apprehend the influence of sand percentage on the bending properties and direct tension of SFRC and basic experiments were conducted on bending and direct tension in order to recognize the properties of bending properties and direct tension following the size of the aggregates and sand percentage.

Keywords: Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Bending Toughness, Direct tension.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1660
713 A Comparison and Analysis of Name Matching Algorithms

Authors: Chakkrit Snae

Abstract:

Names are important in many societies, even in technologically oriented ones which use e.g. ID systems to identify individual people. Names such as surnames are the most important as they are used in many processes, such as identifying of people and genealogical research. On the other hand variation of names can be a major problem for the identification and search for people, e.g. web search or security reasons. Name matching presumes a-priori that the recorded name written in one alphabet reflects the phonetic identity of two samples or some transcription error in copying a previously recorded name. We add to this the lode that the two names imply the same person. This paper describes name variations and some basic description of various name matching algorithms developed to overcome name variation and to find reasonable variants of names which can be used to further increasing mismatches for record linkage and name search. The implementation contains algorithms for computing a range of fuzzy matching based on different types of algorithms, e.g. composite and hybrid methods and allowing us to test and measure algorithms for accuracy. NYSIIS, LIG2 and Phonex have been shown to perform well and provided sufficient flexibility to be included in the linkage/matching process for optimising name searching.

Keywords: Data mining, name matching algorithm, nominaldata, searching system.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11090
712 Generating Qualitative Causal Graph using Modeling Constructs of Qualitative Process Theory for Explaining Organic Chemistry Reactions

Authors: Alicia Y. C. Tang, Rukaini Abdullah, Sharifuddin M. Zain, Noorsaadah A. Rahman

Abstract:

This paper discusses the causal explanation capability of QRIOM, a tool aimed at supporting learning of organic chemistry reactions. The development of the tool is based on the hybrid use of Qualitative Reasoning (QR) technique and Qualitative Process Theory (QPT) ontology. Our simulation combines symbolic, qualitative description of relations with quantity analysis to generate causal graphs. The pedagogy embedded in the simulator is to both simulate and explain organic reactions. Qualitative reasoning through a causal chain will be presented to explain the overall changes made on the substrate; from initial substrate until the production of final outputs. Several uses of the QPT modeling constructs in supporting behavioral and causal explanation during run-time will also be demonstrated. Explaining organic reactions through causal graph trace can help improve the reasoning ability of learners in that their conceptual understanding of the subject is nurtured.

Keywords: Qualitative reasoning, causal graph, organicreactions, explanation, QPT, modeling constructs.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1419
711 Efficient Hardware Realization of Truncated Multipliers using FPGA

Authors: Muhammad H. Rais,

Abstract:

Truncated multiplier is a good candidate for digital signal processing (DSP) applications including finite impulse response (FIR) and discrete cosine transform (DCT). Through truncated multiplier a significant reduction in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) resources can be achieved. This paper presents for the first time a comparison of resource utilization of Spartan-3AN and Virtex-5 implementation of standard and truncated multipliers using Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL). The Virtex-5 FPGA shows significant improvement as compared to Spartan-3AN FPGA device. The Virtex-5 FPGA device shows better performance with a percentage ratio of number of occupied slices for standard to truncated multipliers is increased from 40% to 73.86% as compared to Spartan- 3AN is decreased from 68.75% to 58.78%. Results show that the anomaly in Spartan-3AN FPGA device average connection and maximum pin delay have been efficiently reduced in Virtex-5 FPGA device.

Keywords: Digital Signal Processing (DSP), FieldProgrammable Gate Array (FPGA), Spartan-3AN, TruncatedMultiplier, Virtex-5, VHDL.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2561
710 Use of Nanoclay in Various Modified Polyolefins

Authors: Michael Tupý, Alice Tesaříková-Svobodová, Dagmar Měřínská, Vít Petránek

Abstract:

Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene (vinyl acetate) (EVA) and PE-ionomer nanocomposite samples were prepared by mixing of the polymer with organofilized montmorillonite fillers Cloisite 93A and Dellite 67G. The amount of each modified montmorillonite (MMT) was fixed to 5% (w/w). The twin-screw kneader was used for the compounding of polymer matrix and chosen nanofillers. The level of MMT exfoliation was studied by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. The mechanical properties of prepared materials were evaluated by dynamical mechanical analysis at 30°C and by the measurement of tensile properties (stress and strain at break).

Keywords: Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene (vinyl acetate), Clay, Nanocomposite, Montmorillonite.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2172
709 Effect of Viscous Dissipation and Axial Conduction in Thermally Developing Region of the Channel Partially Filled with a Porous Material Subjected to Constant Wall Heat Flux

Authors: D Bhargavi, J. Sharath Kumar Reddy

Abstract:

The present investigation has been undertaken to assess the effect of viscous dissipation and axial conduction on forced convection heat transfer in the entrance region of a parallel plate channel with the porous insert attached to both walls of the channel. The flow field is unidirectional. Flow in the porous region corresponds to Darcy-Brinkman model and the clear fluid region to that of plane Poiseuille flow. The effects of the parameters Darcy number, Da, Peclet number, Pe, Brinkman number, Br and a porous fraction γp on the local heat transfer coefficient are analyzed graphically. Effects of viscous dissipation employing the Darcy model and the clear fluid compatible model have been studied.

Keywords: Porous material, channel partially filled with a porous material, axial conduction, viscous dissipation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 638
708 Towards Real-Time Classification of Finger Movement Direction Using Encephalography Independent Components

Authors: Mohamed Mounir Tellache, Hiroyuki Kambara, Yasuharu Koike, Makoto Miyakoshi, Natsue Yoshimura

Abstract:

This study explores the practicality of using electroencephalographic (EEG) independent components to predict eight-direction finger movements in pseudo-real-time. Six healthy participants with individual-head MRI images performed finger movements in eight directions with two different arm configurations. The analysis was performed in two stages. The first stage consisted of using independent component analysis (ICA) to separate the signals representing brain activity from non-brain activity signals and to obtain the unmixing matrix. The resulting independent components (ICs) were checked, and those reflecting brain-activity were selected. Finally, the time series of the selected ICs were used to predict eight finger-movement directions using Sparse Logistic Regression (SLR). The second stage consisted of using the previously obtained unmixing matrix, the selected ICs, and the model obtained by applying SLR to classify a different EEG dataset. This method was applied to two different settings, namely the single-participant level and the group-level. For the single-participant level, the EEG dataset used in the first stage and the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the same participant. For the group-level, the EEG datasets used in the first stage were constructed by temporally concatenating each combination without repetition of the EEG datasets of five participants out of six, whereas the EEG dataset used in the second stage originated from the remaining participants. The average test classification results across datasets (mean ± S.D.) were 38.62 ± 8.36% for the single-participant, which was significantly higher than the chance level (12.50 ± 0.01%), and 27.26 ± 4.39% for the group-level which was also significantly higher than the chance level (12.49% ± 0.01%). The classification accuracy within [–45°, 45°] of the true direction is 70.03 ± 8.14% for single-participant and 62.63 ± 6.07% for group-level which may be promising for some real-life applications. Clustering and contribution analyses further revealed the brain regions involved in finger movement and the temporal aspect of their contribution to the classification. These results showed the possibility of using the ICA-based method in combination with other methods to build a real-time system to control prostheses.

Keywords: Brain-computer interface, BCI, electroencephalography, EEG, finger motion decoding, independent component analysis, pseudo-real-time motion decoding.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 599
707 Simulation of the Performance of the Reforming of Methane in a Primary Reformer

Authors: A. Alkattib, M. Boumaza

Abstract:

Steam reforming is industrially important as it is  incorporated in several major chemical processes including the  production of ammonia, methanol, hydrogen and ox alcohols. Due to  the strongly endothermic nature of the process, a large amount of heat  is supplied by fuel burning (commonly natural gas) in the furnace  chamber. Reaction conversions, tube catalyst life, energy  consumption and CO2 emission represent the principal factors  affecting the performance of this unit and are directly influenced by  the high operating temperatures and pressures.  This study presents a simulation of the performance of the  reforming of methane in a primary reformer, through a developed  empirical relation which enables to investigate the effects of  operating parameters such as the pressure, temperature, steam to  carbon ratio on the production of hydrogen, as well as the fraction of  non converted methane.  It appears from this analysis that the exit temperature Te, the  operating pressure as well the steam to carbon ratio has an important  effect on the reforming of methane.

 

Keywords: Reforming, methane, performance, hydrogen, parameters.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2472
706 Heteromolecular Structure Formation in Aqueous Solutions of Ethanol, Tetrahydrofuran and Dimethylformamide

Authors: Sh. Gofurov, O. Ismailova, U. Makhmanov, A. Kokhkharov

Abstract:

The refractometric method has been used to determine optical properties of concentration features of aqueous solutions of ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and dimethylformamide at the room temperature. Changes in dielectric permittivity of aqueous solutions of ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and dimethylformamide in a wide range of concentrations (0÷1.0 molar fraction) have been studied using molecular dynamics method. The curves depending on the concentration of experimental data on excess refractive indices and excess dielectric permittivity were compared. It has been shown that stable heteromolecular complexes in binary solutions are formed in the concentration range of 0.3÷0.4 mole fractions. The real and complex part of dielectric permittivity was obtained from dipole-dipole autocorrelation functions of molecules. At the concentrations of C = 0.3 / 0.4 m.f. the heteromolecular structures with hydrogen bonds are formed. This is confirmed by the extremum values of excessive dielectric permittivity and excessive refractive index of aqueous solutions.

Keywords: Refractometric method, dielectric constant, molecular dynamics, aqueous solution.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1003