Search results for: Acoustic emission monitoring

Authors: Jae Moon Lee

Abstract:

In general, algorithms to find continuous k-nearest neighbors have been researched on the location based services, monitoring periodically the moving objects such as vehicles and mobile phone. Those researches assume the environment that the number of query points is much less than that of moving objects and the query points are not moved but fixed. In gaming environments, this problem is when computing the next movement considering the neighbors such as flocking, crowd and robot simulations. In this case, every moving object becomes a query point so that the number of query point is same to that of moving objects and the query points are also moving. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the existing algorithms focused on location based services how they operate under gaming environments.

Keywords: Flocking behavior, heterogeneous agents, similarity, simulation.

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Authors: Eklas Hossain, Sheroz Khan, Ahad Ali

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Power line communications may be used as a data communication channel in public and indoor distribution networks so that it does not require the installing of new cables. Industrial low voltage distribution network may be utilized for data transfer required by the on-line condition monitoring of electric motors. This paper presents a pilot distribution network for modeling low voltage power line as data transfer channel. The signal attenuation in communication channels in the pilot environment is presented and the analysis is done by varying the corresponding parameters for the signal attenuation.

Keywords: Data communication, indoor distribution networks, low voltage, power line.

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Authors: Rizwan Nasir, Hilmi Mukhtar, Zakaria Man, Dzeti Farhah Mohshim

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Carbon dioxide has been well associated with greenhouse effect, and due to its corrosive nature it is an undesirable compound. A variety of physical-chemical processes are available for the removal of carbon dioxide. Previous attempts in this field have established alkanolamine group has the capability to remove carbon dioxide. So, this study combined the polymeric membrane and alkanolamine solutions to fabricate the amine polymeric membrane (APM) to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂). This study entails the effect of three types of amines, monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). The effect of each alkanolamine group on the morphology and performance of polyether sulfone (PES) polymeric membranes was studied. Flat sheet membranes were fabricated by solvent evaporation method by adding polymer and different alkanolamine solutions in the N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent. The final membranes were characterized by using Field Emission Electron Microscope (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The membrane separation performance was studied. The PES-DEA and PES-MDEA membrane has good ability to remove carbon dioxide. 

Keywords: Amine Polymeric membrane, Alkanolamine solution, CO2 Removal, Characterization.

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Authors: S. U. Khan, T. Ayub, N. Shafiq

Abstract:

The properties of locally produced metakaolin (MK) as cement replacing material and the comparison of reactivity with commercially available micro-silica have been investigated. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and load-deflection behaviour under bending are the properties that have been studied. The amorphous phase of MK with micro-silica was compared through X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. Further, interfacial transition zone of concrete with micro-silica and MK was observed through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). Three mixes of concrete were prepared. One of the mix is without cement replacement as control mix, and the remaining two mixes are 10% cement replacement with micro-silica and MK. It has been found that MK, due to its irregular structure and amorphous phase, has high reactivity with portlandite in concrete. The compressive strength at early age is higher with MK as compared to micro-silica. MK concrete showed higher splitting tensile strength and higher load carrying capacity as compared to control and micro-silica concrete at all ages respectively.

Keywords: Metakaolin, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, load deflection, interfacial transition zone.

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Authors: T. Hudecek, Z. Zakova

Abstract:

The paper deals with cartographic visualisation of results of transport accessibility monitoring with the use of a semiautomated method of unipolar anamorphosis, developed by the authors in the GIS environment. The method is based on transformation of distance in the map to values of a geographical phenomenon. In the case of time accessibility it is based on transformation of isochrones converted into the form of concentric circles, taking into account selected topographic and thematic elements in the map. The method is most suitable for analyses of accessibility to or from a centre and for modelling its long-term context. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the procedures and functionality of the method, discussing the issues of coordinates, transformation, scale and visualisation. It also offers a discussion of possible problems and inaccuracies. A practical application of the method is illustrated by previous research results by the authors in the filed of accessibility in Czechia.

Keywords: accessibility, GIS, transformation, unipolar anamorphosis

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Authors: A. Chellil, A. Nour, S. Lecheb, H. Mechakra, L. Addar, H. Kebir

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This paper present a mechanical characteristics on fatigue crack propagation in Aluminium Plate based on strain and stress distribution using the abaqus software. The changes in shear strain and stress distribution during the fatigue cycle with crack growth is identified. In progressive crack in the strain distribution and the stress is increase in the critical zone. Numerical Modal analysis of the model developed, prove that the Eigen frequencies of aluminium plate were decreased after cracking, and this reduce is nonlinear. These results can provide a reference for analysts and designers of aluminium alloys in aeronautical systems.

Therefore, the modal analysis is an important factor for monitoring the aeronautic structures.

Keywords: Aluminium alloys, plate, crack, failure.

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Authors: M.A. Calin, S.V. Parasca, M.R. Calin, D. Savastru, D. Manea

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The goal of this paper is to examine the effects of laser radiation on the skin wound healing using infrared thermography as non-invasive method for the monitoring of the skin temperature changes during laser treatment. Thirty Wistar rats were used in this study. A skin lesion was performed at the leg on all rats. The animals were exposed to laser radiation (λ = 670 nm, P = 15 mW, DP = 16.31 mW/cm2) for 600 s. Thermal images of wound were acquired before and after laser irradiation. The results have demonstrated that the tissue temperature decreases from 35.5±0.50°C in the first treatment day to 31.3±0.42°C after the third treatment day. This value is close to the normal value of the skin temperature and indicates the end of the skin repair process. In conclusion, the improvements in the wound healing following exposure to laser radiation have been revealed by infrared thermography.

Keywords: skin, wound, laser, thermal image

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Authors: Lenka Hurtalová, Eva Tillová, Mária Chalupová, Juraj Belan, Milan Uhríčik

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The secondary alloy A226 is used for many automotive casting produced by mould casting and high pressure die casting. This alloy has excellent castability, good mechanical properties and cost-effectiveness. Production of primary aluminium alloys belong to heavy source fouling of life environs. The European Union calls for the emission reduction and reduction in energy consumption therefore increase production of recycled (secondary) aluminium cast alloys. The contribution is deal with influence of recycling on the quality of the casting made from A226 in automotive industry. The properties of the casting made from secondary aluminium alloys were compared with the required properties of primary aluminium alloys. The effect of recycling on microstructure was observed using combination different analytical techniques (light microscopy upon black-white etching, scanning electron microscopy - SEM upon deep etching and energy dispersive X-ray analysis - EDX). These techniques were used for the identification of the various structure parameters, which was used to compare secondary alloy microstructure with primary alloy microstructure.

Keywords: A226 secondary aluminium alloy, deep etching, mechanical properties, recycling foundry aluminium alloy.

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Authors: P. Ninduangdee, V. I. Kuprianov

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Palm kernel shell is an important bioenergy resource in Thailand. However, due to elevated alkali content in biomass ash, this oil palm residue shows high tendency to bed agglomeration in a fluidized-bed combustion system using conventional bed material (silica sand). In this study, palm kernel shell was burned in the conical fluidized-bed combustor (FBC) using alumina and dolomite as alternative bed materials to prevent bed agglomeration. For each bed material, the combustion tests were performed at 45kg/h fuel feed rate with excess air within 20–80%. Experimental results revealed rather weak effects of the bed material type but substantial influence of excess air on the behavior of temperature, O2, CO, CxHy, and NO inside the reactor, as well as on the combustion efficiency and major gaseous emissions of the conical FBC. The optimal level of excess air ensuring high combustion efficiency (about 98.5%) and acceptable level of the emissions was found to be about 40% when using alumina and 60% with dolomite. By using these alternative bed materials, bed agglomeration can be prevented when burning the shell in the proposed conical FBC. However, both bed materials exhibited significant changes in their morphological, physical and chemical properties in the course of the time.

Keywords: Palm kernel shell, fluidized-bed combustion, alternative bed materials, combustion and emission performance, bed agglomeration prevention.

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Authors: Hanifah Jambari, Naziha A. Azli, M. Afendi M. Piah

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This paper presents the generation of bipolar square wave pulses with characteristics that are suitable for liquid food sterilization using a Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter (CHMI). Bipolar square waves pulses have been reported as stable for a longer time during the sterilization process with minimum heat emission and increased efficiency. The CHMI allows the system to produce bipolar square wave pulses and yielding high output voltage without using a transformer while fulfilling the pulse requirements for effective liquid food sterilization. This in turn can reduce power consumption and cost of the overall liquid food sterilization system. The simulation results have shown that pulses with peak output voltage of 2.4 kV, pulse width of between 1 2s and 1 ms at frequencies of 50 Hz and 100 Hz can be generated by a 7-level CHMI. Results from the experimental set-up based on a 5-level CHMI has indicated the potential of the proposed circuit in producing bipolar square wave output pulses with peak values that depends on the DC source level supplied to the CHMI modules, pulse width of between 12.5 2s and 1 ms at frequencies of 50 Hz and 100 Hz.

Keywords: pulsed electric field, multilevel inverter, bipolarsquare wave, food sterilization

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

Abstract:

The construction industry plays an important role in environmental and carbon emissions as it consumes a huge amount of natural resources and energy. Sustainable engineering involves the process of planning, design, procurement, construction and delivery in which the whole building and construction process resulting from building and construction can be effectively and sustainability managed to achieve the use of natural resources. Implementation of sustainable technology development and innovation, adoption of the advanced construction process and facilitate the facilities management to implement the energy and waste control more accurately and effectively. Study and research in the relationship of BIM and environment assessment tools lack a clear discussion. In this paper, we will focus on the synergy of BIM technology and sustainable engineering in the AEC industry and outline the key factors which enhance the use of advanced innovation, technology and method and define the role of stakeholders to achieve zero-carbon emission toward the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. A case study of the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and environmental assessment tools in Hong Kong will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable engineering, BIM, LEED

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Authors: Muhammad R Ahmed, Xu Huang, Dharmandra Sharma, Hongyan Cui

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An information procuring and processing emerging technology wireless sensor network (WSN) Consists of autonomous nodes with versatile devices underpinned by applications. Nodes are equipped with different capabilities such as sensing, computing, actuation and wireless communications etc. based on application requirements. A WSN application ranges from military implementation in the battlefield, environmental monitoring, health sector as well as emergency response of surveillance. The nodes are deployed independently to cooperatively monitor the physical and environmental conditions. The architecture of WSN differs based on the application requirements and focus on low cost, flexibility, fault tolerance capability, deployment process as well as conserve energy. In this paper we have present the characteristics, architecture design objective and architecture of WSN

Keywords: wireless sensor network, characteristics, architecture

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Authors: Beatriz López, Joaquim Meléndez, Heiko Wissel, Henning Haase, Kathleen Laatz, Oliver S. Grosser

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Concerning the inpatient care the present situation is characterized by intense charges of medical technology into the clinical daily routine and an ever stronger integration of special techniques into the clinical workflow. Medical technology is by now an integral part of health care according to consisting general accepted standards. Purchase and operation thereby represent an important economic position and both are subject of everyday optimisation attempts. For this purpose by now exists a huge number of tools which conduce more likely to a complexness of the problem by a comprehensive implementation. In this paper the advantages of an integrative information-workflow on the life-cycle-management in the region of medical technology are shown.

Keywords: Medical equipment maintenance, maintenanceworkflow, medical equipment management, optimisation ofworkflow.

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Authors: A. Tellaeche, R. Arana

Abstract:

Injection molding is a very complicated process to monitor and control. With its high complexity and many process parameters, the optimization of these systems is a very challenging problem. To meet the requirements and costs demanded by the market, there has been an intense development and research with the aim to maintain the process under control. This paper outlines the latest advances in necessary algorithms for plastic injection process and monitoring, and also a flexible data acquisition system that allows rapid implementation of complex algorithms to assess their correct performance and can be integrated in the quality control process. This is the main topic of this paper. Finally, to demonstrate the performance achieved by this combination, a real case of use is presented.

Keywords: Plastic injection, machine learning, rapid complex algorithm prototyping.

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Authors: Amin Almasi

Abstract:

Analysis of reciprocating equipment piston rod leads to nonlinear elastic-plastic deformation analysis of rod with initial imperfection under axial dynamic load. In this paper a new and effective model and analytical formulations are presented to evaluate dynamic deformation and elastic-plastic stresses of reciprocating machine piston rod. This new method has capability to account for geometric nonlinearity, elastic-plastic deformation and dynamic effects. Proposed method can be used for evaluation of piston rod performance for various reciprocating machines under different operation situations. Rod load curves and maximum allowable rod load are calculated with presented method for a refinery type reciprocating compressor. Useful recommendations and guidelines for rod load, rod load reversal and rod drop monitoring are also addressed.

Keywords: Deformation, Reciprocating Equipment, Rod.

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Authors: Antonis Sideris, Elias Chlis Kalogeropoulos, Konstantia Moirogiorgou

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The present study proposes a methodology for the efficient daily management of fleet vehicles and construction machinery. The application covers the area of remote monitoring of heavy-duty vehicles operation parameters, where specific sensor data are stored and examined in order to provide information about the vehicle’s health. The vehicle diagnostics allow the user to inspect whether maintenance tasks need to be performed before a fault occurs. A properly designed machine learning model is proposed for the detection of two different types of faults through classification. Cross validation is used and the accuracy of the trained model is checked with the confusion matrix.

Keywords: Fault detection, feature selection, machine learning, predictive maintenance.

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Authors: Pei Lin Khoo, Yunli Lee

Abstract:

Weblogs are resource of social structure to discover and track the various type of information written by blogger. In this paper, we proposed to use mining weblogs technique for identifying the trends of influenza where blogger had disseminated their opinion for the anomaly disease. In order to identify the trends, web crawler is applied to perform a search and generated a list of visited links based on a set of influenza keywords. This information is used to implement the analytics report system for monitoring and analyzing the pattern and trends of influenza (H1N1). Statistical and graphical analysis reports are generated. Both types of the report have shown satisfactory reports that reflect the awareness of Malaysian on the issue of influenza outbreak through blogs.

Keywords: H1N1, Weblogs, Web Crawler, Analytics Report System.

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Authors: Dolapop Sribudda, Ura Pancharoen

Abstract:

The separation of Hg (II) from produced water by hollow fiber contactors (HFC) was investigation. This system included of two hollow fiber modules in the series connecting. The first module used for the extraction reaction and the second module for stripping reaction. Aliquat336 extractant was fed from the organic reservoirs into the shell side of the first hollow fiber module and continuous to the shell side of the second module. The organic liquid was continuously feed recirculate and back to the reservoirs. The feed solution was pumped into the lumen (tube side) of the first hollow fiber module. Simultaneously, the stripping solution was pumped in the same way in tube side of the second module. The feed and stripping solution was fed which had a countercurrent flow. Samples were kept in the outlet of feed and stripping solution at 1 hour and characterized concentration of Hg (II) by Inductively Couple Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Feed solution was produced water from natural gulf of Thailand. The extractant was Aliquat336 dissolved in kerosene diluent. Stripping solution used was nitric acid (HNO3) and thiourea (NH2CSNH2). The effect of carrier concentration and type of stripping solution were investigated. Results showed that the best condition were 10 % (v/v) Aliquat336 and 1.0 M NH2CSNH2. At the optimum condition, the extraction and stripping of Hg (II) were 98% and 44.2%, respectively.

Keywords: Hg (II), hollow fiber contactor, produced water, wastewater treatment.

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Authors: Seyed Mostafa Torabi

Abstract:

A Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of a set of battery-powered nodes, which collaborate to perform sensing tasks in a given environment. Each node in WSN should be capable to act for long periods of time with scrimpy or no external management. One requirement for this independent is: in the presence of adverse positions, the sensor nodes must be capable to configure themselves. Hence, the nodes for determine the existence of unusual events in their surroundings should make use of position awareness mechanisms. This work approaches the problem by considering the possible unusual events as diseases, thus making it possible to diagnose them through their symptoms, namely, their side effects. Considering these awareness mechanisms as a foundation for highlevel monitoring services, this paper also shows how these mechanisms are included in the primal plan of an intrusion detection system.

Keywords: Awareness Mechanism, Intrusion Detection, Independent, Wireless Sensor Network

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Authors: A. A. Amer, H. M. Gad, I. A. Ibrahim, S. I. Abdel-Mageed, T. M. Farag

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This paper represents an experimental study of LPG diffusion flame at elevated preheated air temperatures. The flame is stabilized in a vertical water-cooled combustor by using air swirler. An experimental test rig was designed to investigate the different operating conditions. The burner head is designed so that the LPG fuel issued centrally and surrounded by the swirling air issues from an air swirler. There are three air swirlers having the same dimensions but having different blade angles to give different swirl numbers of 0.5, 0.87 and 1.5. The combustion air was heated electrically before entering the combustor up to a temperature about 500 K. Five air to fuel mass ratios of 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 were also studied. The effect of preheated air temperature, swirl number and air to fuel mass ratios on the temperature maps, visible flame length, high temperature region (size) and exhaust species concentrations are studied. Some results show that as the preheated air temperature increases, the volume of high temperature region also increased but the flame length decreased. Increasing the preheated air temperature, EINOx, EICO2 and EIO2 increased, while EICO decreased. Increasing the preheated air temperature from 300 to 500 K, for all air swirl numbers used, the highest increase in EINOx, EICO2 and EIO2 are 141, 4 and 65%, respectively.

Keywords: Preheated air temperature, air swirler, flame length, emission index.

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Authors: V.Ashok, A.Nirmalkumar, N.Jeyashanthi

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A method and apparatus for noninvasive measurement of blood glucose concentration based on transilluminated laser beam via the Index Finger has been reported in this paper. This method depends on atomic gas (He-Ne) laser operating at 632.8nm wavelength. During measurement, the index finger is inserted into the glucose sensing unit, the transilluminated optical signal is converted into an electrical signal, compared with the reference electrical signal, and the obtained difference signal is processed by signal processing unit which presents the results in the form of blood glucose concentration. This method would enable the monitoring blood glucose level of the diabetic patient continuously, safely and noninvasively.

Keywords: Anisotropy factor, Blood glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Noninvasive method, Photo detectors.

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Authors: Daniele Contini, Antonio Donateo, Andrea Gambaro, Athanasios Argiriou, Dimitrios Melas, Daniela Cesari, Anastasia Poupkou, Athanasios Karagiannidis, Apostolos Tsakis, Eva Merico, Rita Cesari, Adelaide Dinoi

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Emissions of atmospheric pollutants from ships and harbour activities are a growing concern at international level given their potential impacts on air quality and climate. These close-to-land emissions have potential impact on local communities in terms of air quality and health. Recent studies show that the impact of maritime traffic to atmospheric particulate matter concentrations in several coastal urban areas is comparable with the impact of road traffic of a medium size town. However, several different approaches have been used for these estimates making difficult a direct comparison of results. In this work, an integrated approach based on emission inventories and dedicated measurement campaigns has been applied to give a comparable estimate of the impact of maritime traffic to PM2.5 and particle number concentrations in three major harbours of the Adriatic/Ionian Seas. The influences of local meteorology and of the logistic layout of the harbours are discussed.

Keywords: Ship emissions, PM2.5, particle number concentrations, impact of shipping to atmospheric aerosol.

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Authors: Y. K. Chen, K. C. Chiou, C. Y. Chen

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The cumulative conformance count (CCC) charts are widespread in process monitoring of high-yield manufacturing. Recently, it is found the use of variable sampling interval (VSI) scheme could further enhance the efficiency of the standard CCC charts. The average time to signal (ATS) a shift in defect rate has become traditional measure of efficiency of a chart with the VSI scheme. Determining the ATS is frequently a difficult and tedious task. A simple method based on a finite Markov Chain approach for modeling the ATS is developed. In addition, numerical results are given.

Keywords: Cumulative conformance count, variable sampling interval, Markov Chain, average time to signal, control chart.

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Authors: S. R. A. Rahim, I. Musirin, M. M. Othman, M. H. Hussain

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Loss minimization is a long progressing issue mainly in distribution system. Nevertheless its effect led to temperature rise due to significant voltage drop through the distribution line. Thus, compensation scheme should be proper scheduled in the attempt to alleviate the voltage drop phenomenon. Distributed generation has been profoundly known for voltage profile improvement; provided that over-compensation or under-compensation phenomena are avoided. This paper addresses the issue of voltage improvement through different type DG installation. In ensuring optimal sizing and location of the DGs, pre-developed EMEFA technique was made use for this purpose. Incremental loading condition subjected to the system is the concern such that it is beneficial to the power system operator.

Keywords: Distributed generation, EMEFA, power loss, voltage profile.

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chen, Chih-Feng Chen, Cheng-Di Dong

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This study was conducted using the data collected at the mouth of Jen-Gen River to investigate and analyze chromium (Cr) contained in the sediments, and to evaluate the accumulation of Cr and the degree of its potential risk. The results show that samples collected at all monitoring stations near the mouth of Jen-Gen River contain 92–567 mg/kg of Cr with average of 366±166 mg/kg. The spatial distribution of Cr reveals that the Cr concentration is relatively high in the river mouth region, and gradually diminishes toward the harbor region. This indicates that upstream industrial and municipal wastewater discharges along the river bank are major sources of pollution. The accumulation factor and potential ecological risk index indicate that the sedimentation at Jen-Gen River mouth has the most serious degree of Cr accumulation and the highest ecological potential risk.

Keywords: chromium, sediment, river mouth, enrichment factor

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Authors: Taleb Hosni Abderrahmane, Berga Abdelmadjid

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The development of numerical analysis and its application to geomechanics problems have provided geotechnical engineers with extremely powerful tools. One of the most important problems in geotechnical engineering is the slope stability assessment. It is a very difficult task due to several aspects such the nature of the problem, experimental consideration, monitoring, controlling, and assessment. The main objective of this paper is to perform a comparative numerical study between the following methods: The Limit Equilibrium (LEM), Finite Element (FEM), Limit Analysis (LAM) and Distinct Element (DEM). The comparison is conducted in terms of the safety factors and the critical slip surfaces. Through the results, we see the feasibility to analyse slope stability by many methods.

Keywords: Comparison, factor of safety, geomechanics, numerical methods, slope analysis, slip surfaces.

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Authors: Fares A. Mayia, Mahmoud A. Yamany, Mushabbab A. Asiri

Abstract:

In recent years, non-invasive Focused Ultrasound (FU) has been utilized for generating bubbles (cavities) to ablate target tissue by mechanical fractionation. Intensities >10 kW/cm² are required to generate the inertial cavities. The generation, rapid growth, and collapse of these inertial cavities cause tissue fractionation and the process is called Histotripsy. The ability to fractionate tissue from outside the body has many clinical applications including the destruction of the tumor mass. The process of tissue fractionation leaves a void at the treated site, where all the affected tissue is liquefied to particles at sub-micron size. The liquefied tissue will eventually be absorbed by the body. Histotripsy is a promising non-invasive treatment modality. This paper presents a technique for generating inertial cavities at lower intensities (< 1 kW/cm²). The technique (patent pending) is based on amplitude modulation (AM), whereby a low frequency signal modulates the amplitude of a higher frequency FU wave. Cavitation threshold is lower at low frequencies; the intensity required to generate cavitation in water at 10 kHz is two orders of magnitude lower than the intensity at 1 MHz. The Amplitude Modulation technique can operate in both continuous wave (CW) and pulse wave (PW) modes, and the percentage modulation (modulation index) can be varied from 0 % (thermal effect) to 100 % (cavitation effect), thus allowing a range of ablating effects from Hyperthermia to Histotripsy. Furthermore, changing the frequency of the modulating signal allows controlling the size of the generated cavities. Results from in vitro work demonstrate the efficacy of the new technique in fractionating soft tissue and solid calcium carbonate (Chalk) material. The technique, when combined with MR or Ultrasound imaging, will present a precise treatment modality for ablating diseased tissue without affecting the surrounding healthy tissue.

Keywords: Focused ultrasound therapy, Histotripsy, generation of inertial cavitation, mechanical tissue ablation.

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Authors: Tlotlollo Sidwell Hlalele, Shengzhi Du

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High-voltage power transmission lines are the back bone of electrical power utilities. The stability and continuous monitoring of this critical infrastructure is pivotal. Nine-Sigma representing Eskom Holding SOC limited, South Africa has a major problem on proactive detection of fallen power lines and real time sagging measurement together with slipping of such conductors. The main objective of this research is to innovate RFID technology to solve this challenge. Various options and technologies such as GPS, PLC, image processing, MR sensors and etc., have been reviewed and draw backs were made. The potential of RFID to give precision measurement will be observed and presented. The future research will look at magnetic and electrical interference as well as corona effect on the technology.

Keywords: Precision Measurement, RFID and Sag.

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Authors: Thipwimon Chungsangunsit, Shabbir H. Gheewala, Suthum Patumsawad

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Rice husk is one of the alternative fuels for Thailand because of its high potential and environmental benefits. Nonetheless, the environmental profile of the electricity production from rice husk must be assessed to ensure reduced environmental damage. A 10 MW pilot plant using rice husk as feedstock is the study site. The environmental impacts from rice husk power plant are evaluated by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Energy, material and carbon balances have been determined for tracing the system flow. Carbon closure has been used for describing of the net amount of CO2 released from the system in relation to the amount being recycled between the power plant and the CO2 adsorbed by rice husk. The transportation of rice husk to the power plant has significant on global warming, but not on acidification and photo-oxidant formation. The results showed that the impact potentials from rice husk power plant are lesser than the conventional plants for most of the categories considered; except the photo-oxidant formation potential from CO. The high CO from rice husk power plant may be due to low boiler efficiency and high moisture content in rice husk. The performance of the study site can be enhanced by improving the combustion efficiency.

Keywords: Environmental impact, Fossil fuels, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Renewable energy, Rice husk

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Authors: Martin Juhas, Bohuslava Juhasova, Igor Halenar, Andrej Elias

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This article deals with the possibility of increasing efficiency, reliability and safety of the system for teledosimetric data collection management and their evaluation as a part of complex study for activity “Research of data collection, their measurement and evaluation with mobile and autonomous units” within project “Research of monitoring and evaluation of non-standard conditions in the area of nuclear power plants”. Possible weaknesses in existing system are identified. A study of available cluster solutions with possibility of their deploying to analysed system is presented

Keywords: Teledosimetric data, efficiency, reliability, safety, cluster solution.

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