Search results for: seismic isolation device.

Authors: Siriporn Poolsuwan, Kanyarat Bussaban

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This research aims to investigate and analyze user’s behaviour towards the utilization of the online news clipping database at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand. Data is gathered from 214 lecturers and 380 undergraduate students by using questionnaires. Findings show that most users knew the online news clipping service from their friends, library’s website and their teachers. The users learned how to use it by themselves and others learned by training of SSRU library. Most users used the online news clipping database one time per month at home and always used the service for general knowledge, up-to-date academic knowledge and assignment reference. Moreover, the results of using the online news clipping service problems include the users themselves, service management, service device- computer and tools – and the network, service provider, and publicity. This research would be benefit for librarians and teachers for planning and designing library services in their works and organization

Keywords: Online Database, User Behaviour.

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Authors: Naoto Suzuki

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To distinguish small retinal hemorrhages in early diabetic retinopathy from dust artifacts, we analyzed hue, lightness, and saturation (HLS) color spaces. The fundus of 5 patients with diabetic retinopathy was photographed. For the initial experiment, we placed 4 different colored papers on the ceiling of a darkroom. Using each color, 10 fragments of house dust particles on a magnifier were photographed. The colored papers were removed, and 3 different colored light bulbs were suspended from the ceiling. Ten fragments of house dust particles on the camera-s object lens were photographed. We then constructed an experimental device that can photograph artificial eyes. Five fragments of house dust particles under the ocher fundus of the artificial eye were photographed. On analyzing HLS color space of the dust artifact, lightness and saturation were found to be highly sensitive. However, hue was not highly sensitive.

Keywords: Dust artifact, HLS color space, Retinal hemorrhage, and Diabetic retinopathy

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Authors: Ahmed N. Shmroukh, Gamal Tag Abdel-Jaber, Rashed D. Aldughpassi

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The feasibility of improving the performance of the proposed solar still unit which operated in very hot climate is investigated numerically and verified with experimental data. This solar desalination unit with proposed auxiliary device as seawater preheating system using petrol based textherm oil was used to produce pure fresh water from seawater. The effective evaporation area of basin is about 1 m². The unit was tested in two main operation modes which are normal and with seawater preheating system. The results showed that, there is good agreement between the theoretical data and the experimental data; this means that the numerical model can be accurately dependable for predicting the proposed solar still performance and design parameters. The results also showed that the fresh water productivity of the solar still in the modified preheating case which is higher than normal case, leads to an increase in productivity of 42%.

Keywords: Improving productivity, seawater desalination, solar stills, theoretical model.

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Authors: Summiya Moheuddin, Afzel Noore, Muhammad Choudhry

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This paper proposes a novel solution for optimizing the size and communication overhead of a distributed multiagent system without compromising the performance. The proposed approach addresses the challenges of scalability especially when the multiagent system is large. A modified spectral clustering technique is used to partition a large network into logically related clusters. Agents are assigned to monitor dedicated clusters rather than monitor each device or node. The proposed scalable multiagent system is implemented using JADE (Java Agent Development Environment) for a large power system. The performance of the proposed topologyindependent decentralized multiagent system and the scalable multiagent system is compared by comprehensively simulating different fault scenarios. The time taken for reconfiguration, the overall computational complexity, and the communication overhead incurred are computed. The results of these simulations show that the proposed scalable multiagent system uses fewer agents efficiently, makes faster decisions to reconfigure when a fault occurs, and incurs significantly less communication overhead.

Keywords: Multiagent system, scalable design, spectral clustering, reconfiguration.

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Authors: Mountassar Maamoun, Mehdi Neggazi, Abdelhamid Meraghni, Daoud Berkani

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This paper presents a VLSI design approach of a highspeed and real-time 2-D Discrete Wavelet Transform computing. The proposed architecture, based on new and fast convolution approach, reduces the hardware complexity in addition to reduce the critical path to the multiplier delay. Furthermore, an advanced twodimensional (2-D) discrete wavelet transform (DWT) implementation, with an efficient memory area, is designed to produce one output in every clock cycle. As a result, a very highspeed is attained. The system is verified, using JPEG2000 coefficients filters, on Xilinx Virtex-II Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device without accessing any external memory. The resulting computing rate is up to 270 M samples/s and the (9,7) 2-D wavelet filter uses only 18 kb of memory (16 kb of first-in-first-out memory) with 256×256 image size. In this way, the developed design requests reduced memory and provide very high-speed processing as well as high PSNR quality.

Keywords: Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Fast Convolution, FPGA, VLSI.

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Authors: Amin Almasi

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Design and evaluation of reciprocating compressors should include a pulsation study. The object is to ensure that predicted pulsation levels meet guidelines to limit vibration, shaking forces, noise, associated pressure drops, horsepower losses and fabrication cost and time to acceptable levels. This paper explains procedures and recommendations to select and size pulsation suppression devices to obtain optimum arrangement in terms of pulsation, vibration, shaking forces, performance, reliability, safety, operation, maintenance and commercial conditions. Model and advanced formulations for pulsation study are presented. The effect of the full fluid dynamic model on the prediction of pulsation waves and resulting frequency spectrum distributions are discussed. Advanced and optimum methods of controlling pulsations are highlighted. Useful recommendations and guidelines for pulsation control, piping pulsation analysis, pulsation vessel design, shaking forces, low pressure drop orifices, pulsation study report and devices to mitigate pulsation and shaking problems are discussed.

Keywords: Pulsation, Reciprocating Compressor.

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Authors: M. M. Hlakola, E. Golovins, D. V. Nicolae

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The field of instrumentation electronics is undergoing an explosive growth, due to its wide range of applications. The proliferation of electrical devices in a close working proximity can negatively influence each other’s performance. The degradation in the performance is due to electromagnetic interference (EMI). This paper investigates the negative effects of electromagnetic interference originating in the General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) control-network of the AC-DC transfer measurement system. Remedial measures of reducing measurement errors and failure of range of industrial devices due to EMI have been explored. The ACDC transfer measurement system was analysed for the commonmode (CM) EMI effects. Further investigation of coupling path as well as much accurate identification of noise propagation mechanism has been outlined. To prevent the occurrence of common-mode (ground loops) which was identified between the GPIB system control circuit and the measurement circuit, a microcontroller-driven GPIB switching isolator device was designed, prototyped, programmed and validated. This mitigation technique has been explored to reduce EMI effectively.

Keywords: CM, EMI, GPIB, ground loops.

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Authors: Yongsun Kim, Hoyong Kang

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This paper proposes a power-controlled scheduling scheme for devices using a directional antenna in smart home. In the case of the home network using directional antenna, devices can concurrently transmit data in the same frequency band. Accordingly, the throughput increases compared to that of devices using omni-directional antenna in proportional to the number of concurrent transmissions. Also, the number of concurrent transmissions depends on the beamwidth of antenna, the number of devices operating in the network , transmission power, interference and so on. In particular, the less transmission power is used, the more concurrent transmissions occur due to small transmission range. In this paper, we considered sub-optimal scheduling scheme for throughput maximization and power consumption minimization. In the scheme, each device is equipped with a directional antenna. Various beamwidths, path loss components, and antenna radiation efficiencies are considered. Numerical results show that the proposed schemes outperform the scheduling scheme using directional antennas without power control.

Keywords: Mmwave WPANs, directional scheduling, power-controlled scheduling scheme, smart home.

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Authors: Sushil Kumar Swar, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Hari Krishan Sharma, Sushil Kumar

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The seriously damaged structures during earthquakes show the need and importance of design of reinforced concrete structures with high ductility. Reinforced concrete beam-column joints have an important function in all structures. Under seismic excitation, the beam column joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitude is many times higher than the adjacent beam and column. Strength and ductility of structures depends mainly on proper detailing of the reinforcement in beamcolumn joints and the old structures were found ductility deficient. DSP materials are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro silica. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), since concrete is dense even at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. This in turn will improve cracking behaviour, ductility and energy absorption capacity of composites in addition to durability. The fine fibers used in our mix are 0.3mm diameter and 10 mm which can be easily placed with high percentage. These fibers easily transfer stresses and act as a composite concrete unit to take up extremely high loads with high compressive strength. HPDSPC placed in the beam column joints helps in safety of human life due to prolonged failure.

Keywords: High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), Steel Fıber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), Slurry Infiltrated Concrete (SIFCON), Slurry Infiltrated Mat Concrete (SIMCON).

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Authors: Jinyong Yao, Hongzhi Li, Chao Du, Jiao Li

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Reliability of long-term storage products is related to the availability of the whole system, and the evaluation of storage life is of great necessity. These products are usually highly reliable and little failure information can be collected. In this paper, an analytical method based on data from accelerated storage life test is proposed to evaluate the reliability index of the long-term storage products. Firstly, singularities are eliminated by data normalization and residual analysis. Secondly, with the preprocessed data, the degradation path model is built to obtain the pseudo life values. Then by life distribution hypothesis, we can get the estimator of parameters in high stress levels and verify failure mechanism consistency. Finally, the life distribution under the normal stress level is extrapolated via the acceleration model and evaluation of the actual average life is available. An application example with the camera stabilization device is provided to illustrate the methodology we proposed.

Keywords: Accelerated storage life test, failure mechanism consistency, life distribution, reliability.

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Authors: David L. Azevedo, Jordan Del Nero

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In this paper we study a system composed by carbon nanotube (CNT) and bundle of carbon nanotube (BuCNT) interacting with a specific fatty acid as molecular probe. Full system is represented by open nanotube (or nanotubes) and the linoleic acid (LA) relaxing due the interaction with CNT and BuCNT. The LA has in his form an asymmetric shape with COOH termination provoking a close BuCNT interaction mainly by van der Waals force field. The simulations were performed by classical molecular dynamics with standard parameterizations. Our results show that these BuCNT and CNT are dynamically stable and it shows a preferential interaction position with LA resulting in three features: (i) when the LA is interacting with CNT and BuCNT (including both termination, CH2 or COOH), the LA is repelled; (ii) when the LA terminated with CH2 is closer to open extremity of BuCNT, the LA is also repelled by the interaction between them; and (iii) when the LA terminated with COOH is closer to open extremity of BuCNT, the LA is encapsulated by the BuCNT. These simulations are part of a more extensive work on searching efficient selective molecular devices and could be useful to reach this goal.

Keywords: Carbon Nanotube, Linoleic Acid, MolecularDynamics.

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Authors: Alireza Mortezaei, Kimia Mortezaei

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Recordings from recent earthquakes have provided evidence that ground motions in the near field of a rupturing fault differ from ordinary ground motions, as they can contain a large energy, or “directivity" pulse. This pulse can cause considerable damage during an earthquake, especially to structures with natural periods close to those of the pulse. Failures of modern engineered structures observed within the near-fault region in recent earthquakes have revealed the vulnerability of existing RC buildings against pulse-type ground motions. This may be due to the fact that these modern structures had been designed primarily using the design spectra of available standards, which have been developed using stochastic processes with relatively long duration that characterizes more distant ground motions. Many recently designed and constructed buildings may therefore require strengthening in order to perform well when subjected to near-fault ground motions. Fiber Reinforced Polymers are considered to be a viable alternative, due to their relatively easy and quick installation, low life cycle costs and zero maintenance requirements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the adequacy of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to determine the three dimensional dynamic response of FRP strengthened RC buildings under the near-fault ground motions. For this purpose, one ANN model is proposed to estimate the base shear force, base bending moments and roof displacement of buildings in two directions. A training set of 168 and a validation set of 21 buildings are produced from FEA analysis results of the dynamic response of RC buildings under the near-fault earthquakes. It is demonstrated that the neural network based approach is highly successful in determining the response.

Keywords: Seismic evaluation, FRP, neural network, near-fault ground motion

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Authors: Turki M. Habeebullah, Atef M. F. Mohammed, Essam A. Morsy

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In recent decades, particulate matter (PM10) have received much attention due to its potential adverse health impact and the subsequent need to better control or regulate these pollutants. The aim of this paper is focused on study risk assessment of PM10 in four different districts (Shebikah, Masfalah, Aziziyah, Awali) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia during the period from 1 Ramadan 1434 AH - 27 Safar 1435 AH. Samples were collected by using Low Volume Sampler (LVS Low Volume Sampler) device and filtration method for estimating the total concentration of PM10. The study indicated that the mean PM10 concentrations were 254.6 (186.1 - 343.2) μg/m3 in Shebikah, 184.9 (145.6 - 271.4) μg/m3 in Masfalah, 162.4 (92.4-253.8) μg/m3 in Aziziyah, and 56.0 (44.5 - 119.8) μg/m3 in Awali. These values did not exceed the permissible limits in PME (340 μg/m3 as daily average). Furthermore, health assessment is carried out using AirQ2.2.3 model to estimate the number of hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases. The cumulative number of cases per 100,000 were 1534 (18-3050 case), which lower than that recorded in the United States, Malaysia. The concentration response coefficient was 0.49 (95% CI 0.05 - 0.70) per 10 μg/m3 increase of PM10.

Keywords: Air pollution, Respiratory diseases, AirQ2.2.3, Makkah.

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Authors: Natarajan Venkatachalam, Subrahmanya V. R. K. Rao, Vijay Karthikeyan Dhandapani, Swaminathan Saravanavel

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The quantum communication technology is an evolving design which connects multiple quantum enabled devices to internet for secret communication or sensitive information exchange. In future, the number of these compact quantum enabled devices will increase immensely making them an integral part of present communication systems. Therefore, safety and security of such devices is also a major concern for us. To ensure the customer sensitive information will not be eavesdropped or deciphered, we need a strong authentications and encryption mechanism. In this paper, we propose a mutual authentication scheme between these smart quantum devices and server based on the secure exchange of information through quantum channel which gives better solutions for symmetric key exchange issues. An important part of this work is to propose a secure mutual authentication protocol over the quantum channel. We show that our approach offers robust authentication protocol and further our solution is lightweight, scalable, cost-effective with optimized computational processing overheads.

Keywords: Quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, wireless quantum communication, authentication protocol, quantum enabled device, trusted third party.

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Authors: Umar Alhaji Mukhtar, Abubakar Mohammed El-jummah

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This research involved the utilization of fluid flow energy to predict power output using Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) piezoelectric stacks. The aim of this work is to extract energy from a controlled level of pressure fluctuation in single-phase flow which forms a part of the energy harvesting technology that powers flow meters. A device- Perspex box was developed and fixed to 50.8 mm rig to induce pressure fluctuation in the flow. An experimental test was carried out using the single-phase water flow in the developed rig in order to measure the power output generation from the piezoelectric stacks. 16 sets of experimental tests were conducted to ensure the maximum output result. The acquired signal of the pressure fluctuation was used to simulate the expected electrical output from the piezoelectric material. The results showed a maximum output voltage of 12 V with an instantaneous output power of 1 µW generated, when the pressure amplitude is 2.6 kPa at a frequency of 2.4 Hz.

Keywords: Energy harvesting, experimental test, perspex rig, pressure fluctuation.

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Authors: Magdalena Naplavova, Tomas Ludik, Petr Hruza, Frantisek Bozek

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The use of IT equipment has become a part of every day. However, each device that is part of cyberspace should be secured against unauthorized use. It is very important to know the basics of these security devices, but also the basics of safe conduct their owners. This information should be part of every curriculum computer science education in primary and secondary schools. Therefore, the work focuses on the education of pupils in primary and secondary schools on the Internet. Analysis of the current state describes approaches to the education of pupils in security issues on the Internet. The paper presents a questionnaire-based survey which was carried out in the Czech Republic, whose task was to ascertain the level of opinion pupils in primary and secondary schools on the issue of communication in social networks. The research showed that awareness of socio-pathological phenomena on the Internet environment is very low. Based on the results it was proposed appropriate ways of teaching to this issue and its inclusion a proposal of curriculum for primary and secondary schools.

Keywords: Cyberspace, educational system, general awareness, information security, questionnaire, socio-pathological phenomena.

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Authors: Sanghyeok Oh, Keechul Jung

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Although lots of research work has been done for human pose recognition, the view-point of cameras is still critical problem of overall recognition system. In this paper, view-point insensitive human pose recognition is proposed. The aims of the proposed system are view-point insensitivity and real-time processing. Recognition system consists of feature extraction module, neural network and real-time feed forward calculation. First, histogram-based method is used to extract feature from silhouette image and it is suitable for represent the shape of human pose. To reduce the dimension of feature vector, Principle Component Analysis(PCA) is used. Second, real-time processing is implemented by using Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA) and this architecture improves the speed of feed-forward calculation of neural network. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with experiments on real environment.

Keywords: computer vision, neural network, pose recognition, view-point insensitive, PCA, CUDA.

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Authors: Seyed Saeid Tabaee, Omid Bahar

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

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

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Authors: Saurabh Chanana, Monika Arora

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Demand response is getting increased attention these days due to the increase in electricity demand and introduction of renewable resources in the existing power grid. Traditionally demand response programs involve large industrial consumers but with technological advancement, demand response is being implemented for small residential and commercial consumers also. In this paper, demand response program aims to reduce the peak demand as well as overall energy consumption of the residential customers. Air conditioners are the major reason of peak load in residential sector in summer, so a dynamic model of air conditioning load with thermostat action has been considered for applying demand response programs. A programmable communicating thermostat (PCT) is a device that uses real time pricing (RTP) signals to control the thermostat setting. A new model incorporating PCT in air conditioning load has been proposed in this paper. Results show that introduction of PCT in air conditioner is useful in reducing the electricity payments of customers as well as reducing the peak demand. 

Keywords: Demand response, Home energy management Programmable communicating thermostat, Thermostatically controlled appliances.

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Authors: Shaoying Guo, Yanyun Xu, Meng Zhang, Weiqing Huang

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The wireless communication network is developing rapidly, thus the wireless security becomes more and more important. Specific emitter identification (SEI) is an vital part of wireless communication security as a technique to identify the unique transmitters. In this paper, a SEI method based on multiscale dispersion entropy (MDE) and refined composite multiscale dispersion entropy (RCMDE) is proposed. The algorithms of MDE and RCMDE are used to extract features for identification of five wireless devices and cross-validation support vector machine (CV-SVM) is used as the classifier. The experimental results show that the total identification accuracy is 99.3%, even at low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of 5dB, which proves that MDE and RCMDE can describe the communication signal series well. In addition, compared with other methods, the proposed method is effective and provides better accuracy and stability for SEI.

Keywords: Cross-validation support vector machine, refined composite multiscale dispersion entropy, specific emitter identification, transient signal, wireless communication device.

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Authors: Tatyana Aleksandrovna Barbasova, Lev Sergeevich Kazarinov, Olga Valerevna Kolesnikova, Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Filimonova

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We regard forecasting of energy consumption by private production areas of a large industrial facility as well as by the facility itself. As for production areas, the forecast is made based on empirical dependencies of the specific energy consumption and the production output. As for the facility itself, implementation of the task to minimize the energy consumption forecasting error is based on adjustment of the facility’s actual energy consumption values evaluated with the metering device and the total design energy consumption of separate production areas of the facility. The suggested procedure of optimal energy consumption was tested based on the actual data of core product output and energy consumption by a group of workshops and power plants of the large iron and steel facility. Test results show that implementation of this procedure gives the mean accuracy of energy consumption forecasting for winter 2014 of 0.11% for the group of workshops and 0.137% for the power plants.

Keywords: Energy consumption, energy consumption forecasting error, energy efficiency, forecasting accuracy, forecasting.

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Authors: Ziad. Sh. Al Sarraf

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Ultrasonic metal welding has been the subject of ongoing research and development, most recently concentrating on metal joining in miniature devices, for example to allow solder-free wire bonding. As well as at the small scale, there are also opportunities to research the joining of thicker sheet metals and to widen the range of similar and dissimilar materials that can be successfully joined using this technology. This study presents the design, characterisation and test of a lateral-drive ultrasonic metal spot welding device. The ultrasonic metal spot welding horn is modelled using finite element analysis (FEA) and its vibration behaviour is characterised experimentally to ensure ultrasonic energy is delivered effectively to the weld coupon. The welding stack and fixtures are then designed and mounted on a test machine to allow a series of experiments to be conducted for various welding and ultrasonic parameters. Weld strength is subsequently analysed using tensile-shear tests. The results show how the weld strength is particularly sensitive to the combination of clamping force and ultrasonic vibration amplitude of the welding tip, but there are optimal combinations of these and also limits that must be clearly identified.

Keywords: Ultrasonic welding, vibration amplitude, welding force, weld strength.

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Authors: Zofija Tupikovskaja-Omovie, David Tyler, Sam Dhanapala, Steve Hayes

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The UK is leading in online retail and mobile adoption. However, there is a dearth of information relating to mobile apparel retail, and developing an understanding about consumer browsing and purchase behaviour in m-retail channel would provide apparel marketers, mobile website and app developers with the necessary understanding of consumers’ needs. Despite the rapid growth of mobile retail businesses, no published study has examined shopping behaviour on fashion mobile apps and websites. A mixed method approach helped to understand why fashion consumers prefer websites on smartphones, when diverse mobile apps are also available. The following research methods were employed: survey, eye-tracking experiments, observation, and interview with retrospective think aloud. The mobile gaze tracking device by SensoMotoric Instruments was used to understand frustrations in navigation and other issues facing consumers in mobile channel. This method helped to validate and compliment other traditional user-testing approaches in order to optimize user experience and enhance the development of mobile retail channel. The study involved eight participants - females aged 18 to 35 years old, who are existing mobile shoppers. The participants used the Topshop mobile app and website on a smart phone to complete a task according to a specified scenario leading to a purchase. The comparative study was based on: duration and time spent at different stages of the shopping journey, number of steps involved and product pages visited, search approaches used, layout and visual clues, as well as consumer perceptions and expectations. The results from the data analysis show significant differences in consumer behaviour when using a mobile app or website on a smart phone. Moreover, two types of problems were identified, namely technical issues and human errors. Having a mobile app does not guarantee success in satisfying mobile fashion consumers. The differences in the layout and visual clues seem to influence the overall shopping experience on a smart phone. The layout of search results on the website was different from the mobile app. Therefore, participants, in most cases, behaved differently on different platforms. The number of product pages visited on the mobile app was triple the number visited on the website due to a limited visibility of products in the search results. Although, the data on traffic trends held by retailers to date, including retail sector breakdowns for visits and views, data on device splits and duration, might seem a valuable source of information, it cannot explain why consumers visit many product pages, stay longer on the website or mobile app, or abandon the basket. A comprehensive list of pros and cons was developed by highlighting issues for website and mobile app, and recommendations provided. The findings suggest that fashion retailers need to be aware of actual consumers’ behaviour on the mobile channel and their expectations in order to offer a seamless shopping experience. Added to which is the challenge of retaining existing and acquiring new customers. There seem to be differences in the way fashion consumers search and shop on mobile, which need to be explored in further studies.

Keywords: Consumer behaviour, eye-tracking technology, fashion retail, mobile app, m-retail, smart phones, Topshop, user experience, website.

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Authors: S. Bouhouche, M. Lahreche, S. Ziani, J. Bast

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Modern manufacturing facilities are large scale, highly complex, and operate with large number of variables under closed loop control. Early and accurate fault detection and diagnosis for these plants can minimise down time, increase the safety of plant operations, and reduce manufacturing costs. Fault detection and isolation is more complex particularly in the case of the faulty analog control systems. Analog control systems are not equipped with monitoring function where the process parameters are continually visualised. In this situation, It is very difficult to find the relationship between the fault importance and its consequences on the product failure. We consider in this paper an approach to fault detection and analysis of its effect on the production quality using an adaptive centring and scaling in the pickling process in cold rolling. The fault appeared on one of the power unit driving a rotary machine, this machine can not track a reference speed given by another machine. The length of metal loop is then in continuous oscillation, this affects the product quality. Using a computerised data acquisition system, the main machine parameters have been monitored. The fault has been detected and isolated on basis of analysis of monitored data. Normal and faulty situation have been obtained by an artificial neural network (ANN) model which is implemented to simulate the normal and faulty status of rotary machine. Correlation between the product quality defined by an index and the residual is used to quality classification.

Keywords: Modeling, fault detection and diagnosis, parameters estimation, neural networks, Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD), pickling process.

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Authors: U K Chakrabarti, Jigisha Parikh

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Hazardous Material transportation by road is coupled with inherent risk of accidents causing loss of lives, grievous injuries, property losses and environmental damages. The most common type of hazmat road accident happens to be the releases (78%) of hazardous substances, followed by fires (28%), explosions (14%) and vapour/ gas clouds (6 %.). The paper is discussing initially the probable 'Impact Zones' likely to be caused by one flammable (LPG) and one toxic (ethylene oxide) chemicals being transported through a sizable segment of a State Highway connecting three notified Industrial zones in Surat district in Western India housing 26 MAH industrial units. Three 'hotspots' were identified along the highway segment depending on the particular chemical traffic and the population distribution within 500 meters on either sides. The thermal radiation and explosion overpressure have been calculated for LPG / Ethylene Oxide BLEVE scenarios along with toxic release scenario for ethylene oxide. Besides, the dispersion calculations for ethylene oxide toxic release have been made for each 'hotspot' location and the impact zones have been mapped for the LOC concentrations. Subsequently, the maximum Initial Isolation and the protective zones were calculated based on ERPG-3 and ERPG-2 values of ethylene oxide respectively which are estimated taking the worst case scenario under worst weather conditions. The data analysis will be helpful to the local administration in capacity building with respect to rescue / evacuation and medical preparedness and quantitative inputs to augment the District Offsite Emergency Plan document.

Keywords: Hotspot, Ethylene Oxide, LPG, MAH (MajorAccident Hazard).

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Authors: Chen Faxin, Feng Jinghua, Yang Jianlun, Li Linbo, Zhou Lin

Abstract:

In order to obtaining the dynamic evolution image of Tungsten array for foam padding, and to research the form of interaction between Tungsten plasma and foam column, a shadow imaging system of four-frame ultraviolet probe laser (266nm)has been designed on 1MA pulse power device. The time resolution of the system is 2.5ns, and static space resolution is superior to 70μm. The radial shadowgraphy image reveals the whole process from the melting and expansion of solid wire to the interaction of the precursor plasma and the foam, from the pinch to rebound inflation. The image shows the continuous interaction of Tungsten plasma and foam in a form of “Raining" within a time of about 50ns, the plasma shell structure has not been found in the whole period of pinch. The quantitative analysis indicates the minimum pinching speed of the foam column is 1.0×106cm/s, and maximum pinching speed is 6.0×106cm/s, and the axial stagnation diameter is approx 1mm.

Keywords: Dynamic hohlraum, Shadowgraphy image, Foam evolution.

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Authors: Marinos Xagoraris, Iliada K. Lappa, Charalambos Kanakis, Dimitra Daferera, Christina Papadopoulou, Georgios Sourounis, Charilaos Giotis, Pavlos Bouchagier, Christos S. Pappas, Petros A. Tarantilis, Efstathia Skotti

Abstract:

The aim of this work was to recover phenolic compounds from grape skins produced in Greek varieties of the Ionian Islands in order to form the basis of calculations for their further utilization in the context of the circular economy. Isolation and further utilization of phenolic compounds is an important issue in winery by-products. For this purpose, 37 samples were collected, extracted, and analyzed in an attempt to provide the appropriate basis for their sustainable exploitation. Extraction of the bioactive compounds was held using an eco-friendly, non-toxic, and highly effective water-glycerol solvent system. Then, extracts were analyzed using UV-Vis, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy. Also, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity were measured. LC-MS chromatography showed qualitative differences between different varieties. Peaks were attributed to monomeric 3-flavanols as well as monomeric, dimeric, and trimeric proanthocyanidins. The FT-IR and Raman spectra agreed with the chromatographic data and contributed to identifying phenolic compounds. Grape skins exhibited high total phenolic content (TPC), and it was proved that during vinification, a large number of polyphenols remained in the pomace. This study confirmed that grape skins from Ionian Islands are a promising source of bioactive compounds, suggesting their utilization under a bio-economic and environmental strategic framework.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, grape skin, phenolic compounds, waste recovery.

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Authors: Thammasak Thianniwet, Satidchoke Phosaard, Wasan Pattara-Atikom

Abstract:

We proposed a technique to identify road traffic congestion levels from velocity of mobile sensors with high accuracy and consistent with motorists- judgments. The data collection utilized a GPS device, a webcam, and an opinion survey. Human perceptions were used to rate the traffic congestion levels into three levels: light, heavy, and jam. Then the ratings and velocity were fed into a decision tree learning model (J48). We successfully extracted vehicle movement patterns to feed into the learning model using a sliding windows technique. The parameters capturing the vehicle moving patterns and the windows size were heuristically optimized. The model achieved accuracy as high as 99.68%. By implementing the model on the existing traffic report systems, the reports will cover comprehensive areas. The proposed method can be applied to any parts of the world.

Keywords: intelligent transportation system (ITS), traffic congestion level, human judgment, decision tree (J48), geographic positioning system (GPS).

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Authors: Seung You Na, Joo Hyun Jung, Jin Young Kim, Mohammad AhangarKiasari

Abstract:

There are various kinds of medical equipment which requires relatively accurate positional adjustments for successful treatment. However, patients tend to move without notice during a certain span of operations. Therefore, it is common practice that accompanying operators adjust the focus of the equipment. In this paper, tracking controllers for medical equipment are suggested to replace the operators. The tracking controllers use AHRS sensor information to recognize the movements of patients. Sensor fusion is applied to reducing the error magnitudes through linear Kalman filters. The image processing of optical markers is included to adjust the accumulation errors of gyroscope sensor data especially for yaw angles. The tracking controller reduces the positional errors between the current focus of a device and the target position on the body of a patient. Since the sensing frequencies of AHRS sensors are very high compared to the physical movements, the control performance is satisfactory. The typical applications are, for example, ESWT or rTMS, which have the error ranges of a few centimeters.

Keywords: AHRS, Sensor fusion, Tracking control, Position and posture.

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Authors: Abdulrahman S. Abduljalil, Zhibin Yu, Artur J. Jaworski, Lei Shi

Abstract:

In a travelling wave thermoacoustic device, the regenerator sandwiched between a pair of (hot and cold) heat exchangers constitutes the so-called thermoacoustic core, where the thermoacoustic energy conversion from heat to acoustic power takes place. The temperature gradient along the regenerator caused by the two heat exchangers excites and maintains the acoustic wave in the resonator. The devices are called travelling wave thermoacoustic systems because the phase angle difference between the pressure and velocity oscillation is close to zero in the regenerator. This paper presents the construction and testing of a thermoacoustic engine equipped with a ceramic regenerator, made from a ceramic material that is usually used as catalyst substrate in vehicles- exhaust systems, with fine square channels (900 cells per square inch). The testing includes the onset temperature difference (minimum temperature difference required to start the acoustic oscillation in an engine), the acoustic power output, thermal efficiency and the temperature profile along the regenerator.

Keywords: Regenerator, Temperature gradient, Thermoacoustic, Travelling-wave.

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