Search results for: small and medium enterprises.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2303

Search results for: small and medium enterprises.

1133 A Design of Fractional-Order PI Controller with Error Compensation

Authors: Mazidah Tajjudin, Norhashim Mohd Arshad, Ramli Adnan

Abstract:

Fractional-order controller was proven to perform better than the integer-order controller. However, the absence of a pole at origin produced marginal error in fractional-order control system. This study demonstrated the enhancement of the fractionalorder PI over the integer-order PI in a steam temperature control. The fractional-order controller was cascaded with an error compensator comprised of a very small zero and a pole at origin to produce a zero steady-state error for the closed-loop system. Some modification on the error compensator was suggested for different order fractional integrator that can improve the overall phase margin.

Keywords: Fractional-order PI, Ziegler-Nichols tuning, Oustaloup's Recursive Approximation, steam temperature control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2273
1132 Factors Contributing Towards Technology Development in Small Firms

Authors: Davinder Singh, Jaimal Singh Khamba, Tarun Nanda

Abstract:

The importance of MSMEs in India became crucial in rural areas because it promoted economic growth. MSMEs play a significant role in the economic growth of the country owing to production, exports and employment. Technology development reflect a critical way in which organization respond to either technological or market challenges. The present survey examines the characteristics of technology development in MSMEs. The results show that Indian MSMEs do not co-operate with universities and R&D institutes. Government policies also affect the technology development activities. The awareness about the R&D infrastructure is very low as shown by the results in the study. There is a need to understand and assess the real needs of the MSMEs and accordingly devise approaches that ensure their sustainable growth.

Keywords: MSMEs, technology development, networks, financial management and R&D infrastructure.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2701
1131 Operation Stability Enhancement in Once-Through Micro Evaporators

Authors: Cor M. Rops, Giaco C. Oosterbaan, Cees W.M. v/d Geld

Abstract:

Equipment miniaturisation offers several opportunities such as an increased surface-to-volume ratio and higher heat transfer coefficients. However, moving towards small-diameter channels demands extra attention to fouling, reliability and stable operation of the system. The present investigation explores possibilities to enhance the stability of the once-through micro evaporator by reducing its flow boiling induced pressure fluctuations. Experimental comparison shows that the measured reduction factor approaches a theoretically derived value. Pressure fluctuations are reduced by a factor of ten in the solid conical channel and a factor of 15 in the porous conical channel. This presumably leads to less backflow and therefore to a better flow control.

Keywords: Flow boiling, Operation stability, Microfluidics, Microchannels.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1625
1130 Are Lecturers- Ready for Usage of Mobile Technology for Teaching?

Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

Abstract:

Descriptive statistics was performed with the aim to achieve research objective of to investigate lecturers- usage of the mobile technology for teaching. A representative sample of 20 lecturers from the Faculty of Industrial Art & Design Technology of Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL), Malaysia was selected as the respondents. The result attested that lecturers fully accept the concept of mobility in learning and game play is appealing concept to support classroom learning. Subsequently, analogous experience on small size of keypad, screen resolution, and navigation could be the major problematic factors to students and affect their mobile learning process. Recommendation for future research is also presented.

Keywords: Academics, Mobile e-learning, Mobile technology, Readiness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1623
1129 Miniaturized Wideband Single-Feed Shorted-Edge Stacked Patch Antenna for C-Band Applications

Authors: Abdelheq Boukarkar, Omar Guermoua

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a miniaturized and wideband patch antenna for C-band applications. The antenna miniaturization is obtained by loading shorting vias along one patch edge. At the same time, the wideband performance is achieved by combining two resonances using one feed line. The measured results reveal that the antenna covers the frequency band 4.32 GHz to 6.52 GHz (41%) with a peak gain and a peak efficiency of 5.5 dBi and 87%, respectively. The antenna occupies a relatively small size of only 26 x 22 x 5.6 mm3, making it suitable for compact wireless devices requiring a stable unidirectional gain over a wide frequency range.

Keywords: Miniaturized antennas, patch antennas, stable gain, wideband antennas.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 501
1128 A Predictive control based on Neural Network for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, M. Rezaei, V. Najmi

Abstract:

The Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) control system has an important effect on operation of cell. Traditional controllers couldn-t lead to acceptable responses because of time- change, long- hysteresis, uncertainty, strong- coupling and nonlinear characteristics of PEMFCs, so an intelligent or adaptive controller is needed. In this paper a neural network predictive controller have been designed to control the voltage of at the presence of fluctuations of temperature. The results of implementation of this designed NN Predictive controller on a dynamic electrochemical model of a small size 5 KW, PEM fuel cell have been simulated by MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Keywords: PEMFC, Neural Network, Predictive Control..

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2593
1127 A Note on Penalized Power-Divergence Test Statistics

Authors: Aylin Alin

Abstract:

In this paper, penalized power-divergence test statistics have been defined and their exact size properties to test a nested sequence of log-linear models have been compared with ordinary power-divergence test statistics for various penalization, λ and main effect values. Since the ordinary and penalized power-divergence test statistics have the same asymptotic distribution, comparisons have been only made for small and moderate samples. Three-way contingency tables distributed according to a multinomial distribution have been considered. Simulation results reveal that penalized power-divergence test statistics perform much better than their ordinary counterparts.

Keywords: Contingency table, Log-linear models, Penalization, Power-divergence measure, Penalized power-divergence measure.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1295
1126 Measurement of Small PD-S in Compressed SF6(10%) - N2(90%) Gas Mixture

Authors: B. Rajesh Kamath, J. Sundara Rajan

Abstract:

Partial Discharge measurement is a very important means of assessing the integrity of insulation systems in a High Voltage apparatus. In compressed gas insulation systems, floating particles can initiate partial discharge activities which adversely affect the working of insulation. Partial Discharges below the inception voltage also plays a crucial in damaging the integrity of insulation over a period of time. This paper discusses the effect of loose and fixed Copper and Nichrome wire particles on the PD characteristics in SF6-N2 (10:90) gas mixtures at a pressure of 0.4MPa. The Partial Discharge statistical parameters and their correlation to the observed results are discussed.

Keywords: Gas Insulated transmission Line, Sulphur HexaFlouride, metallic Particles, Partial Discharge (PD), InceptionVoltage (Vi), Extinction Voltage (Ve), PD Statistical parameters.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1650
1125 Control Signal from EOG Analysis and Its Application

Authors: Myoung Ro Kim, Gilwon Yoon

Abstract:

A game using electro-oculography (EOG) as control signal was introduced in this study. Various EOG signals are generated by eye movements. Even though EOG is a quite complex type of signal, distinct and separable EOG signals could be classified from horizontal and vertical, left and right eye movements. Proper signal processing was incorporated since EOG signal has very small amplitude in the order of micro volts and contains noises influenced by external conditions. Locations of the electrodes were set to be above and below as well as left and right positions of the eyes. Four control signals of up, down, left and right were generated. A microcontroller processed signals in order to simulate a DDR game. A LCD display showed arrows falling down with four different head directions. This game may be used as eye exercise for visual concentration and acuity. Our proposed EOG control signal can be utilized in many other applications of human machine interfaces such as wheelchair, computer keyboard and home automation.

Keywords: DDR game, EOG, eye movement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4749
1124 Morphing Human Faces: Automatic Control Points Selection and Color Transition

Authors: Stephen Karungaru, Minoru Fukumi, Norio Akamatsu

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a morphing method by which face color images can be freely transformed. The main focus of this work is the transformation of one face image to another. This method is fully automatic in that it can morph two face images by automatically detecting all the control points necessary to perform the morph. A face detection neural network, edge detection and medium filters are employed to detect the face position and features. Five control points, for both the source and target images, are then extracted based on the facial features. Triangulation method is then used to match and warp the source image to the target image using the control points. Finally color interpolation is done using a color Gaussian model that calculates the color for each particular frame depending on the number of frames used. A real coded Genetic algorithm is used in both the image warping and color blending steps to assist in step size decisions and speed up the morphing. This method results in ''very smooth'' morphs and is fast to process.

Keywords: color transition, genetic algorithms morphing, warping

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2797
1123 Challenges in Video Based Object Detection in Maritime Scenario Using Computer Vision

Authors: Dilip K. Prasad, C. Krishna Prasath, Deepu Rajan, Lily Rachmawati, Eshan Rajabally, Chai Quek

Abstract:

This paper discusses the technical challenges in maritime image processing and machine vision problems for video streams generated by cameras. Even well documented problems of horizon detection and registration of frames in a video are very challenging in maritime scenarios. More advanced problems of background subtraction and object detection in video streams are very challenging. Challenges arising from the dynamic nature of the background, unavailability of static cues, presence of small objects at distant backgrounds, illumination effects, all contribute to the challenges as discussed here.

Keywords: Autonomous maritime vehicle, object detection, situation awareness, tracking.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1291
1122 Operation Parameters of Vacuum Cleaned Filters

Authors: Wilhelm Hoeflinger, Thomas Laminger, Johannes Wolfslehner

Abstract:

For vacuum cleaned dust filters there exist no calculation methods to determine design parameters (e.g. traverse velocity of the nozzle, filter area…). In this work a method to calculate the optimum traverse velocity of the nozzle of an industrial-size flat dust filter at a given mean pressure drop and filter face velocity was elaborated. Well-known equations for the design of a cleanable multi-chamber bag-house-filter were modified in order to take into account a continuously regeneration of a dust filter by a nozzle. Thereby, the specific filter medium resistance and the specific cake resistance values are needed which can be derived from filter tests under constant operation conditions.

A lab-scale filter test rig was used to derive the specific filter media resistance value and the specific cake resistance value for vacuum cleaned filter operation. Three different filter media were tested and the determined parameters were compared to each other.

Keywords: Design of dust filter, Dust removing, Filter regeneration, Operation parameters.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1910
1121 Broadening of Raw Materials in the Steel Industry, by Recycling and Recovery Wastes

Authors: A. Todorut, T. Heput

Abstract:

In technological processes, in addition to the main product, result a large amount of materials, called wastes, but due to the possibilities of recovery, by means of recycling and reusing it can fit in the category of by-products. These large amounts of dust from the steel industry are a major problem in terms of environmental and human health, landscape, etc. Solving these problems, the impressive amounts of waste can be done through their proper management and recovery for every type of waste. In this article it was watched the capitalizing through pelleting and briquetting of small and powdery waste aiming to obtain the sponge iron as raw material, used in blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces. The data have been processed in the Excel spreadsheet program, being presented in the form of diagrams.

Keywords: Agglomeration, industry, iron, pellets, wastes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1525
1120 A Preemptive Link State Spanning Tree Source Routing Scheme for Opportunistic Data Forwarding in MANET

Authors: R. Poonkuzhali, M. Y. Sanavullah, A. Sabari

Abstract:

Opportunistic Data Forwarding (ODF) has drawn much attention in mobile adhoc networking research in recent years. The effectiveness of ODF in MANET depends on a suitable routing protocol which provides a powerful source routing services. PLSR is featured by source routing, loop free and small routing overhead. The update messages in PLSR are integrated into a tree structure and no need to time stamp routing updates which reduces the routing overhead.

Keywords: Mobile ad hoc network (MANET), Opportunistic data forwarding (ODF), Preemptive link state spanning tree routing (PLSR), Depth First Search (DFS).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1887
1119 Oil Recovery Study by Low Temperature Carbon Dioxide Injection in High-Pressure High-Temperature Micromodels

Authors: Zakaria Hamdi, Mariyamni Awang

Abstract:

For the past decades, CO2 flooding has been used as a successful method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). However, high mobility ratio and fingering effect are considered as important drawbacka of this process. Low temperature injection of CO2 into high temperature reservoirs may improve the oil recovery, but simulating multiphase flow in the non-isothermal medium is difficult, and commercial simulators are very unstable in these conditions. Furthermore, to best of authors’ knowledge, no experimental work was done to verify the results of the simulations and to understand the pore-scale process. In this paper, we present results of investigations on injection of low temperature CO2 into a high-pressure high-temperature micromodel with injection temperature range from 34 to 75 °F. Effect of temperature and saturation changes of different fluids are measured in each case. The results prove the proposed method. The injection of CO2 at low temperatures increased the oil recovery in high temperature reservoirs significantly. Also, CO2 rich phases available in the high temperature system can affect the oil recovery through the better sweep of the oil which is initially caused by penetration of LCO2 inside the system. Furthermore, no unfavorable effect was detected using this method. Low temperature CO2 is proposed to be used as early as secondary recovery.

Keywords: Enhanced oil recovery, CO2 flooding, micromodel studies, miscible flooding.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1117
1118 Influence of AgNO3 Treatment on the Flavonolignan Production in Cell Suspension Culture of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn

Authors: Anna Vildová, H. Hendrychová, J. Kubeš, L. Tůmová

Abstract:

The abiotic elicitation is one of the methods for increasing the secondary metabolites production in plant tissue cultures and it seems to be more effective than traditional strategies. This study verified the use of silver nitrate as elicitor to enhance flavonolignans and flavonoid taxifolin production in suspension culture of Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn. Silver nitrate in various concentrations (5.887.10-3 mol/L, 5.887.10-4 mol/L, 5.887.10-5 mol/L) was used as elicitor. The content of secondary metabolites in cell suspension cultures was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The samples were taken after 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 168 hours of treatment. The highest content of taxifolin production (2.2 mg.g-1) in cell suspension culture of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. was detected after silver nitrate (5.887.10-4 mol/L) treatment and 72 h application. Flavonolignans such as silybinA, silybin B, silydianin, silychristin, isosilybin A, isosilybin B were not produced by cell suspension culture of S. marianum after elicitor treatment. Our results show that the secondarymetabolites could be released from S. marianum cells into the nutrient medium by changed permeability of cell wall.

Keywords: Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn., elicitation, silver nitrate, taxifolin.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1771
1117 Approach to Design of Composition of Current Concrete with Respect to Strength and Static Elasticity Modulus

Authors: Klara Krizova, Rudolf Hela

Abstract:

The paper reflects current state of popularization of static elasticity modulus of concrete. This parameter is undoubtedly very important for designing of concrete structures, and very often neglected and rarely determined before designing concrete technology itself. The paper describes assessment and comparison of four mix designs with almost constant dosage of individual components. The only difference is area of origin of small size fraction of aggregate 0/4. Development of compressive strength and static elasticity modulus at the age of 7, 28 and 180 days were observed. As the experiment showed, designing of individual components and their quality are the basic factor influencing elasticity modulus of current concrete.

Keywords: Concrete, Aggregate, Strength, Elasticity Modulus, Quality

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1431
1116 Comparing Abused and Normal Male Students in Tehran Guidance Schools: Emphasizing the Co-Dependency of Their Mothers

Authors: Mohamad Saleh Sangin Ostadi, Esmail Safari, Somayeh Akbari, Kaveh Qaderi Bagajan

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to compare abused and normal male students in Tehran guidance schools with emphasis on the co-dependency of their mothers. The method of this study is based on survey method and comparison (Ex-Post Facto). The method of sampling is also multi-stage cluster. Accordingly, we did sampling from secondary schools of education and training in Tehran, including 12 schools with levels of first, second and third. Each of the schools represents the three – high, medium and low- economic and social conditions. In the following, three classes from every school and 20 students from each class were randomly selected. By (CTQ) abused and normal students were separated that 670 children were recognized as normal and 50 children as abused. Then, 50 children were randomly selected from normal group and compared with abused group. Using Spanned-Fischer Co-dependency Scale, we compared mothers of abused and normal students. The results showed that mothers of the abused children have higher co- dependency average comparing to the mothers of the normal children.

Keywords: Co-dependency, child abuse, abused children, parental psychological health.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1693
1115 A Study of the Variability of Very Low Resolution Characters and the Feasibility of Their Discrimination Using Geometrical Features

Authors: Farshideh Einsele, Rolf Ingold

Abstract:

Current OCR technology does not allow to accurately recognizing small text images, such as those found in web images. Our goal is to investigate new approaches to recognize very low resolution text images containing antialiased character shapes. This paper presents a preliminary study on the variability of such characters and the feasibility to discriminate them by using geometrical features. In a first stage we analyze the distribution of these features. In a second stage we present a study on the discriminative power for recognizing isolated characters, using various rendering methods and font properties. Finally we present interesting results of our evaluation tests leading to our conclusion and future focus.

Keywords: World Wide Web, document analysis, pattern recognition, Optical Character Recognition.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1352
1114 Opto-Mechanical Characterization of Aspheric Lenses from the Hybrid Method

Authors: Aliouane Toufik, Hamdi Amine, Bouzid Djamel

Abstract:

Aspheric optical components are an alternative to the use of conventional lenses in the implementation of imaging systems for the visible range. Spherical lenses are capable of producing aberrations. Therefore, they are not able to focus all the light into a single point. Instead, aspherical lenses correct aberrations and provide better resolution even with compact lenses incorporating a small number of lenses.

Metrology of these components is very difficult especially when the resolution requirements increase and insufficient or complexity of conventional tools requires the development of specific approaches to characterization.

This work is part of the problem existed because the objectives are the study and comparison of different methods used to measure surface rays hybrid aspherical lenses.

Keywords: Aspherical surface, Manufacture of lenses, precision molding, radius of curvature, roughness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1997
1113 Modeling and Simulation of Acoustic Link Using Mackenize Propagation Speed Equation

Authors: Christhu Raj M. R., Rajeev Sukumaran

Abstract:

Underwater acoustic networks have attracted great attention in the last few years because of its numerous applications. High data rate can be achieved by efficiently modeling the physical layer in the network protocol stack. In Acoustic medium, propagation speed of the acoustic waves is dependent on many parameters such as temperature, salinity, density, and depth. Acoustic propagation speed cannot be modeled using standard empirical formulas such as Urick and Thorp descriptions. In this paper, we have modeled the acoustic channel using real time data of temperature, salinity, and speed of Bay of Bengal (Indian Coastal Region). We have modeled the acoustic channel by using Mackenzie speed equation and real time data obtained from National Institute of Oceanography and Technology. It is found that acoustic propagation speed varies between 1503 m/s to 1544 m/s as temperature and depth differs. The simulation results show that temperature, salinity, depth plays major role in acoustic propagation and data rate increases with appropriate data sets substituted in the simulated model.

Keywords: Underwater Acoustics, Mackenzie Speed Equation, Temperature, Salinity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2166
1112 Prediction of Post Underwater Shock Properties of Polymer - Clay/Silica Hybrid Nanocomposites through Regression Models

Authors: D. Lingaraju, K. Ramji, M. Pramiladevi, U. Rajyalakshmi

Abstract:

Exploding concentrated underwater charges to damage underwater structures such as ship hulls is a part of naval warfare strategies. Adding small amounts of foreign particles (like clay or silica) of nanosize significantly improves the engineering properties of the polymers. In the present work the clay in terms 1, 2 and 3 percent by weight was surface treated with a suitable silane agent. The hybrid nanocomposite was prepared by the hand lay-up technique. Mathematical regression models have been employed for theoretical prediction. This will result in considerable savings in terms of project time, effort and cost.

Keywords: ANOVA, clay, halloysite, nanocomposites, underwater shock, regression, silica.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2157
1111 Restarted GMRES Method Augmented with the Combination of Harmonic Ritz Vectors and Error Approximations

Authors: Qiang Niu, Linzhang Lu

Abstract:

Restarted GMRES methods augmented with approximate eigenvectors are widely used for solving large sparse linear systems. Recently a new scheme of augmenting with error approximations is proposed. The main aim of this paper is to develop a restarted GMRES method augmented with the combination of harmonic Ritz vectors and error approximations. We demonstrate that the resulted combination method can gain the advantages of two approaches: (i) effectively deflate the small eigenvalues in magnitude that may hamper the convergence of the method and (ii) partially recover the global optimality lost due to restarting. The effectiveness and efficiency of the new method are demonstrated through various numerical examples.

Keywords: Arnoldi process, GMRES, Krylov subspace, systems of linear equations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1915
1110 Modality and Redundancy Effects on Music Theory Learning Among Pupils of Different Anxiety Levels

Authors: Soon Fook Fong, Aldalalah, M. Osamah

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of modality and redundancy principles on music theory learning among pupils of different anxiety levels. The lesson of music theory was developed in three different modes, audio and image (AI), text with image (TI) and audio with image and text (AIT). The independent variables were the three modes of courseware. The moderator variable was the anxiety level, while the dependent variable was the post test score. The study sample consisted of 405 third-grade pupils. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to analyze the collected data. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and Post hoc were carried out to examine the main effects as well as the interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings of this study showed that medium anxiety pupils performed significantly better than low and high anxiety pupils in all the three treatment modes. The AI mode was found to help pupils with high anxiety significantly more than the TI and AIT modes.

Keywords: Modality, Redundancy, Music theory, Cognitivetheory of multimedia learning, Cognitive load theory, Anxiety.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2109
1109 Hydrothermal Treatment for Production of Aqueous Co-Product and Efficient Oil Extraction from Microalgae

Authors: Manatchanok Tantiphiphatthana, Lin Peng, Rujira Jitrwung, Kunio Yoshikawa

Abstract:

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a technique for obtaining clean biofuel from biomass in the presence of heat and pressure in an aqueous medium which leads to a decomposition of this biomass to the formation of various products. A role of operating conditions is essential for the bio-oil and other products’ yield and also quality of the products. The effects of these parameters were investigated in regards to the composition and yield of the products. Chlorellaceae microalgae were tested under different HTL conditions to clarify suitable conditions for extracting bio-oil together with value-added co-products. Firstly, different microalgae loading rates (5-30%) were tested and found that this parameter has not much significant to product yield. Therefore, 10% microalgae loading rate was selected as a proper economical solution for conditioned schedule at 250oC and 30 min-reaction time. Next, a range of temperature (210-290oC) was applied to verify the effects of each parameter by keeping the reaction time constant at 30 min. The results showed no linkage with the increase of the reaction temperature and some reactions occurred that lead to different product yields. Moreover, some nutrients found in the aqueous product are possible to be utilized for nutrient recovery.

Keywords: Bio-oil, Hydrothermal Liquefaction, Microalgae, Aqueous co-product.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2079
1108 Feasibility Study on Vanillin Production from Jatropha curcas Stem Using Steam Explosion as a Pretreatment

Authors: Pilanee Vaithanomsat, Waraporn Apiwatanapiwat

Abstract:

Jatropha curcas stem was analyzed for chemical compositions: 19.11% pentosan, 42.99% alphacellulose and 24.11% lignin based on dry weight of 100-g raw material. The condition to fractionate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in J. curcas stem using steam explosion was optimized. The procedure started from cutting J. curcas stem into small pieces and soaked in water for overnight. After that, they were steam exploded at 214 °C and 21 kg/cm2 for 5 min. The obtained hydrolysate contained 1.55 g/L ferulic acid which after that was used as substrate for vanillin production by Aspergillus niger and Pycnoporus cinnabarinus in one-step process. The maximum 0.65 g/L of vanillin were obtained with the conversion rate of 45.2% based on the initial ferulic acid.

Keywords: Vanillin, production, Jatropha curcas stem, steam explosion.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2349
1107 Understanding Charge Dynamics in Elastomers Adopting Pulsed Electro Acoustic (PEA) Technique

Authors: R. Sarathi, M. G. Danikas, Y. Chen, T. Tanaka

Abstract:

In the present work, Pulsed Electro Acoustic (PEA) technique was adopted to understand the space charge dynamics in elastomeric material. It is observed that the polarity of the applied DC voltage voltage and its magnitude alters the space charge dynamics in insulation structure. It is also noticed that any addition of compound to the base material/processing technique have characteristic variation in the space charge injection process. It could be concluded based on the present work that the plasticizer could inject heterocharges into the insulation medium. Also it is realized that space charge magnitude is less with the addition of plasticizer. In the PEA studies, it is observed that local electric field in the insulating material can be much more than applied electric field due to space charge formation. One of the important conclusions arrived at based on PEA technique is that one could understand the safe operating electric field of an insulation material and the charge trap sites.

Keywords: Pulsed electro acoustic technique, space charge, DCvoltage, elastomers, Electric field, high voltage.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1428
1106 Memetic Algorithm Based Path Planning for a Mobile Robot

Authors: Neda Shahidi, Hadi Esmaeilzadeh, Marziye Abdollahi, Caro Lucas

Abstract:

In this paper, the problem of finding the optimal collision free path for a mobile robot, the path planning problem, is solved using an advanced evolutionary algorithm called memetic algorithm. What is new in this work is a novel representation of solutions for evolutionary algorithms that is efficient, simple and also compatible with memetic algorithm. The new representation makes it possible to solve the problem with a small population and in a few generations. It also makes the genetic operator simple and allows using an efficient local search operator within the evolutionary algorithm. The proposed algorithm is applied to two instances of path planning problem and the results are available.

Keywords: Path planning problem, Memetic Algorithm, Representation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1716
1105 Speedup of Data Vortex Network Architecture

Authors: Qimin Yang

Abstract:

In this paper, 3X3 routing nodes are proposed to provide speedup and parallel processing capability in Data Vortex network architectures. The new design not only significantly improves network throughput and latency, but also eliminates the need for distributive traffic control mechanism originally embedded among nodes and the need for nodal buffering. The cost effectiveness is studied by a comparison study with the previously proposed 2- input buffered networks, and considerable performance enhancement can be achieved with similar or lower cost of hardware. Unlike previous implementation, the network leaves small probability of contention, therefore, the packet drop rate must be kept low for such implementation to be feasible and attractive, and it can be achieved with proper choice of operation conditions.

Keywords: Data Vortex, Packet Switch, Interconnection network, deflection, Network-on-chip

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1549
1104 Feature Level Fusion of Multimodal Images Using Haar Lifting Wavelet Transform

Authors: Sudipta Majumdar, Jayant Bharadwaj

Abstract:

This paper presents feature level image fusion using Haar lifting wavelet transform. Feature fused is edge and boundary information, which is obtained using wavelet transform modulus maxima criteria. Simulation results show the superiority of the result as entropy, gradient, standard deviation are increased for fused image as compared to input images. The proposed methods have the advantages of simplicity of implementation, fast algorithm, perfect reconstruction, and reduced computational complexity. (Computational cost of Haar wavelet is very small as compared to other lifting wavelets.)

Keywords: Lifting wavelet transform, wavelet transform modulus maxima.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2400