Search results for: Lethal Range
665 Photoimpedance Spectroscopy Analysis of Planar and Nano-Textured Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells
Authors: P. Kumar, D. Eisenhauer, M. M. K. Yousef, Q. Shi, A. S. G. Khalil, M. R. Saber, C. Becker, T. Pullerits, K. J. Karki
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In impedance spectroscopy (IS) the response of a photo-active device is analysed as a function of ac bias. It is widely applied in a broad class of material systems and devices. It gives access to fundamental mechanisms of operation of solar cells. We have implemented a method of IS where we modulate the light instead of the bias. This scheme allows us to analyze not only carrier dynamics but also impedance of device locally. Here, using this scheme, we have measured the frequency-dependent photocurrent response of the thin-film planar and nano-textured Si solar cells using this method. Photocurrent response is measured in range of 50 Hz to 50 kHz. Bode and Nyquist plots are used to determine characteristic lifetime of both the cells. Interestingly, the carrier lifetime of both planar and nano-textured solar cells depend on back and front contact positions. This is due to either heterogeneity of device or contacts are not optimized. The estimated average lifetime is found to be shorter for the nano-textured cell, which could be due to the influence of the textured interface on the carrier relaxation dynamics.Keywords: Carrier lifetime, Impedance, nano-textured, and photocurrent.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1016664 Simulation of Reflection Loss for Carbon and Nickel-Carbon Thin Films
Authors: M. Emami, R. Tarighi, R. Goodarzi
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Maximal radar wave absorbing cannot be achieved by shaping alone. We have to focus on the parameters of absorbing materials such as permittivity, permeability, and thickness so that best absorbing according to our necessity can happen. The real and imaginary parts of the relative complex permittivity (εr' and εr") and permeability (µr' and µr") were obtained by simulation. The microwave absorbing property of carbon and Ni(C) is simulated in this study by MATLAB software; the simulation was in the frequency range between 2 to 12 GHz for carbon black (C), and carbon coated nickel (Ni(C)) with different thicknesses. In fact, we draw reflection loss (RL) for C and Ni-C via frequency. We have compared their absorption for 3-mm thickness and predicted for other thicknesses by using of electromagnetic wave transmission theory. The results showed that reflection loss position changes in low frequency with increasing of thickness. We found out that, in all cases, using nanocomposites as absorbance cannot get better results relative to pure nanoparticles. The frequency where absorption is maximum can determine the best choice between nanocomposites and pure nanoparticles. Also, we could find an optimal thickness for long wavelength absorbing in order to utilize them in protecting shields and covering.
Keywords: Absorbing, carbon, carbon nickel, frequency, thicknesses.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 887663 Taxonomic and Faunistic Data on the Genus Triaspis Haliday, 1835 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Brachistinae) from Turkey
Authors: Tülin Koldaş, Özlem Çetin Erdoğan, Ahmet Beyarslan
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Brachistinae Föerster, 1862 is a subfamily of the family Braconidae (order Hymenoptera) with about 410 species distributed all around the world. Brachistinae includes the genera, Eubazus Nees von Esenbeck 1814, Foersteria Szépligeti 1896, Chelostes van Achterberg 1990, Triaspis Haliday 1835 and Schizoprymnus Förster 1862. Members of the subfamily live as parasitoids on the families Curculionidae and Apionidae (Coleoptera), which also include very important agricultural pests. In generally, members of the genus Triaspis are poorly known biologically. The genus is represented by 37 species in the West Palearctic region and 118 species worldwide. Adult specimens of Triaspis were collected from as wide a range of habitats as possible at different altitudes in different parts of Turkey between 1982 and 2010. Samples collected from short plants using standard insect sweeping nets were transferred into tubes containing 70% ethanol and labelled following their preparations according to museum techniques. Seven Triaspis species have been reported from Turkey in this study. Five of these species are new to the fauna of Turkey.
Keywords: Braconidae, fauna, Triaspis, Hymenoptera, Turkey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 781662 Characterization and Evaluation of the Activity of Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV from the Black-Bellied Hornet Vespa basalis
Authors: Feng Chia Hsieh, Sheng Kuo Hsieh, Tzyy Rong Jinn
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Characterization and evaluation of the activity of Vespa basalis DPP-IV, which expressed in Spodoptera frugiperda 21 cells. The expression of rDPP-IV was confirmed by SDS–PAGE, Western blot analyses, LC-MS/MS and measurement of its peptidase specificity. One-step purification by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and the total amount of rDPP-IV recovered was approximately 6.4mg per liter from infected culture medium; an equivalent amount would be produced by 1x109 infected Sf21 insect cells. Through the affinity purification led to highly stable rDPP-IV enzyme was recovered and with significant peptidase activity. The rDPP-IV exhibited classical Michaelis–Menten kinetics, with kcat/Km in the range of 10-500 mM-1×S-1 for the five synthetic substrates and optimum substrate is Ala-Pro-pNA. As expected in inhibition assay, the enzymatic activity of rDPP-IV was significantly reduced by 80 or 60% in the presence of sitagliptin (a DPP-IV inhibitor) or PMSF (a serine protease inhibitor), but was not apparently affected by iodoacetamide (a cysteine protease inhibitor).
Keywords: Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV, Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride; Serine protease, Sitagliptin, Vespa basalis
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1561661 Oxidation of Selected Pharmaceuticals in Water Matrices by Bromine and Chlorine
Authors: Juan L. Acero, F. Javier Benitez, Francisco J. Real, Gloria Roldan, Francisco Casas
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The bromination of five selected pharmaceuticals (metoprolol, naproxen, amoxicillin, hydrochlorotiazide and phenacetin) in ultrapure water and in three water matrices (a groundwater, a surface water from a public reservoir and a secondary effluent from a WWTP) was investigated. The apparent rate constants for the bromination reaction were determined as a function of the pH, and the sequence obtained for the reaction rate was amoxicillin > naproxen >> hydrochlorotiazide ≈ phenacetin ≈ metoprolol. The proposal of a kinetic mechanism, which specifies the dissociation of bromine and each pharmaceutical according to their pKa values and the pH allowed the determination of the intrinsic rate constants for every elementary reaction. The influence of the main operating conditions (pH, initial bromine dose, and the water matrix) on the degradation of pharmaceuticals was established. In addition, the presence of bromide in chlorination experiments was investigated. The presence of bromide in wastewaters and drinking waters in the range of 10 to several hundred μg L-1 accelerated slightly the oxidation of the selected pharmaceuticals during chorine disinfection.Keywords: Pharmaceuticals, bromine, chlorine, apparent andintrinsic rate constants, water matrices, degradation rates
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2319660 High-Frequency Spectrum Analysis of VFTO Generated inside Gas Insulated Substations
Authors: M. A. Abd-Allah, A. Said, Ebrahim A. Badran
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Worldwide many electrical equipment insulation failures have been reported caused by switching operations, while those equipments had previously passed all the standard tests and complied with all quality requirements. The problem is mostly associated with high-frequency overvoltages generated during opening or closing of a switching device. The transients generated during switching operations in a Gas Insulated Substation (GIS) are associated with high frequency components in the order of few tens of MHz. The frequency spectrum of the VFTO generated in the 220/66 kV Wadi-Hoff GIS is analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform technique. The main frequency with high voltage amplitude due to the operation of disconnector (DS5) is 5 to 10 MHz, with the highest amplitude at 9 MHz. The main frequency with high voltage amplitude due to the operation of circuit breaker (CB5) is 1 to 25 MHz, with the highest amplitude at 2 MHz. Mitigating techniques damped the oscillating frequencies effectively. The using of cable terminal reduced the frequency oscillation effectively than that of OHTL terminal. The using of a shunt capacitance results in vanishing the high frequency components. Ferrite rings reduces the high frequency components effectively especially in the range 2 to 7 MHz. The using of RC and RL filters results in vanishing the high frequency components.
Keywords: GIS, VFTO, Mitigation Techniques, Frequency spectrum, FFT, EMTP/ATP.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2510659 Missing Link Data Estimation with Recurrent Neural Network: An Application Using Speed Data of Daegu Metropolitan Area
Authors: JaeHwan Yang, Da-Woon Jeong, Seung-Young Kho, Dong-Kyu Kim
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In terms of ITS, information on link characteristic is an essential factor for plan or operation. But in practical cases, not every link has installed sensors on it. The link that does not have data on it is called “Missing Link”. The purpose of this study is to impute data of these missing links. To get these data, this study applies the machine learning method. With the machine learning process, especially for the deep learning process, missing link data can be estimated from present link data. For deep learning process, this study uses “Recurrent Neural Network” to take time-series data of road. As input data, Dedicated Short-range Communications (DSRC) data of Dalgubul-daero of Daegu Metropolitan Area had been fed into the learning process. Neural Network structure has 17 links with present data as input, 2 hidden layers, for 1 missing link data. As a result, forecasted data of target link show about 94% of accuracy compared with actual data.Keywords: Data Estimation, link data, machine learning, road network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1485658 Photogrammetry and GIS Integration for Archaeological Documentation of Ahl-Alkahf, Jordan
Authors: Rami Al-Ruzouq, Abdallah Al-Zoubi, Abdel-Rahman Abueladas, Petya Dimitrova
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Protection and proper management of archaeological heritage are an essential process of studying and interpreting the generations present and future. Protecting the archaeological heritage is based upon multidiscipline professional collaboration. This study aims to gather data by different sources (Photogrammetry and Geographic Information System (GIS)) integrated for the purpose of documenting one the of significant archeological sites (Ahl-Alkahf, Jordan). 3D modeling deals with the actual image of the features, shapes and texture to represent reality as realistically as possible by using texture. The 3D coordinates that result of the photogrammetric adjustment procedures are used to create 3D-models of the study area. Adding Textures to the 3D-models surfaces gives a 'real world' appearance to the displayed models. GIS system combined all data, including boundary maps, indicating the location of archeological sites, transportation layer, digital elevation model and orthoimages. For realistic representation of the study area, 3D - GIS model prepared, where efficient generation, management and visualization of such special data can be achieved.
Keywords: Archaeology, close range photogrammetry, ortho-photo, 3D-GIS
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2144657 Experimental and Analytical Dose Assessment of Patient's Family Members Treated with I-131
Authors: Marzieh Ebrahimi, Vahid Changizi, Mohammad Reza Kardan, Seyed Mahdi Hosseini Pooya, Parham Geramifar
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Radiation exposure to the patient's family members is one of the major concerns during thyroid cancer radionuclide therapy. The aim of this study was to measure the total effective dose of the family members by means of thermoluminescence personal dosimeter, and compare with those calculated by analytical methods. Eighty-five adult family members of fifty-one patients volunteered to participate in this research study. Considering the minimum and maximum range of dose rate from 15 µsv/h to 120 µsv/h at patients' release time, the calculated mean and median dose values of family members were 0.45 mSv and 0.28 mSv, respectively. Moreover, almost all family members’ doses were measured to be less than the dose constraint of 5 mSv recommended by Basic Safety Standards. Considering the influence parameters such as patient dose rate and administrated activity, the total effective doses of family members were calculated by TEDE and NRC formulas and compared with those of experimental results. The results indicated that, it is fruitful to use the quantitative calculations for releasing patients treated with I-131 and correct estimation of patients' family doses.Keywords: Effective dose, thermoluminescence, I-131, Thyroid cancer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1495656 The Excess Loop Delay Calibration in a Bandpass Continuous-Time Delta Sigma Modulators Based on Q-Enhanced LC Filter
Authors: Sorore Benabid
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The Q-enhanced LC filters are the most used architecture in the Bandpass (BP) Continuous-Time (CT) Delta-Sigma (ΣΔ) modulators, due to their: high frequencies operation, high linearity than the active filters and a high quality factor obtained by Q-enhanced technique. This technique consists of the use of a negative resistance that compensate the ohmic losses in the on-chip inductor. However, this technique introduces a zero in the filter transfer function which will affect the modulator performances in term of Dynamic Range (DR), stability and in-band noise (Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)). In this paper, we study the effect of this zero and we demonstrate that a calibration of the excess loop delay (ELD) is required to ensure the best performances of the modulator. System level simulations are done for a 2ndorder BP CT (ΣΔ) modulator at a center frequency of 300MHz. Simulation results indicate that the optimal ELD should be reduced by 13% to achieve the maximum SNR and DR compared to the ideal LC-based ΣΔ modulator.Keywords: Continuous-time bandpass delta-sigma modulators, excess loop delay, on-chip inductor, Q-enhanced LC filter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 744655 An Improved Performance of the SRM Drives Using Z-Source Inverter with the Simplified Fuzzy Logic Rule Base
Authors: M. Hari Prabhu
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This paper is based on the performance of the Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) drives using Z-Source Inverter with the simplified rule base of Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) with the output scaling factor (SF) self-tuning mechanism are proposed. The aim of this paper is to simplify the program complexity of the controller by reducing the number of fuzzy sets of the membership functions (MFs) without losing the system performance and stability via the adjustable controller gain. ZSI exhibits both voltage-buck and voltage-boost capability. It reduces line harmonics, improves reliability, and extends output voltage range. The output SF of the controller can be tuned continuously by a gain updating factor, whose value is derived from fuzzy logic, with the plant error and error change ratio as input variables. Then the results, carried out on a four-phase 6/8 pole SRM based on the dSPACEDS1104 platform, to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the devised methods and also performance of the proposed controllers will be compared with conventional counterpart.
Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, scaling factor (SF), switched reluctance motor (SRM), variable-speed drives.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2411654 Finite Element Analysis of Ball-Joint Boots under Environmental and Endurance Tests
Authors: Young-Doo Kwon, Seong-Hwa Jun, Dong-Jin Lee, Hyung-Seok Lee
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Ball joints support and guide certain automotive parts that move relative to the frame of the vehicle. Such ball joints are covered and protected from dust, mud, and other interfering materials by ball-joint boots made of rubber—a flexible and near-incompressible material. The boots may experience twisting and bending deformations because of the motion of the joint arm. Thus, environmental and endurance tests of ball-joint boots apply both bending and twisting deformations. In this study, environmental and endurance testing was simulated via the finite element method performed by using a commercial software package. The ranges of principal stress and principal strain values that are known to directly affect the fatigue lives of the parts were sought. By defining these ranges, the number of iterative tests and modifications of the materials and dimensions of the boot can be decreased. Therefore, instead of performing actual part tests, manufacturers can perform standard fatigue tests in trials of different materials by applying only the defined range of stress or strain values.
Keywords: Boot, endurance tests, rubber, FEA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1369653 High Gain Broadband Plasmonic Slot Nano-Antenna
Authors: H. S. Haroyan, V. R. Tadevosyan
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High gain broadband plasmonic slot nano-antenna has been considered. The theory of plasmonic slot nano-antenna (PSNA) has been developed. The analytical model takes into account also the electrical field inside the metal due to imperfectness of metal in optical range, as well as numerical investigation based on finite element method (FEM) has been realized. It should be mentioned that Yagi-Uda configuration improves directivity in the plane of structure. In contrast, in this paper the possibility of directivity improvement of proposed PSNA in perpendicular plane of structure by using reflection metallic surface placed under the slot in fixed distance has been demonstrated. It is well known that a directivity improvement brings to the antenna gain increasing. This method of diagram improving is also well known from RF antenna design theory. Moreover the improvement of directivity in the perpendicular plane gives more flexibility in such application as improving the light and atom, ion, molecule interactions by using such type of plasmonic slot antenna. By the analogy of dipole type optical antennas the widening of working wavelengths has been realized by using bowtie geometry of slots, which made the antenna broadband.
Keywords: Broadband antenna, high gain, slot nano-antenna, plasmonics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2369652 Analysis of GI/M(n)/1/N Queue with Single Working Vacation and Vacation Interruption
Authors: P. Vijaya Laxmi, V. Goswami, V. Suchitra
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This paper presents a finite buffer renewal input single working vacation and vacation interruption queue with state dependent services and state dependent vacations, which has a wide range of applications in several areas including manufacturing, wireless communication systems. Service times during busy period, vacation period and vacation times are exponentially distributed and are state dependent. As a result of the finite waiting space, state dependent services and state dependent vacation policies, the analysis of these queueing models needs special attention. We provide a recursive method using the supplementary variable technique to compute the stationary queue length distributions at pre-arrival and arbitrary epochs. An efficient computational algorithm of the model is presented which is fast and accurate and easy to implement. Various performance measures have been discussed. Finally, some special cases and numerical results have been depicted in the form of tables and graphs.
Keywords: State Dependent Service, Vacation Interruption, Supplementary Variable, Single Working Vacation, Blocking Probability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2138651 Analysis of Foaming Flow Instabilities for Dynamic Liquid Saturation in Trickle Bed Reactor
Authors: Vijay Sodhi, Ajay Bansal
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The effects of different parameters on the hydrodynamics of trickle bed reactors were discussed for Newtonian and non-Newtonian foaming systems. The varying parameters are varying liquid velocities, gas flow velocities and surface tension. The range for gas velocity is particularly large, thanks to the use of dense gas to simulate very high pressure conditions. This data bank has been used to compare the prediction accuracy of the different trendlines and transition points from the literature. More than 240 experimental points for the trickle flow (GCF) and foaming pulsing flow (PF/FPF) regime were obtained for present study. Hydrodynamic characteristics involving dynamic liquid saturation significantly influenced by gas and liquid flow rates. For 15 and 30 ppm air-aqueous surfactant solutions, dynamic liquid saturation decreases with higher liquid and gas flow rates considerably in high interaction regime. With decrease in surface tension i.e. for 45 and 60 ppm air-aqueous surfactant systems, effect was more pronounced with decreases dynamic liquid saturation very sharply during regime transition significantly at both low liquid and gas flow rates.Keywords: Trickle Bed Reactor, Dynamic Liquid Saturation, Foaming, Flow Regime Transition
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1820650 Geophysical Investigation of Abnormal Seepages in Goronyo Dam Sokoto, North Western Nigeria Using Self-Potential Method
Authors: A. I. Augie, M. Saleh, A. A. Gado
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In this research, Self-Potential (SP) method was employed to locate anomalous electrical conductivity located in Goronyo area and also to determine the condition of the embankment of the dam. SP data were plotted against distance along with the profile and spacing of electrode using surfer software (version 12). High and low zones of SP values were identified along the right and left abutments of the dam reservoir. The regions with high SP values were described to be high tendency of fluid flow associate with wet sandy soil. These zones have the SP values ranging from 200 mV and above. High SP values were due to the high moisture content that may lead to the seepage of water leaking through this zone. The zones with high SP values occupied Profiles S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 indicating the presence of potential seepage paths within the subsurface of the embankment. These regions of seepage were identified as weak zones and potential pathways through which water could be lost from the dam reservoir. The SP values for the regions range from 250 m to 400 m (S1), 306 m to 400 m (S2), 192 m to 400 m (S3), 48 m to 200 m (S4) and 7 m to 170 m (S5) with their corresponding maximum depths of 30 m, 28 m, 28 m, 30 m and 26 m respectively. However, zones of low SP values in the overburden were observed which shows the presence of intact regions, which may be due to the compactness and dryness around the dam. The weak zones were considered as geological features (such as fractures, joints, and faults) that have undermined the integrity of the dam structure, which has led to the abnormal seepage.
Keywords: Self-potential, subsurface, seepage, condition and dam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 670649 Microstructural and Electrochemical Investigation of Carbon Coated Nanograined LiFePO4 as Cathode Material for Li-Batteries
Authors: Rinlee Butch M. Cervera, Princess Stephanie P. Llanos
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Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) is a potential cathode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its promising characteristics. In this study, pure LiFePO4 (LFP) and carbon-coated nanograined LiFePO4 (LFP-C) is synthesized and characterized for its microstructural properties. X-ray diffraction patterns of the synthesized samples can be indexed to an orthorhombic LFP structure with about 63 nm crystallite size as calculated by using Scherrer’s equation. Agglomerated particles that range from 200 nm to 300 nm are observed from scanning electron microscopy images. Transmission electron microscopy images confirm the crystalline structure of LFP and coating of amorphous carbon layer. Elemental mapping using energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis revealed the homogeneous dispersion of the compositional elements. In addition, galvanostatic charge and discharge measurements were investigated for the cathode performance of the synthesized LFP and LFP-C samples. The results showed that the carbon-coated sample demonstrated the highest capacity of about 140 mAhg-1 as compared to non-coated and micrograined sized commercial LFP.
Keywords: Ceramics, microstructure, electrochemical measurements, energy storage, transmission electron microscope.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1866648 Dynamic Modeling of Underplateform Damper used in Turbomachinery
Authors: Vikas Rastogi, Vipan Kumar, Loveleen Kumar Bhagi
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The present work deals with the structural analysis of turbine blades and modeling of turbine blades. A common failure mode for turbine machines is high cycle of fatigue of compressor and turbine blades due to high dynamic stresses caused by blade vibration and resonance within the operation range of the machinery. In this work, proper damping system will be analyzed to reduce the vibrating blade. The main focus of the work is the modeling of under platform damper to evaluate the dynamic analysis of turbine-blade vibrations. The system is analyzed using Bond graph technique. Bond graph is one of the most convenient ways to represent a system from the physical aspect in foreground. It has advantage of putting together multi-energy domains of a system in a single representation in a unified manner. The bond graph model of dry friction damper is simulated on SYMBOLS-shakti® software. In this work, the blades are modeled as Timoshenko beam. Blade Vibrations under different working conditions are being analyzed numerically.Keywords: Turbine blade vibrations, Friction dampers, Timoshenko Beam, Bond graph modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2318647 Optimizing Electrospinning Parameters for Finest Diameter of Nano Fibers
Authors: M. Maleki, M. Latifi, M. Amani-Tehran
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Nano fibers produced by electrospinning are of industrial and scientific attention due to their special characteristics such as long length, small diameter and high surface area. Applications of electrospun structures in nanotechnology are included tissue scaffolds, fibers for drug delivery, composite reinforcement, chemical sensing, enzyme immobilization, membrane-based filtration, protective clothing, catalysis, solar cells, electronic devices and others. Many polymer and ceramic precursor nano fibers have been successfully electrospun with diameters in the range from 1 nm to several microns. The process is complex so that fiber diameter is influenced by various material, design and operating parameters. The objective of this work is to apply genetic algorithm on the parameters of electrospinning which have the most significant effect on the nano fiber diameter to determine the optimum parameter values before doing experimental set up. Effective factors including initial polymer concentration, initial jet radius, electrical potential, relaxation time, initial elongation, viscosity and distance between nozzle and collector are considered to determine finest diameter which is selected by user.
Keywords: Electrospinning, genetic algorithm, nano fiber diameter, optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2017646 The Effect of Surface Conditions on Wear of a Railway Wheel and Rail
Authors: A. Shebani, S. Iwnicki
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Understanding the nature of wheel and rail wear in the railway field is of fundamental importance to the safe and cost effective operation of the railways. Twin disc wear testing is used extensively for studying wear of wheel and rail materials. The University of Huddersfield twin disc rig was used in this paper to examine the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear measurement under a range of wheel/rail contact conditions, with and without contaminants. This work focuses on an investigation of the effect of dry, wet, and lubricated conditions and the effect of contaminants such as sand on wheel and rail wear. The wheel and rail wear measurements were carried out by using a replica material and an optical profilometer that allows measurement of wear in difficult location with high accuracy. The results have demonstrated the rate at which both water and oil reduce wheel and rail wear. Scratches and other damage were seen on the wheel and rail surfaces after the addition of sand and consequently both wheel and rail wear damage rates increased under these conditions. This work introduced the replica material and an optical instrument as effective tools to study the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear.Keywords: Railway wheel/rail wear, surface conditions, twin disc test rig, replica material, Alicona profilometer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1190645 Sediment Patterns from Fluid-Bed Interactions: A Direct Numerical Simulations Study on Fluvial Turbulent Flows
Authors: Nadim Zgheib, Sivaramakrishnan Balachandar
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We present results on the initial formation of ripples from an initially flattened erodible bed. We use direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent open channel flow over a fixed sinusoidal bed coupled with hydrodynamic stability analysis. We use the direct forcing immersed boundary method to account for the presence of the sediment bed. The resolved flow provides the bed shear stress and consequently the sediment transport rate, which is needed in the stability analysis of the Exner equation. The approach is different from traditional linear stability analysis in the sense that the phase lag between the bed topology, and the sediment flux is obtained from the DNS. We ran 11 simulations at a fixed shear Reynolds number of 180, but for different sediment bed wavelengths. The analysis allows us to sweep a large range of physical and modelling parameters to predict their effects on linear growth. The Froude number appears to be the critical controlling parameter in the early linear development of ripples, in contrast with the dominant role of particle Reynolds number during the equilibrium stage.Keywords: Direct numerical simulation, immersed boundary method, sediment-bed interactions, turbulent multiphase flow, linear stability analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 658644 Computer Modeling of Drug Distribution after Intravitreal Administration
Authors: N. Haghjou, M. J. Abdekhodaie, Y. L. Cheng, M. Saadatmand
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Intravitreal injection (IVI) is the most common treatment for eye posterior segment diseases such as endopthalmitis, retinitis, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, and retinal detachment. Most of the drugs used to treat vitreoretinal diseases, have a narrow concentration range in which they are effective, and may be toxic at higher concentrations. Therefore, it is critical to know the drug distribution within the eye following intravitreal injection. Having knowledge of drug distribution, ophthalmologists can decide on drug injection frequency while minimizing damage to tissues. The goal of this study was to develop a computer model to predict intraocular concentrations and pharmacokinetics of intravitreally injected drugs. A finite volume model was created to predict distribution of two drugs with different physiochemical properties in the rabbit eye. The model parameters were obtained from literature review. To validate this numeric model, the in vivo data of spatial concentration profile from the lens to the retina were compared with the numeric data. The difference was less than 5% between the numerical and experimental data. This validation provides strong support for the numerical methodology and associated assumptions of the current study.
Keywords: Posterior segment, Intravitreal injection (IVI), Pharmacokinetic, Modelling, Finite volume method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2422643 Silicon-Waveguide Based Silicide Schottky- Barrier Infrared Detector for on-Chip Applications
Authors: Shiyang Zhu, Guo-Qiang Lo, Dim-Lee Kwong
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We prove detailed analysis of a waveguide-based Schottky barrier photodetector (SBPD) where a thin silicide film is put on the top of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) channel waveguide to absorb light propagating along the waveguide. Taking both the confinement factor of light absorption and the wall scanning induced gain of the photoexcited carriers into account, an optimized silicide thickness is extracted to maximize the effective gain, thereby the responsivity. For typical lengths of the thin silicide film (10-20 Ðçm), the optimized thickness is estimated to be in the range of 1-2 nm, and only about 50-80% light power is absorbed to reach the maximum responsivity. Resonant waveguide-based SBPDs are proposed, which consist of a microloop, microdisc, or microring waveguide structure to allow light multiply propagating along the circular Si waveguide beneath the thin silicide film. Simulation results suggest that such resonant waveguide-based SBPDs have much higher repsonsivity at the resonant wavelengths as compared to the straight waveguidebased detectors. Some experimental results about Si waveguide-based SBPD are also reported.
Keywords: Infrared detector, Schottky-barrier, Silicon waveguide, Silicon photonics
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2184642 Strategic Decision Making Practice in Croatia – Which Decision Making Style is More Effective?
Authors: Ivana Bulog
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Decision making is a vital part of the business world and any other field of human endeavor. Which way a business organization will take, and where that way will lead it, depends on broad range of decisions made by managers in the managerial structure. Strategic decisions are of the greatest importance for organizational success. Although much empirical research has been done trying to describe and explain its nature and effectiveness, knowledge about strategic decision making is still incomplete. This paper explores the nature of strategic decision making in particular setting - in Croatian companies. The main focus of this research is on the style that decision makers on strategic management level are following when making decisions of life importance for their companies. Two main decision making style that explain the way decision maker collects and processes available information and performs all the activities in strategic decision making process were empirical tested: rational and intuitive one. Besides analyzing their existence on strategic management level in Croatian companies, their effectiveness is analyzed as well. Results showed that decision makers at strategic management level are following both styles somewhat equally in order to function effectively, and that intuitive style is more effective when considering decisions outcomes.
Keywords: Decision making style, decision making effectiveness, strategic decisions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1677641 A Multimedia Telemonitoring Network for Healthcare
Authors: Hariton N. Costin, Sorin Puscoci, Cristian Rotariu, Bogdan Dionisie, Marinela C. Cimpoesu
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TELMES project aims to develop a securized multimedia system devoted to medical consultation teleservices. It will be finalized with a pilot system for a regional telecenters network that connects local telecenters, having as support multimedia platforms. This network will enable the implementation of complex medical teleservices (teleconsulations, telemonitoring, homecare, urgency medicine, etc.) for a broader range of patients and medical professionals, mainly for family doctors and those people living in rural or isolated regions. Thus, a multimedia, scalable network, based on modern IT&C paradigms, will result. It will gather two inter-connected regional telecenters, in Iaşi and Piteşti, Romania, each of them also permitting local connections of hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, as well as local networks of family doctors, patients, even educational entities. As communications infrastructure, we aim to develop a combined fixmobile- internet (broadband) links. Other possible communication environments will be GSM/GPRS/3G and radio waves. The electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition, internet transmission and local analysis, using embedded technologies, was already successfully done for patients- telemonitoring.Keywords: Healthcare, telemedicine, telemonitoring, ECG analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1812640 A New Design of Temperature-Controlled Chamber for OLED Panels
Authors: Hsin-Hung Chang, Jin-Lung Guan, Ming-Ta Yang
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This paper presents an inexpensive and effective temperature-controlled chamber for temperature environment tests of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) panels. The proposed chamber is a compact warmer and cooler with an exact temperature control system. In the temperature-controlled space of the chamber, thermoelectric modules (TEMs) are utilized to cool or to heat OLED panels, novel fixtures are designed to flexibly clamp the OLED panels of different size, and special connectors for wiring between the OLED panels and the test instrument are supplied. The proposed chamber has the following features. (1) The TEMs are solid semi-conductive devices, so they operate without noise and without pollution. (2) The volume of the temperature-controlled space of the chamber about 160mm*160mm*120mm, so the chamber are compact and easy to move. (3) The range of the controlled temperatures is from -10 oC to +80 oC, and the precision is ?0.5 oC. (4) The test instrument can conveniently and easily measure the OLED panels via the novel fixtures and special connectors. In addition to a constant temperature being maintained in the chamber, a temperature shock experiments can run for a long time. Therefore, the chamber will be convenient and useful for temperature environment tests of OLED panels.Keywords: Thermoelectric module, Temperature environment test, OLED, chamber.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1905639 Establishment of Kinetic Zone Diagrams via Simulated Linear Sweep Voltammograms for Soluble-Insoluble Systems
Authors: Imene Atek, Abed M. Affoune, Hubert Girault, Pekka Peljo
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Due to the need for a rigorous mathematical model that can help to estimate kinetic properties for soluble-insoluble systems, through voltammetric experiments, a Nicholson Semi Analytical Approach was used in this work for modeling and prediction of theoretical linear sweep voltammetry responses for reversible, quasi reversible or irreversible electron transfer reactions. The redox system of interest is a one-step metal electrodeposition process. A rigorous analysis of simulated linear scan voltammetric responses following variation of dimensionless factors, the rate constant and charge transfer coefficients in a broad range was studied and presented in the form of the so called kinetic zones diagrams. These kinetic diagrams were divided into three kinetics zones. Interpreting these zones leads to empirical mathematical models which can allow the experimenter to determine electrodeposition reactions kinetics whatever the degree of reversibility. The validity of the obtained results was tested and an excellent experiment–theory agreement has been showed.
Keywords: Electrodeposition, kinetics diagrams, modeling, voltammetry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 784638 Indoor Localization by Pattern Matching Method Based On Extended Database
Authors: Gyumin Hwang, Jihong Lee
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This paper studied the CSS-based indoor localization system which is easy to implement, inexpensive to compose the systems, additionally CSS-based indoor localization system covers larger area than other system. However, this system has problem which is affected by reflected distance data. This problem in localization is caused by the multi-path effect. Error caused by multi-path is difficult to be corrected because the indoor environment cannot be described. In this paper, in order to solve the problem by multi-path, we have supplemented the localization system by using pattern matching method based on extended database. Thereby, this method improves precision of estimated. Also this method is verified by experiments in gymnasium. Database was constructed by 1m intervals, and 16 sample data were collected from random position inside the region of DB points. As a result, this paper shows higher accuracy than existing method through graph and table.
Keywords: Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS), Indoor Localization, Pattern-Matching, Time of Arrival (ToA), Multi-Path, Mahalanobis Distance, Reception Rate, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), Laser Range Finder (LRF).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1881637 Person Identification by Using AR Model for EEG Signals
Authors: Gelareh Mohammadi, Parisa Shoushtari, Behnam Molaee Ardekani, Mohammad B. Shamsollahi
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A direct connection between ElectroEncephaloGram (EEG) and the genetic information of individuals has been investigated by neurophysiologists and psychiatrists since 1960-s; and it opens a new research area in the science. This paper focuses on the person identification based on feature extracted from the EEG which can show a direct connection between EEG and the genetic information of subjects. In this work the full EO EEG signal of healthy individuals are estimated by an autoregressive (AR) model and the AR parameters are extracted as features. Here for feature vector constitution, two methods have been proposed; in the first method the extracted parameters of each channel are used as a feature vector in the classification step which employs a competitive neural network and in the second method a combination of different channel parameters are used as a feature vector. Correct classification scores at the range of 80% to 100% reveal the potential of our approach for person classification/identification and are in agreement to the previous researches showing evidence that the EEG signal carries genetic information. The novelty of this work is in the combination of AR parameters and the network type (competitive network) that we have used. A comparison between the first and the second approach imply preference of the second one.Keywords: Person Identification, Autoregressive Model, EEG, Neural Network
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1730636 Optimal Supplementary Damping Controller Design for TCSC Employing RCGA
Authors: S. Panda, S. C. Swain, A. K. Baliarsingh, C. Ardil
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Optimal supplementary damping controller design for Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC) is presented in this paper. For the proposed controller design, a multi-objective fitness function consisting of both damping factors and real part of system electromachanical eigenvalue is used and Real- Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA) is employed for the optimal supplementary controller parameters. The performance of the designed supplementary TCSC-based damping controller is tested on a weakly connected power system with different disturbances and loading conditions with parameter variations. Simulation results are presented and compared with a conventional power system stabilizer and also with the TCSC-based supplementary controller when the controller parameters are not optimized to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach over a wide range of loading conditions and disturbances.
Keywords: Power System Oscillations, Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA), Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC), Damping Controller, Power System Stabilizer.
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