Search results for: Finite Element Analysis
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9756

Search results for: Finite Element Analysis

8496 The Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate on the Mg and P Concentrations in Turkish Black and Green Tea

Authors: E. Moroydor Derun, T. Yalcin, O. Dere Ozdemir, A. S. Kipcak, N. Tugrul, S. Piskin

Abstract:

Tea is one of the most consumed beverages all over the world. Especially, black and green teas are preferred to consume. In Turkey, some local tea houses use sodium bicarbonate (SB) to obtain more infusion by using less than the amount of tea. Therefore, the addition of SB to black and green teas affects element concentrations of these teas. In this study, determination of magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P) contents in black and green teas aimed for conscious consumption, after the addition of SB. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used for these analysis. The results of this study showed that the concentrations of Mg and P decreased by adding SB from 11.020, 21.915 to 10.009, 17.520 in black tea and from 12.605, 14.550 to 8.118, 9.425 in green tea, respectively. The addition of SB on analyzed teas is not recommended to cause reducing intake percentages of Mg and P from the essential elements.

Keywords: Elements, ICP-OES, sodium bicarbonate, tea.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2039
8495 Nonlinear Structural Behavior of Micro- and Nano-Actuators Using the Galerkin Discretization Technique

Authors: Hassen M. Ouakad

Abstract:

In this paper, the influence of van der Waals, as well as electrostatic forces on the structural behavior of MEMS and NEMS actuators, has been investigated using of a Euler-Bernoulli beam continuous model. In the proposed nonlinear model, the electrostatic fringing-fields and the mid-plane stretching (geometric nonlinearity) effects have been considered. The nonlinear integro-differential equation governing the static structural behavior of the actuator has been derived. An original Galerkin-based reduced-order model has been developed to avoid problems arising from the nonlinearities in the differential equation. The obtained reduced-order model equations have been solved numerically using the Newton-Raphson method. The basic design parameters such as the pull-in parameters (voltage and deflection at pull-in), as well as the detachment length due to the van der Waals force of some investigated micro- and nano-actuators have been calculated. The obtained numerical results have been compared with some other existing methods (finite-elements method and finite-difference method) and the comparison showed good agreement among all assumed numerical techniques.

Keywords: MEMS, NEMS, fringing-fields, mid-plane stretching, Galerkin method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422
8494 Analysis of a Double Pipe Heat Exchanger Performance by Use of Porous Baffles and Nanofluids

Authors: N. Targui, H. Kahalerras

Abstract:

The present work is a numerical simulation of nanofluids flow in a double pipe heat exchanger provided with porous baffles. The hot nanofluid flows in the inner cylinder, whereas the cold nanofluid circulates in the annular gap. The Darcy- Brinkman-Forchheimer model is adopted to describe the flow in the porous regions, and the governing equations with the appropriate boundary conditions are solved by the finite volume method. The results reveal that the addition of metallic nanoparticles enhances the rate of heat transfer in comparison to conventional fluids but this augmentation is accompanied by an increase in pressure drop. The highest heat exchanger performances are obtained when nanoparticles are added only to the cold fluid.

Keywords: Double pipe heat exchanger, Nanofluids, Nanoparticles, Porous baffles.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3489
8493 Effects of Duct Geometry, Thickness and Types of Liners on Transmission Loss for Absorptive Silencers

Authors: M. Kashfi, K. Jahani

Abstract:

Sound attenuation in absorptive silencers has been analyzed in this paper. The structure of such devices is as follows. When the rigid duct of an expansion chamber has been lined by a packed absorptive material under a perforated membrane, incident sound waves will be dissipated by the absorptive liners. This kind of silencer, usually are applicable for medium to high frequency ranges. Several conditions for different absorptive materials, variety in their thicknesses, and different shapes of the expansion chambers have been studied in this paper. Also, graphs of sound attenuation have been compared between empty expansion chamber and duct of silencer with applying liner. Plane waves have been assumed in inlet and outlet regions of the silencer. Presented results that have been achieved by applying finite element method (FEM), have shown the dependence of the sound attenuation spectrum to flow resistivity and the thicknesses of the absorptive materials, and geometries of the cross section (configuration of the silencer). As flow resistivity and thickness of absorptive materials increase, sound attenuation improves. In this paper, diagrams of the transmission loss (TL) for absorptive silencers in five different cross sections (rectangle, circle, ellipse, square, and rounded rectangle as the main geometry) have been presented. Also, TL graphs for silencers using different absorptive material (glass wool, wood fiber, and kind of spongy materials) as liner with three different thicknesses of 5 mm, 15 mm, and 30 mm for glass wool liner have been exhibited. At first, the effect of substances of the absorptive materials with the specific flow resistivity and densities on the TL spectrum, then the effect of the thicknesses of the glass wool, and at last the efficacy of the shape of the cross section of the silencer have been investigated.

Keywords: Transmission loss, absorptive material, flow resistivity, thickness, frequency.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1110
8492 Geochemistry of Tektites from Hainan Island and Northeast Thailand

Authors: Yung-Tan Lee, Ren-Yi Huang, Ju-Chin Chen, Jyh-Yi Shih, Wen-Feng Chang, Yen-Tsui Hu, Chih-Cheng Chen

Abstract:

Twenty seven tektites from the Wenchang area, Hainan province (south China) and five tektites from the Khon Kaen area (northeast Thailand) were analyzed for major and trace element contents and Rb-Sr isotopic compositions. All the samples studied are splash-form tektites. Tektites of this study are characterized by high SiO2 contents ranging from 71.95 to 74.07 wt% which is consistent with previously published analyses of Australasian tektites. The trace element ratios Ba/Rb (avg. 3.89), Th/Sm (avg. 2.40), Sm/Sc (avg. 0.45), Th/Sc (avg. 0.99) and the rare earth elements (REE) contents of tektites of this study are similar to the average upper continental crust. Based on the chemical composition, it is suggested that tektites in this study are derived from similar parental material and are similar to the post-Archean upper crustal rocks. The major and trace element abundances of tektites analyzed indicate that the parental material of tektites may be a terrestrial sedimentary deposit. The tektites from the Wenchang area, Hainan Island have high positive εSr(0) values-ranging from 184.5~196.5 which indicate that the parental material for these tektites have similar Sr isotopic compositions to old terrestrial sedimentary rocks and they were not dominantly derived from recent young sediments (such as soil or loess). Based on Rb-Sr isotopic data, it has been suggested by Blum (1992) [1]that the depositional age of sedimentary target materials is close to 170Ma (Jurassic). According to the model suggested by Ho and Chen (1996)[2], mixing calculations for various amounts and combinations of target rocks have been carried out. We consider that the best fit for tektites from the Wenchang area is a mixture of 47% shale, 23% sandstone, 25% greywacke and 5% quartzite, and the other tektites from Khon Kaen area is a mixture of 46% shale, 2% sandstone, 20% greywacke and 32% quartzite.

Keywords: Geochemistry, Hainan Island, Northeast Thailand, Tektites.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1895
8491 Minimal Residual Method for Adaptive Filtering with Finite Termination

Authors: Noor Atinah Ahmad, Shazia Javed

Abstract:

We present a discussion of three adaptive filtering algorithms well known for their one-step termination property, in terms of their relationship with the minimal residual method. These algorithms are the normalized least mean square (NLMS), Affine Projection algorithm (APA) and the recursive least squares algorithm (RLS). The NLMS is shown to be a result of the orthogonality condition imposed on the instantaneous approximation of the Wiener equation, while APA and RLS algorithm result from orthogonality condition in multi-dimensional minimal residual formulation. Further analysis of the minimal residual formulation for the RLS leads to a triangular system which also possesses the one-step termination property (in exact arithmetic)

Keywords: Adaptive filtering, minimal residual method, projection method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1527
8490 Optimal Resource Configuration and Allocation Planning Problem for Bottleneck Machines and Auxiliary Tools

Authors: Yin-Yann Chen, Tzu-Ling Chen

Abstract:

This study presents the case of an actual Taiwanese semiconductor assembly and testing manufacturer. Three major bottleneck manufacturing processes, namely, die bond, wire bond, and molding, are analyzed to determine how to use finite resources to achieve the optimal capacity allocation. A medium-term capacity allocation planning model is developed by considering the optimal total profit to satisfy the promised volume demanded by customers and to obtain the best migration decision among production lines for machines and tools. Finally, sensitivity analysis based on the actual case is provided to explore the effect of various parameter levels.

Keywords: Capacity planning, capacity allocation, machine migration, resource configuration.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 985
8489 Computational Feasibility Study of a Torsional Wave Transducer for Tissue Stiffness Monitoring

Authors: Rafael Muñoz, Juan Melchor, Alicia Valera, Laura Peralta, Guillermo Rus

Abstract:

A torsional piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer design is proposed to measure shear moduli in soft tissue with direct access availability, using shear wave elastography technique. The measurement of shear moduli of tissues is a challenging problem, mainly derived from a) the difficulty of isolating a pure shear wave, given the interference of multiple waves of different types (P, S, even guided) emitted by the transducers and reflected in geometric boundaries, and b) the highly attenuating nature of soft tissular materials. An immediate application, overcoming these drawbacks, is the measurement of changes in cervix stiffness to estimate the gestational age at delivery. The design has been optimized using a finite element model (FEM) and a semi-analytical estimator of the probability of detection (POD) to determine a suitable geometry, materials and generated waves. The technique is based on the time of flight measurement between emitter and receiver, to infer shear wave velocity. Current research is centered in prototype testing and validation. The geometric optimization of the transducer was able to annihilate the compressional wave emission, generating a quite pure shear torsional wave. Currently, mechanical and electromagnetic coupling between emitter and receiver signals are being the research focus. Conclusions: the design overcomes the main described problems. The almost pure shear torsional wave along with the short time of flight avoids the possibility of multiple wave interference. This short propagation distance reduce the effect of attenuation, and allow the emission of very low energies assuring a good biological security for human use.

Keywords: Cervix ripening, preterm birth, shear modulus, shear wave elastography, soft tissue, torsional wave.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1551
8488 Inverse Heat Transfer Analysis of a Melting Furnace Using Levenberg-Marquardt Method

Authors: Mohamed Hafid, Marcel Lacroix

Abstract:

This study presents a simple inverse heat transfer procedure for predicting the wall erosion and the time-varying thickness of the protective bank that covers the inside surface of the refractory brick wall of a melting furnace. The direct problem is solved by using the Finite-Volume model. The melting/solidification process is modeled using the enthalpy method. The inverse procedure rests on the Levenberg-Marquardt method combined with the Broyden method. The effect of the location of the temperature sensors and of the measurement noise on the inverse predictions is investigated. Recommendations are made concerning the location of the temperature sensor.

Keywords: Melting furnace, inverse heat transfer, enthalpy method, Levenberg–Marquardt Method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1292
8487 A Comprehensive Approach in Calculating the Impact of the Ground on Radiated Electromagnetic Fields Due to Lightning

Authors: Lahcene Boukelkoul

Abstract:

The influence of finite ground conductivity is of great importance in calculating the induced voltages from the radiated electromagnetic fields due to lightning. In this paper, we try to give a comprehensive approach to calculate the impact of the ground on the radiated electromagnetic fields to lightning. The vertical component of lightning electric field is calculated with a reasonable approximation assuming a perfectly conducting ground in case the observation point does not exceed a few kilometers from the lightning channel. However, for distant observation points the radiated vertical component of lightning electric field is attenuated due finitely conducting ground. The attenuation is calculated using the expression elaborated for both low and high frequencies. The horizontal component of the electric field, however, is more affected by a finite conductivity of a ground. Besides, the contribution of the horizontal component of the electric field, to induced voltages on an overhead transmission line, is greater than that of the vertical component. Therefore, the calculation of the horizontal electric field is great concern for the simulation of lightning-induced voltages. For field to transmission lines coupling the ground impedance is calculated for early time behavior and for low frequency range.

Keywords: Ground impedance, horizontal electric field, lightning, transient propagation, vertical electric field.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1857
8486 Optimizing Organizational Performance: The Critical Role of Headcount Budgeting in Strategic Alignment and Financial Stability

Authors: Shobhit Mittal

Abstract:

Headcount budgeting stands as a pivotal element in organizational financial management, extending beyond traditional budgeting to encompass strategic resource allocation for workforce-related expenses. This process is integral to maintaining financial stability and fostering a productive workforce, requiring a comprehensive analysis of factors such as market trends, business growth projections, and evolving workforce skill requirements. It demands a collaborative approach, primarily involving Human Resources (HR) and finance departments, to align workforce planning with an organization's financial capabilities and strategic objectives. The dynamic nature of headcount budgeting necessitates continuous monitoring and adjustment in response to economic fluctuations, business strategy shifts, technological advancements, and market dynamics. Its significance in talent management is also highlighted, aligning financial planning with talent acquisition and retention strategies to ensure a competitive edge in the market. The consequences of incorrect headcount budgeting are explored, showing how it can lead to financial strain, operational inefficiencies, and hindered strategic objectives. Examining case studies like IBM's strategic workforce rebalancing and Microsoft's shift for long-term success, the importance of aligning headcount budgeting with organizational goals is underscored. These examples illustrate that effective headcount budgeting transcends its role as a financial tool, emerging as a strategic element crucial for an organization's success. This necessitates continuous refinement and adaptation to align with evolving business goals and market conditions, highlighting its role as a key driver in organizational success and sustainability.

Keywords: Strategic planning, fiscal budget, headcount planning, resource allocation, financial management, decision-making, operational efficiency, risk management, headcount budget.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 80
8485 Numerical Analysis and Influence of the Parameters on Slope Stability

Authors: Fahim Kahlouche, Alaoua Bouaicha, Sihem Chaîbeddra, Sid-Ali Rafa, Abdelhamid Benouali

Abstract:

A designing of a structure requires its realization on rough or sloping ground. Besides the problem of the stability of the landslide, the behavior of the foundations that are bearing the structure is influenced by the destabilizing effect of the ground’s slope. This article focuses on the analysis of the slope stability exposed to loading by introducing the different factors influencing the slope’s behavior on the one hand, and on the influence of this slope on the foundation’s behavior on the other hand. This study is about the elastoplastic modelization using FLAC 2D. This software is based on the finite difference method, which is one of the older methods of numeric resolution of differential equations system with initial and boundary conditions. It was developed for the geotechnical simulation calculation. The aim of this simulation is to demonstrate the notable effect of shear modulus « G », cohesion « C », inclination angle (edge) « β », and distance between the foundation and the head of the slope on the stability of the slope as well as the stability of the foundation. In our simulation, the slope is constituted by homogenous ground. The foundation is considered as rigid/hard; therefore, the loading is made by the application of the vertical strengths on the nodes which represent the contact between the foundation and the ground. 

Keywords: Slope, shallow foundation, numeric method, FLAC 2D.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1178
8484 Improved of Elliptic Curves Cryptography over a Ring

Authors: A. Chillali, A. Tadmori, M. Ziane

Abstract:

In this article we will study the elliptic curve defined over the ring An and we define the mathematical operations of ECC, which provides a high security and advantage for wireless applications compared to other asymmetric key cryptosystem.

Keywords: Elliptic Curves, Finite Ring, Cryptography.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2085
8483 Action Potential of Lateral Geniculate Neurons at Low Threshold Currents: Simulation Study

Authors: Faris Tarlochan, Siva Mahesh Tangutooru

Abstract:

Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) is the relay center in the visual pathway as it receives most of the input information from retinal ganglion cells (RGC) and sends to visual cortex. Low threshold calcium currents (IT) at the membrane are the unique indicator to characterize this firing functionality of the LGN neurons gained by the RGC input. According to the LGN functional requirements such as functional mapping of RGC to LGN, the morphologies of the LGN neurons were developed. During the neurological disorders like glaucoma, the mapping between RGC and LGN is disconnected and hence stimulating LGN electrically using deep brain electrodes can restore the functionalities of LGN. A computational model was developed for simulating the LGN neurons with three predominant morphologies each representing different functional mapping of RGC to LGN. The firings of action potentials at LGN neuron due to IT were characterized by varying the stimulation parameters, morphological parameters and orientation. A wide range of stimulation parameters (stimulus amplitude, duration and frequency) represents the various strengths of the electrical stimulation with different morphological parameters (soma size, dendrites size and structure). The orientation (0-1800) of LGN neuron with respect to the stimulating electrode represents the angle at which the extracellular deep brain stimulation towards LGN neuron is performed. A reduced dendrite structure was used in the model using Bush–Sejnowski algorithm to decrease the computational time while conserving its input resistance and total surface area. The major finding is that an input potential of 0.4 V is required to produce the action potential in the LGN neuron which is placed at 100 μm distance from the electrode. From this study, it can be concluded that the neuroprostheses under design would need to consider the capability of inducing at least 0.4V to produce action potentials in LGN.

Keywords: Lateral geniculate nucleus, visual cortex, finite element, glaucoma, neuroprostheses.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2004
8482 Unsteady Temperature Distribution in a Finite Functionally Graded Cylinder

Authors: A. Amiri Delouei

Abstract:

In the current study, two-dimensional unsteady heat conduction in a functionally graded cylinder is studied analytically. The temperature distribution is in radial and longitudinal directions. Heat conduction coefficients are considered a power function of radius both in radial and longitudinal directions. The proposed solution can exactly satisfy the boundary conditions. Analytical unsteady temperature distribution for different parameters of functionally graded cylinder is investigated. The achieved exact solution is useful for thermal stress analysis of functionally graded cylinders. Regarding the analytical approach, this solution can be used to understand the concepts of heat conduction in functionally graded materials.

Keywords: Functionally graded materials, unsteady heat conduction, cylinder, Temperature distribution.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1187
8481 CFD Modeling of Insect Flight at Low Reynolds Number

Authors: Wu Di, Yeo Khoon Seng, Lim Tee Tai

Abstract:

The typical insects employ a flapping-wing mode of flight. The numerical simulations on free flight of a model fruit fly (Re=143) including hovering and are presented in this paper. Unsteady aerodynamics around a flapping insect is studied by solving the three-dimensional Newtonian dynamics of the flyer coupled with Navier-Stokes equations. A hybrid-grid scheme (Generalized Finite Difference Method) that combines great geometry flexibility and accuracy of moving boundary definition is employed for obtaining flow dynamics. The results show good points of agreement and consistency with the outcomes and analyses of other researchers, which validate the computational model and demonstrate the feasibility of this computational approach on analyzing fluid phenomena in insect flight. The present modeling approach also offers a promising route of investigation that could complement as well as overcome some of the limitations of physical experiments in the study of free flight aerodynamics of insects. The results are potentially useful for the design of biomimetic flapping-wing flyers.

Keywords: Free hovering flight, flapping wings, fruit fly, insect aerodynamics, leading edge vortex (LEV), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Navier-Stokes equations (N-S), fluid structure interaction (FSI), generalized finite-difference method (GFD).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3156
8480 Event Information Extraction System (EIEE): FSM vs HMM

Authors: Shaukat Wasi, Zubair A. Shaikh, Sajid Qasmi, Hussain Sachwani, Rehman Lalani, Aamir Chagani

Abstract:

Automatic Extraction of Event information from social text stream (emails, social network sites, blogs etc) is a vital requirement for many applications like Event Planning and Management systems and security applications. The key information components needed from Event related text are Event title, location, participants, date and time. Emails have very unique distinctions over other social text streams from the perspective of layout and format and conversation style and are the most commonly used communication channel for broadcasting and planning events. Therefore we have chosen emails as our dataset. In our work, we have employed two statistical NLP methods, named as Finite State Machines (FSM) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for the extraction of event related contextual information. An application has been developed providing a comparison among the two methods over the event extraction task. It comprises of two modules, one for each method, and works for both bulk as well as direct user input. The results are evaluated using Precision, Recall and F-Score. Experiments show that both methods produce high performance and accuracy, however HMM was good enough over Title extraction and FSM proved to be better for Venue, Date, and time.

Keywords: Emails, Event Extraction, Event Detection, Finite state machines, Hidden Markov Model.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2298
8479 Application of Subversion Analysis in the Search for the Causes of Cracking in a Marine Engine Injector Nozzle

Authors: Leszek Chybowski, Artur Bejger, Katarzyna Gawdzińska

Abstract:

Subversion analysis is a tool used in the TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) methodology. This article introduces the history and describes the process of subversion analysis, as well as function analysis and analysis of the resources, used at the design stage when generating possible undesirable situations. The article charts the course of subversion analysis when applied to a fuel injection nozzle of a marine engine. The work describes the fuel injector nozzle as a technological system and presents principles of analysis for the causes of a cracked tip of the nozzle body. The system is modelled with functional analysis. A search for potential causes of the damage is undertaken and a cause-and-effect analysis for various hypotheses concerning the damage is drawn up. The importance of particular hypotheses is evaluated and the most likely causes of damage identified.

Keywords: Complex technical system, fuel injector, function analysis, importance analysis, resource analysis, sabotage analysis, subversion analysis, TRIZ.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1172
8478 Parallel Explicit Group Domain Decomposition Methods for the Telegraph Equation

Authors: Kew Lee Ming, Norhashidah Hj. Mohd. Ali

Abstract:

In a previous work, we presented the numerical solution of the two dimensional second order telegraph partial differential equation discretized by the centred and rotated five-point finite difference discretizations, namely the explicit group (EG) and explicit decoupled group (EDG) iterative methods, respectively. In this paper, we utilize a domain decomposition algorithm on these group schemes to divide the tasks involved in solving the same equation. The objective of this study is to describe the development of the parallel group iterative schemes under OpenMP programming environment as a way to reduce the computational costs of the solution processes using multicore technologies. A detailed performance analysis of the parallel implementations of points and group iterative schemes will be reported and discussed.

Keywords: Telegraph equation, explicit group iterative scheme, domain decomposition algorithm, parallelization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1504
8477 Construction Procedures Evaluation of Three Adjacent Tunnels and Excavation Step Effects

Authors: M. Mahdi, N. Shariatmadari

Abstract:

Since, both the relative position of tunnels and the construction procedure affect the soil movement and internal forces in the lining, it is of major concern to study the influence of these factors on the tunnel design. Construction procedures of tunnels have considerable effects on the magnitude of surface movements and lining stresses. This paper describes numerical analysis of construction procedure of a three adjacent shallow tunnels at high groundwater levels using the commercial finite difference software (FLAC-3D). The aim of this study is to determinate the most suitable construction procedure for the three tunnels and the optimum excavation step in Tehran Metro tunnels in order to optimize the surface settlements and lining stresses.

Keywords: Shallow tunnel, multiple tunnels, construction procedure, surface movement, numerical modeling.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2406
8476 Massively-Parallel Bit-Serial Neural Networks for Fast Epilepsy Diagnosis: A Feasibility Study

Authors: Si Mon Kueh, Tom J. Kazmierski

Abstract:

There are about 1% of the world population suffering from the hidden disability known as epilepsy and major developing countries are not fully equipped to counter this problem. In order to reduce the inconvenience and danger of epilepsy, different methods have been researched by using a artificial neural network (ANN) classification to distinguish epileptic waveforms from normal brain waveforms. This paper outlines the aim of achieving massive ANN parallelization through a dedicated hardware using bit-serial processing. The design of this bit-serial Neural Processing Element (NPE) is presented which implements the functionality of a complete neuron using variable accuracy. The proposed design has been tested taking into consideration non-idealities of a hardware ANN. The NPE consists of a bit-serial multiplier which uses only 16 logic elements on an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA and a bit-serial ALU as well as a look-up table. Arrays of NPEs can be driven by a single controller which executes the neural processing algorithm. In conclusion, the proposed compact NPE design allows the construction of complex hardware ANNs that can be implemented in a portable equipment that suits the needs of a single epileptic patient in his or her daily activities to predict the occurrences of impending tonic conic seizures.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, bit-serial neural processor, FPGA, Neural Processing Element.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1553
8475 Biomechanical Prediction of Veins and Soft Tissues beneath Compression Stockings Using Fluid-Solid Interaction Model

Authors: Chongyang Ye, Rong Liu

Abstract:

Elastic compression stockings (ECSs) have been widely applied in prophylaxis and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency of lower extremities. The medical function of ECS is to improve venous return and increase muscular pumping action to facilitate blood circulation, which is largely determined by the complex interaction between the ECS and lower limb tissues. Understanding the mechanical transmission of ECS along the skin surface, deeper tissues, and vascular system is essential to assess the effectiveness of the ECSs. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model of the leg-ECS system integrated with a 3D fluid-solid interaction (FSI) model of the leg-vein system was constructed to analyze the biomechanical properties of veins and soft tissues under different ECS compression. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the human leg was divided into three regions, including soft tissues, bones (tibia and fibula) and veins (peroneal vein, great saphenous vein, and small saphenous vein). The ECSs with pressure ranges from 15 to 26 mmHg (Classes I and II) were adopted in the developed FE-FSI model. The soft tissue was assumed as a Neo-Hookean hyperelastic model with the fixed bones, and the ECSs were regarded as an orthotropic elastic shell. The interfacial pressure and stress transmission were simulated by the FE model, and venous hemodynamics properties were simulated by the FSI model. The experimental validation indicated that the simulated interfacial pressure distributions were in accordance with the pressure measurement results. The developed model can be used to predict interfacial pressure, stress transmission, and venous hemodynamics exerted by ECSs and optimize the structure and materials properties of ECSs design, thus improving the efficiency of compression therapy.

Keywords: Elastic compression stockings, fluid-solid interaction, tissue and vein properties, prediction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 579
8474 A Multi-period Profit Maximization Policy for a Stochastic Demand Inventory System with Upward Substitution

Authors: Soma Roychowdhury

Abstract:

This paper deals with a periodic-review substitutable inventory system for a finite and an infinite number of periods. Here an upward substitution structure, a substitution of a more costly item by a less costly one, is assumed, with two products. At the beginning of each period, a stochastic demand comes for the first item only, which is quality-wise better and hence costlier. Whenever an arriving demand finds zero inventory of this product, a fraction of unsatisfied customers goes for its substitutable second item. An optimal ordering policy has been derived for each period. The results are illustrated with numerical examples. A sensitivity analysis has been done to examine how sensitive the optimal solution and the maximum profit are to the values of the discount factor, when there is a large number of periods.

Keywords: Multi-period model, inventory, random demand, upward substitution.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422
8473 Conversion in Chemical Reactors using Hollow Cylindrical Catalyst Pellet

Authors: Mohammad Asif

Abstract:

Heterogeneous catalysis is vital for a number of chemical, refinery and pollution control processes. The use of catalyst pellets of hollow cylindrical shape provide several distinct advantages over other common shapes, and can therefore help to enhance conversion levels in reactors. A better utilization of the catalytic material is probably most notable of these features due to the absence of the pellet core, which helps to significantly lower the effect of the internal transport resistance. This is reflected in the enhancement of the effectiveness factor. For the case of the first order irreversible kinetics, a substantial increase in the effectiveness factor can be obtained by varying shape parameters. Important shape parameters of a finite hollow cylinder are the ratio of the inside to the outside radii (κ) and the height to the diameter ratio (γ). A high value of κ the generally helps to enhance the effectiveness factor. On the other hand, lower values of the effectiveness factors are obtained when the dimension of the height and the diameter are comparable. Thus, the departure of parameter γ from the unity favors higher effectiveness factor. Since a higher effectiveness factor is a measure of a greater utilization of the catalytic material, higher conversion levels can be achieved using the hollow cylindrical pellets possessing optimized shape parameters.

Keywords: Finite hollow cylinder, Catalyst pellet, Effectiveness factor, Thiele Modulus, Conversion

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3689
8472 Unsteady Water Boundary Layer Flow with Non-Uniform Mass Transfer

Authors: G. Revathi, P. Saikrishnan

Abstract:

In the present analysis an unsteady laminar forced convection water boundary layer flow is considered. The fluid properties such as viscosity and Prandtl number are taken as variables such that those are inversely proportional to temperature. By using quasi-linearization technique the nonlinear coupled partial differential equations are linearized and the numerical solutions are obtained by using implicit finite difference scheme with the appropriate selection of step sizes. Non-similar solutions have been obtained from the starting point of the stream-wise coordinate to the point where skin friction value vanishes. The effect non-uniform mass transfer along the surface of the cylinder through slot is studied on the skin friction and heat transfer coefficients.

Keywords: Boundary layer, heat transfer, non-similar solution, non-uniform mass, unsteady flow.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1948
8471 Evaluation of Geomechanical and Geometrical Parameters’ Effects on Hydro-Mechanical Estimation of Water Inflow into Underground Excavations

Authors: M. Mazraehli, F. Mehrabani, S. Zare

Abstract:

In general, mechanical and hydraulic processes are not independent of each other in jointed rock masses. Therefore, the study on hydro-mechanical coupling of geomaterials should be a center of attention in rock mechanics. Rocks in their nature contain discontinuities whose presence extremely influences mechanical and hydraulic characteristics of the medium. Assuming this effect, experimental investigations on intact rock cannot help to identify jointed rock mass behavior. Hence, numerical methods are being used for this purpose. In this paper, water inflow into a tunnel under significant water table has been estimated using hydro-mechanical discrete element method (HM-DEM). Besides, effects of geomechanical and geometrical parameters including constitutive model, friction angle, joint spacing, dip of joint sets, and stress factor on the estimated inflow rate have been studied. Results demonstrate that inflow rates are not identical for different constitutive models. Also, inflow rate reduces with increased spacing and stress factor.

Keywords: Distinct element method, fluid flow, hydro-mechanical coupling, jointed rock mass, underground excavations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 770
8470 The Establishment of Cause-System of Poor Construction Site Safety and Priority Analysis from Different Perspectives

Authors: Shirong Li, Xueping Xiang

Abstract:

Construction site safety in China has aroused comprehensive concern all over the world. It is imperative to investigate the main causes of poor construction site safety. This paper divides all the causes into four aspects, namely the factors of workers, object, environment and management and sets up the accident causes element system based on Delphi Method. This is followed by the application of structural equation modeling to examine the importance of each aspect of causes from the standpoints of different roles related to the construction respectively. The results indicate that all the four aspects of factors are in need of improvement, and different roles have different ideas considering the priority of those factors. The paper has instructive significance for the practitioners to take measures to improve construction site safety in China accordingly.

Keywords: construction site safety, Delphi Method, structuralequation modeling, different perspective.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1914
8469 Numerical Simulation of Tidal Currents in Persian Gulf

Authors: Ameleh Aghajanloo, Moharam Dolatshahi Pirouz, Masoud Montazeri Namin

Abstract:

In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) numerical model for the tidal currents simulation in Persian Gulf is presented. The model is based on the depth averaged equations of shallow water which consider hydrostatic pressure distribution. The continuity equation and two momentum equations including the effects of bed friction, the Coriolis effects and wind stress have been solved. To integrate the 2D equations, the Alternative Direction Implicit (ADI) technique has been used. The base of equations discritization was finite volume method applied on rectangular mesh. To evaluate the model validation, a dam break case study including analytical solution is selected and the comparison is done. After that, the capability of the model in simulation of tidal current in a real field is represented by modeling the current behavior in Persian Gulf. The tidal fluctuations in Hormuz Strait have caused the tidal currents in the area of study. Therefore, the water surface oscillations data at Hengam Island on Hormoz Strait are used as the model input data. The check point of the model is measured water surface elevations at Assaluye port. The comparison between the results and the acceptable agreement of them showed the model ability for modeling marine hydrodynamic.

Keywords: Persian Gulf, Tidal Currents, Shallow Water Equations, Finite Volumes

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2036
8468 FEM Models of Glued Laminated Timber Beams Enhanced by Bayesian Updating of Elastic Moduli

Authors: L. Melzerová, T. Janda, M. Šejnoha, J. Šejnoha

Abstract:

Two finite element (FEM) models are presented in this paper to address the random nature of the response of glued timber structures made of wood segments with variable elastic moduli evaluated from 3600 indentation measurements. This total database served to create the same number of ensembles as was the number of segments in the tested beam. Statistics of these ensembles were then assigned to given segments of beams and the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) method was called to perform 100 simulations resulting into the ensemble of 100 deflections subjected to statistical evaluation. Here, a detailed geometrical arrangement of individual segments in the laminated beam was considered in the construction of two-dimensional FEM model subjected to in fourpoint bending to comply with the laboratory tests. Since laboratory measurements of local elastic moduli may in general suffer from a significant experimental error, it appears advantageous to exploit the full scale measurements of timber beams, i.e. deflections, to improve their prior distributions with the help of the Bayesian statistical method. This, however, requires an efficient computational model when simulating the laboratory tests numerically. To this end, a simplified model based on Mindlin’s beam theory was established. The improved posterior distributions show that the most significant change of the Young’s modulus distribution takes place in laminae in the most strained zones, i.e. in the top and bottom layers within the beam center region. Posterior distributions of moduli of elasticity were subsequently utilized in the 2D FEM model and compared with the original simulations.

Keywords: Bayesian inference, FEM, four point bending test, laminated timber, parameter estimation, prior and posterior distribution, Young’s modulus.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2190
8467 Numerical Simulation of the Flow Field around a Vertical Flat Plate of Infinite Extent

Authors: Marco Raciti Castelli, Paolo Cioppa, Ernesto Benini

Abstract:

This paper presents a CFD analysis of the flow field around a thin flat plate of infinite span inclined at 90° to a fluid stream of infinite extent. Numerical predictions have been compared to experimental measurements, in order to assess the potential of the finite volume code of determining the aerodynamic forces acting on a bluff body invested by a fluid stream of infinite extent. Several turbulence models and spatial node distributions have been tested. Flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the flat plate have been investigated, allowing the development of a preliminary procedure to be used as guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and the corresponding turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a two-dimensional vertical flat plate.

Keywords: CFD, vertical flat plate, aerodynamic force

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2612