Search results for: Metal matrix composites (MMCs)

Authors: K. Kalaiselvan, K. Sekar, S. Elavarasi

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The use of laser beam welding for joining titanium and aluminum offers more advantages compared with conventional joining processes. Dissimilar metal combination is very much needed for aircraft structural industries and research activities. The quality of a weld joint is directly influenced by the welding input parameters. The common problem that is faced by the manufactures is the control of the process parameters to obtain a good weld joint with minimal detrimental. To overcome this issue, various parameters can be preferred to obtain quality of weld joint. In this present study an overall literature review on processing parameters such as offset distance, welding speed, laser power, shielding gas and filler metals are discussed with the effects on quality weldment. Additionally, mechanical properties of welds joint are discussed. The aim of the report is to review the recent progress in the welding of dissimilar titanium (Ti) and aluminum (Al) alloys to provide a basis for follow up research.

Keywords: Laser beam welding, titanium, aluminum, process parameters.

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Authors: Tunjo Peric, Zoran Babic

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The authors of this work indicate by means of a concrete example that it is possible to apply efficaciously the method of multiple criteria programming in dealing with the problem of determining the optimal production plan for a certain period of time. The work presents: (1) the selection of optimization criteria, (2) the setting of the problem of determining an optimal production plan, (3) the setting of the model of multiple criteria programming in finding a solution to a given problem, (4) the revised surrogate trade-off method, (5) generalized multicriteria model for solving production planning problem and problem of choosing technological variants in the metal manufacturing industry. In the final part of this work the authors reflect on the application of the method of multiple criteria programming while determining the optimal production plan in manufacturing enterprises.

Keywords: multi-criteria programming, production planning, technological variant, Surrogate Worth Trade-off Method.

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Authors: M. Maimunah, G. A. Froemming, H. Nawawi, M. I. Nafeeza, O. Effat, M. Y. Rosmadi, M. S. Mohamed Saifulaman

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Atherosclerosis was identified as a chronic inflammatory process resulting from interactions between plasma lipoproteins, cellular components (monocyte, macrophages, T lymphocytes, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells) and the extracellular matrix of the arterial wall. Several types of genes were known to express during formation of atherosclerosis. This study is carried out to identify unknown differentially expressed gene (DEG) in atherogenesis. Rabbit’s aorta tissues were stained by H&E for histomorphology. GeneFishing™ PCR analysis was performed from total RNA extracted from the aorta tissues. The DNA fragment from DEG was cloned, sequenced and validated by Real-time PCR. Histomorphology showed intimal thickening in the aorta. DEG detected from ACP-41 was identified as cathepsin B gene and showed upregulation at week-8 and week-12 of atherogenesis. Therefore, ACP-based GeneFishing™ PCR facilitated identification of cathepsin B gene which was differentially expressed during development of atherosclerosis.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis, GeneFishing™ PCR, cathepsin B gene.

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Authors: M. Polanský

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This paper introduces a new method called ARPDC (Advanced Robust Parallel Distributed Compensation) for automatic control of nonlinear systems. This method improves a quality of robust control by interpolating of robust and optimal controller. The weight of each controller is determined by an original criteria function for model validity and disturbance appreciation. ARPDC method is based on nonlinear Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems and Parallel Distributed Compensation (PDC) control scheme. The relaxed stability conditions of ARPDC control of nominal system have been derived. The advantages of presented method are demonstrated on the inverse pendulum benchmark problem. From comparison between three different controllers (robust, optimal and ARPDC) follows, that ARPDC control is almost optimal with the robustness close to the robust controller. The results indicate that ARPDC algorithm can be a good alternative not only for a robust control, but in some cases also to an adaptive control of nonlinear systems.

Keywords: Robust control, optimal control, Takagi–Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models, linear matrix inequality (LMI), observer, Advanced Robust Parallel Distributed Compensation (ARPDC).

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Authors: Guomin Luo, Daming Zhang, Yong Kwee Koh, Kim Teck Ng, Helmi Kurniawan, Weng Hoe Leong

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Partial discharge (PD) detection is an important method to evaluate the insulation condition of metal-clad apparatus. Non-intrusive sensors which are easy to install and have no interruptions on operation are preferred in onsite PD detection. However, it often lacks of accuracy due to the interferences in PD signals. In this paper a novel PD extraction method that uses frequency analysis and entropy based time-frequency (TF) analysis is introduced. The repetitive pulses from convertor are first removed via frequency analysis. Then, the relative entropy and relative peak-frequency of each pulse (i.e. time-indexed vector TF spectrum) are calculated and all pulses with similar parameters are grouped. According to the characteristics of non-intrusive sensor and the frequency distribution of PDs, the pulses of PD and interferences are separated. Finally the PD signal and interferences are recovered via inverse TF transform. The de-noised result of noisy PD data demonstrates that the combination of frequency and time-frequency techniques can discriminate PDs from interferences with various frequency distributions.

Keywords: Entropy, Fourier analysis, non-intrusive measurement, time-frequency analysis, partial discharge

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Authors: S. A. Nta

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The study assessed the levels of some heavy metals in the contaminated soil from a point source using pollution indices to measure the extent of pollution. The soil used was sandy-loam in texture. The contaminant used was landfill leachate, introduced as a point source through an entry point positioned at the center of top layer of the soil tank. Samples were collected after 50 days and analyzed for heavy metal (Zn, Ni, Cu and Cd) using standard methods. The mean concentration of Ni ranged from 5.55-2.65 mg/kg, Zn 3.67-0.85 mg/kg, Cu 1.60-0.93 mg/kg and Cd 1.60-0.15 mg/kg. The richness of metals was in decreasing order: Ni > Zn > Cu > Cd. The metals concentration was found to be maximum at 0.25 m radial distance from the point of leachate application. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) studied revealed that all the metals recovered at 0.25 and 0.50 m radial distance and at 0.15, 0.30, 0.45 and 0.60 m depth from the point of application of leachate fall under unpolluted to moderately polluted range. Ecological risk assessment showed high ecological risk index with values higher than RI > 300. The RI shows that the ecological risk in this study was mostly contributed by Cd ranging from 9-96.

Keywords: Ecological risk, assessment, heavy metals, test soils, landfill leachate.

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Authors: Vahid Hosseinpour, Mohammad Kazemini, Alireza Mohammadrezaee

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carbonylation of methanol in homogenous phase is one of the major routesfor production of acetic acid. Amongst group VIII metal catalysts used in this process iridium has displayed the best capabilities. To investigate effect of operating parameters like: temperature, pressure, methyl iodide, methyl acetate, iridium, ruthenium, and water concentrations on the reaction rate, experimental design for this system based upon central composite design (CCD) was utilized. Statistical rate equation developed by this method contained individual, interactions and curvature effects of parameters on the reaction rate. The model with p-value less than 0.0001 and R2 values greater than 0.9; confirmeda satisfactory fitness of the experimental and theoretical studies. In other words, the developed model and experimental data obtained passed all diagnostic tests establishing this model as a statistically significant.

Keywords: Acetic Acid, Carbonylation of Methanol, Central Composite Design, Experimental Design, Iridium/Ruthenium

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Authors: Yun-Hsuan Yu, Chi-Shung Tang, Nzar Rauf Abdullah, Vidar Gudmundsson

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Spin-orbit gap feature in energy dispersion of one-dimensional devices is revealed via strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) effects under Zeeman field. We describe the utilization of a finger-gate or a top-gate to control the spin-dependent transport characteristics in the SOI-Zeeman influenced split-gate devices by means of a generalized spin-mixed propagation matrix method. For the finger-gate system, we find a bound state in continuum for incident electrons within the ultra-low energy regime. For the top-gate system, we observe more bound-state features in conductance associated with the formation of spin-associated hole-like or electron-like quasi-bound states around band thresholds, as well as hole bound states around the reverse point of the energy dispersion. We demonstrate that the spin-dependent transport behavior of a top-gate system is similar to that of a finger-gate system only if the top-gate length is less than the effective Fermi wavelength.

Keywords: Spin-orbit, Zeeman, top-gate, finger-gate, bound state.

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Authors: Mahesh Chudasama, Harit Raval

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Conical sections and shells made from metal plates are widely used in various industrial applications. 3-roller conical bending process is preferably used to produce such conical sections and shells. Bending mechanics involved in the process is complex and little work is done in this area. In the present paper an analytical model is developed to predict bending force which will be acting during 3-roller conical bending process. To verify the developed model, conical bending experiments are performed. Analytical results and experimental results were compared. Force predicted by analytical model is in close proximity of the experimental results. The error in the prediction is ±10%. Hence the model gives quite satisfactory results. Present model is also compared with the previously published bending force prediction model and it is found that the present model gives better results. The developed model can be used to estimate the bending force during 3-roller bending process and can be useful to the designers for designing the 3-roller conical bending machine.

Keywords: Bending-force, Experimental-verification, Internal-moment, Roll-bending.

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Authors: Mohammad Rakibul Islam

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In this paper, a Gaussian multiple input multiple output multiple eavesdropper (MIMOME) channel is considered where a transmitter communicates to a receiver in the presence of an eavesdropper. We present a technique for determining the secrecy capacity of the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel under Gaussian noise. We transform the degraded MIMOME channel into multiple single input multiple output (SIMO) Gaussian wire-tap channels and then use scalar approach to convert it into two equivalent multiple input single output (MISO) channels. The secrecy capacity model is then developed for the condition where the channel state information (CSI) for main channel only is known to the transmitter. The results show that the secret communication is possible when the eavesdropper channel noise is greater than a cutoff noise level. The outage probability is also analyzed of secrecy capacity is also analyzed. The effect of fading and outage probability is also analyzed.

Keywords: Secrecy capacity, MIMO, wiretap channel, covariance matrix, fading.

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Authors: Kianoosh Samimi, Siham Kamali-Bernard, Ali Akbar Maghsoudi

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Due to the difficult placement and vibration between reinforcements of reinforced concrete and the defects that it may cause, the use of self-compacting concrete (SCC) is becoming more widespread. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is the most widely used binder in the construction industry. However, the manufacture of this cement results in a significant amount of CO₂ being released, which is detrimental to the environment. Thus, an alternative to reduce the cost of SCC is the use of more economical and environmental mineral additives in partial or total substitution of Portland cement. Our study is in this context and aims to develop SCCs both economic and ecological. Two natural pozzolans such as pumice and zeolite are chosen in this research. This research tries to answer questions including the microstructure of the two types of natural pozzolan and their influence on the mechanical properties as well as on the transport property of SCC. Based on the findings of this study, the studied zeolite is a clinoptilolite that presents higher pozzolan activity compared to pumice. However, the use of zeolite decreases the compressive strength of SCC composites. On the contrary, the compressive strength in SCC containing of pumice increases at both early and long term ages with a remarkable increase at long term. A correlation is obtained between the compressive strength with permeable pore and capillary absorption. Also, the results concerning compressive strength and transport property are well justified by evaporable and non-evaporable water content measurement. This paper shows that the substitution of Portland cement by 15% of pumice or 10% of zeolite in HSSCC is suitable in all aspects. 

Keywords: SCC, concrete, pumice, zeolite, durability, transport.

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Authors: Vincent King Soon Wong, Hong Seng Ng, Florinna Sim

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Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) is one of the critical degradation mechanisms in semiconductor device reliability that causes shift in the threshold voltage (Vth). However, thorough understanding of this reliability failure mechanism is still unachievable due to a recovery characteristic known as NBTI recovery. This paper will demonstrate the severity of NBTI recovery as well as one of the effective methods used to mitigate, which is the minimization of measurement system delays. Comparison was done in between two measurement systems that have significant differences in measurement delays to show how NBTI recovery causes result deviations and how fast measurement systems can mitigate NBTI recovery. Another method to minimize NBTI recovery without the influence of measurement system known as Fast Wafer Level Reliability (FWLR) NBTI was also done to be used as reference.

Keywords: Fast vs slow BTI, Fast wafer level reliability, Negative bias temperature instability, NBTI measurement system, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, MOSFET, NBTI recovery, reliability.

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Authors: Franky Michael Hamonangan Siagian, Affan Maulana, Himawan Tri Bayu Murti Petrus, Panut Mulyono, Widi Astuti

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In this study, the feasibility of the direct electrowinning method was used to produce zero-valent iron from red mud. The red mud sample came from the Tayan mine, Indonesia, which contains high hematite (Fe2O3). Before electrolysis, the samples were characterized by various analytical techniques (ICP-AES, SEM, XRD) to determine their chemical composition and mineralogy. The direct electrowinning method of red mud suspended in NaOH was introduced at low temperatures ranging from 30-110 °C. Current density and temperature variations were carried out to determine the optimum operation of the direct electrowinning process. Cathode deposits and residues in electrochemical cells were analyzed using XRD, XRF, and SEM to determine the chemical composition and current recovery. The low-temperature electrolysis current efficiency on Redmud can reach 11.8% recovery at a current density of 796 A/m². The moderate performance of the process was investigated with red mud, which was attributed to the troublesome adsorption of red mud particles on the cathode, making the reduction far less efficient than that with hematite.

Keywords: Alumina, electrochemical reduction, iron production, red mud.

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Authors: G.Y. Zhang , M.L. Xu, R.Q. Zhang, W.H. Tang

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MOC (method of cell) is a new method of investigating wave propagating in material with periodic microstructure, and can reflect the effect of microstructure. Wave propagation in periodically laminated medium consisting of linearly elastic layers can be treated as a special application of this method. In this paper, it was used to simulate the dynamic response of carbon-phenolic to impulsive loading under certain boundary conditions. From the comparison between the results obtained from this method and the exact results based on propagator matrix theory, excellent agreement is achieved. Conclusion can be made that the oscillation periodicity is decided by the thickness of sub-cells. In the end, the NHDMOC method, which permits studying stress wave propagation with one dimensional strain, was applied to study the one-dimensional stress wave propagation. In this paper, the ZWT nonlinear visco-elastic constitutive relationship with 7 parameters, NHDMOC, and corresponding equations were deduced. The equations were verified, comparing the elastic stress wave propagation in SHPB with, respectively, the elastic and the visco-elastic bar. Finally the dispersion and attenuation of stress wave in SHPB with visco-elastic bar was studied.

Keywords: MOC, NHDMOC, visco-elastic, wave propagation

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Authors: S. F. H. Tasfy, N. A. M. Zabidi, M. S. Shaharun

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Carbon dioxide is highly thermochemical stable molecules where it is very difficult to activate the molecule and achieve higher catalytic conversion into alcohols or other hydrocarbon compounds. In this paper, series of the bimetallic Cu/ZnO-based catalyst supported by SBA-15 were systematically prepared via impregnation technique with different Cu: Zn ratio for hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature programmed desorption, reduction, oxidation and pulse chemisorption (TPDRO), and surface area determination was also performed. All catalysts were tested with respect to the hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol in microactivity fixed-bed reactor at 250^oC, 2.25 MPa, and H₂/CO₂ ratio of 3. The results demonstrate that the catalytic structure, activity, and methanol selectivity was strongly affected by the ratio between Cu: Zn, Where higher catalytic activity of 14 % and methanol selectivity of 92 % was obtained over Cu/ZnO-SBA-15 catalyst with Cu:Zn ratio of 7:3 wt. %. Comparing with the single catalyst, the synergetic between Cu and Zn provides additional active sites to adsorb more H₂ and CO₂ and accelerate the CO₂ conversion, resulting in higher methanol production under mild reaction conditions.

Keywords: Hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, methanol synthesis, Cu/ZnO-based catalyst, mesoporous silica (SBA-15), and metal ratio.

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Authors: Anurag Sharma, Christian W. Omlin

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Self-organizing map (SOM) is a well known data reduction technique used in data mining. Data visualization can reveal structure in data sets that is otherwise hard to detect from raw data alone. However, interpretation through visual inspection is prone to errors and can be very tedious. There are several techniques for the automatic detection of clusters of code vectors found by SOMs, but they generally do not take into account the distribution of code vectors; this may lead to unsatisfactory clustering and poor definition of cluster boundaries, particularly where the density of data points is low. In this paper, we propose the use of a generic particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for finding cluster boundaries directly from the code vectors obtained from SOMs. The application of our method to unlabeled call data for a mobile phone operator demonstrates its feasibility. PSO algorithm utilizes U-matrix of SOMs to determine cluster boundaries; the results of this novel automatic method correspond well to boundary detection through visual inspection of code vectors and k-means algorithm.

Keywords: Particle swarm optimization, self-organizing maps, clustering, data mining.

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Authors: Chimaobi Valentine Okolo

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This paper seeks to assess the implications of bank consolidation on lending, which largely determine the survival and performance of small and medium scale enterprises and in turn the development of the Nigerian economy. Ordinary least square technique, correlation matrix test and Granger –causality test were employed to measure the extent to which lending to small and medium scale enterprises were influenced. The result showed that bank deposit (BD) impacted on lending to small and medium scale enterprises. Commercial and merchant bank lending rate had statistically insignificant effect on the dependent variable. There is a shift of focus by commercial banks from small and medium scale enterprises (small customers) to major investors (big customers). While micro finance banks work hard at providing funds to small and medium scale entrepreneurs, their capacity to meet the needs of these entrepreneurs is constrained. The capital and deposits of micro finance bank should be boosted in order to effectively support small and medium scale enterprises through loans.

Keywords: Asset size, bank consolidation, lending, small and medium enterprises.

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Authors: M. H. Imam, Imran A. Tasadduq, Abdul-Rahim Ahmad, Fahd M. Aldosari

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Learning outcomes of a course (CLOs) and the abilities at the time of graduation referred to as Student Outcomes (SOs) are required to be assessed for ABET accreditation. A question in an assessment must target a CLO as well as an SO and must represent a required level of competence. This paper presents the idea of an Expert System (ES) to select a proper question to satisfy ABET accreditation requirements. For ES implementation, seven attributes of a question are considered including the learning outcomes and Bloom’s Taxonomy level. A database contains all the data about a course including course content topics, course learning outcomes and the CLO-SO relationship matrix. The knowledge base of the presented ES contains a pool of questions each with tags of the specified attributes. Questions and the attributes represent expert opinions. With implicit rule base the inference engine finds the best possible question satisfying the required attributes. It is shown that the novel idea of such an ES can be implemented and applied to a course with success. An application example is presented to demonstrate the working of the proposed ES.

Keywords: Expert system, student outcomes, course learning outcomes, question attributes.

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Authors: M. Khodai, S. M. H. Mirbagheri

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In the Lost Foam Casting process, melting point temperature of metal, as well as volume and rate of the foam degradation have significant effect on the mold filling pattern. Therefore, gas generation capacity and gas gap length are two important parameters for modeling of mold filling time of the lost foam casting processes. In this paper, the gas gap length at the liquidfoam interface for a low melting point (aluminum) alloy and a high melting point (Carbon-steel) alloy are investigated by the photography technique. Results of the photography technique indicated, that the gas gap length and the mold filling time are increased with increased coating thickness and density of the foam. The Gas gap lengths measured in aluminum and Carbon-steel, depend on the foam density, and were approximately 4-5 and 25-60 mm, respectively. By using a new system, the gas generation capacity for the aluminum and steel was measured. The gas generation capacity measurements indicated that gas generation in the Aluminum and Carbon-steel lost foam casting was about 50 CC/g and 3200 CC/g polystyrene, respectively.

Keywords: gas gap, lost foam casting, photographytechnique.

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Authors: K. M. Aldossari, W. A. Elsaigh, M. J. Shannag

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An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of hooked-end steel fibers on the flexural behavior of normal and high strength concrete matrices. The fibers content appropriate for the concrete matrices investigated was also determined based on flexural tests on standard prisms. Parameters investigated include: matrix compressive strength ranging from 45 MPa to 70 MPa, corresponding to normal and high strength concrete matrices respectively; fibers volume fraction including 0, 0.5%, 0.76% and 1%, equivalent to 0, 40, 60, and 80 kg/m³ of hooked-end steel fibers respectively. Test results indicated that flexural strength and toughness of normal and high strength concrete matrices were significantly improved with the increase in the fibers content added; whereas a slight improvement in compressive strength was observed for the same matrices. Furthermore, the test results indicated that the effect of increasing the fibers content was more pronounced on increasing the flexural strength of high strength concrete than that of normal concrete.

Keywords: Concrete, flexural strength, toughness, steel fibers.

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Authors: F. Caliskan

Abstract:

This paper presents a Neural Network (NN) identification of icing parameters in an A340 aircraft and a reconfiguration technique to keep the A/C performance close to the performance prior to icing. Five aircraft parameters are assumed to be considerably affected by icing. The off-line training for identifying the clear and iced dynamics is based on the Levenberg-Marquard Backpropagation algorithm. The icing parameters are located in the system matrix. The physical locations of the icing are assumed at the right and left wings. The reconfiguration is based on the technique known as the control mixer approach or pseudo inverse technique. This technique generates the new control input vector such that the A/C dynamics is not much affected by icing. In the simulations, the longitudinal and lateral dynamics of an Airbus A340 aircraft model are considered, and the stability derivatives affected by icing are identified. The simulation results show the successful NN identification of the icing parameters and the reconfigured flight dynamics having the similar performance before the icing. In other words, the destabilizing icing affect is compensated.

Keywords: Aircraft Icing, Stability Derivatives, Neural NetworkIdentification, Reconfiguration.

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Authors: A. Eštoková, M. Kovalčíková, A. Luptáková, A. Sičáková, M. Ondová

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Concrete durability as an important engineering property of concrete, determining the service life of concrete structures very significantly, can be threatened and even lost due to the interactions of concrete with external environment. Bio-corrosion process caused by presence and activities of microorganisms producing sulphuric acid is a special type of sulphate deterioration of concrete materials. The effects of sulphur-oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans on various concrete samples, based on silica fume and zeolite, were investigated in laboratory during 180 days. A laboratory study was conducted to compare the performance of concrete samples in terms of the concrete deterioration influenced by the leaching of calcium and silicon compounds from the cement matrix. The changes in the elemental concentrations of calcium and silicon in both solid samples and liquid leachates were measured by using X – ray fluorescence method. Experimental studies confirmed the silica fume based concrete samples were found out to have the best performance in terms of both silicon and calcium ions leaching.

Keywords: Bio-corrosion, concrete, leaching, bacteria.

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Authors: J. Preetha, S. Selvarajan

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When neck pain is associated with pain, numbness, or weakness in the arm, shoulder, or hand, further investigation is needed as these are symptoms indicating pressure on one or more nerve roots. Evaluation necessitates a neurologic examination and imaging using an MRI/CT scan. A degenerating disc loses some thickness and is less flexible, causing inter-vertebrae space to narrow. A radiologist diagnoses an Intervertebral Disc Degeneration (IDD) by localizing every inter-vertebral disc and identifying the pathology in a disc based on its geometry and appearance. Accurate localizing is necessary to diagnose IDD pathology. But, the underlying image signal is ambiguous: a disc’s intensity overlaps the spinal nerve fibres. Even the structure changes from case to case, with possible spinal column bending (scoliosis). The inter-vertebral disc pathology’s quantitative assessment needs accurate localization of the cervical region discs. In this work, the efficacy of multilevel set segmentation model, to segment cervical discs is investigated. The segmented images are annotated using a simple distance matrix.

Keywords: Intervertebral Disc Degeneration (IDD), Cervical Disc Localization, multilevel set segmentation.

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Authors: Amin Esmaeilzadeh, Mohammad Sadeghi, Farhad Kolahan

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Arc welding is an important joining process widely used in many industrial applications including production of automobile, ships structures and metal tanks. In welding process, the moving electrode causes highly non-uniform temperature distribution that leads to residual stresses and different deviations, especially buckling distortions in thin plates. In order to control the deviations and increase the quality of welded plates, a fixture can be used as a practical and low cost method with high efficiency. In this study, a coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model is coded in the software ANSYS to simulate the behavior of thin plates located by a 3-2-1 positioning system during the welding process. Computational results are compared with recent similar works to validate the finite element models. The agreement between the result of proposed model and other reported data proves that finite element modeling can accurately predict the behavior of welded thin plates.

Keywords: Welding, thin plate, buckling distortion, fixture locators, finite element modelling.

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Authors: Mokhtar Awang, Wei-Vern Hor, Ehsan Mohammadpour, M Zaki Abdullah, Faiz Ahmad

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Chemical and physical functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has been commonly practiced to achieve better dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in polymer matrix. This work describes various functionalization methods (acidtreatment, non-ionic surfactant treatment with TritonX-100), fabrication of MWCNT/PP nanocomposites via melt blending and characterization of mechanical properties. Microscopy analysis (FESEM, TEM, XPS) showed effective purification of MWCNTs under acid treatment, and better dispersion under both chemical and physical functionalization techniques combined, in their respective order. Tensile tests showed increase in tensile strength for the nanocomposites that contain MWCNTs up to 2 wt%. A decrease in tensile strength was seen in samples that contain 4 wt% of MWCNTs for both raw and Triton X-100 functionalized, signifying MWCNT degradation/rebundling at composition with higher content of MWCNTs. For the acid-treated MWCNTs, however, the tensile results showed slight improvement even at 4wt%, indicating effective dispersion of MWCNTs.

Keywords: Multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT), functionalization, dispersion, nanocomposite

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Authors: Zeynep R. Ege, Aydin Akan, Faik N. Oktar, Betul Karademir, Oguzhan Gunduz

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Early detection of cancer could save human life and quality in insidious cases by advanced biomedical imaging techniques. Designing targeted detection system is necessary in order to protect of healthy cells. Electrospun nanofibers are efficient and targetable nanocarriers which have important properties such as nanometric diameter, mechanical properties, elasticity, porosity and surface area to volume ratio. In the present study, indocyanine green (ICG) organic dye was stabilized and encapsulated in polymer matrix which polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan (CHI) multilayer nanofibers via co-axial electrospinning method at one step. The co-axial electrospun nanofibers were characterized as morphological (SEM), molecular (FT-IR), and entrapment efficiency of Indocyanine Green (ICG) (confocal imaging). Controlled release profile of PEO/CHI/ICG nanofiber was also evaluated up to 40 hours.

Keywords: Chitosan, coaxial electrospinning, controlled releasing, indocyanine green, nanoprobe, polyethylene oxide.

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Authors: Alexander Breitholz, Wolfgang Arlt, Ki-Pung Yoo

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Group contribution based models are widely used in industrial applications for its convenience and flexibility. Although a number of group contribution models have been proposed, there were certain limitations inherent to those models. Models based on group contribution excess Gibbs free energy are limited to low pressures and models based on equation of state (EOS) cannot properly describe highly nonideal mixtures including acids without introducing additional modification such as chemical theory. In the present study new a new approach derived from quantum chemistry have been used to calculate necessary EOS group interaction parameters. The COSMO-RS method, based on quantum mechanics, provides a reliable tool for fluid phase thermodynamics. Benefits of the group contribution EOS are the consistent extension to hydrogen-bonded mixtures and the capability to predict polymer-solvent equilibria up to high pressures. The authors are confident that with a sufficient parameter matrix the performance of the lattice EOS can be improved significantly.

Keywords: COSMO-RS, Equation of State, Group contribution, Lattice Fluid, Phase equilibria.

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Authors: Kitti Leangkrua

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This paper presents a risk-based maintenance strategy of a power transformer in order to optimize operating and maintenance costs. The methodology involves the study and preparation of a database for the collection the technical data and test data of a power transformer. An evaluation of the overall condition of each transformer is performed by a program developed as a result of the measured results; in addition, the calculation of the main equipment separation to the overall condition of the transformer (% HI) and the criteria for evaluating the importance (% ImI) of each location where the transformer is installed. The condition assessment is performed by analysis test data such as electrical test, insulating oil test and visual inspection. The condition of the power transformer will be classified from very poor to very good condition. The importance is evaluated from load criticality, importance of load and failure consequence. The risk matrix is developed for evaluating the risk of each power transformer. The high risk power transformer will be focused firstly. The computerized program is developed for practical use, and the maintenance strategy of a power transformer can be effectively managed.

Keywords: Asset management, risk-based maintenance, power transformer, health index.

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Authors: Jeffrey L. Duffany

Abstract:

Graph coloring is an important problem in computer science and many algorithms are known for obtaining reasonably good solutions in polynomial time. One method of comparing different algorithms is to test them on a set of standard graphs where the optimal solution is already known. This investigation analyzes a set of 50 well known graph coloring instances according to a set of complexity measures. These instances come from a variety of sources some representing actual applications of graph coloring (register allocation) and others (mycieleski and leighton graphs) that are theoretically designed to be difficult to solve. The size of the graphs ranged from ranged from a low of 11 variables to a high of 864 variables. The method used to solve the coloring problem was the square of the adjacency (i.e., correlation) matrix. The results show that the most difficult graphs to solve were the leighton and the queen graphs. Complexity measures such as density, mobility, deviation from uniform color class size and number of block diagonal zeros are calculated for each graph. The results showed that the most difficult problems have low mobility (in the range of .2-.5) and relatively little deviation from uniform color class size.

Keywords: graph coloring, complexity, algorithm.

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Authors: S. Tunmee, P. Wongpanya, I. Toda, X. L. Zhou, Y. Nakaya, N. Konkhunthot, S. Arakawa, H. Saitoh

Abstract:

The hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (α-C:H) were deposited on p-type Si (100) substrates at different thicknesses by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique (rf-PECVD). Raman spectra display asymmetric diamond-like carbon (DLC) peaks, representative of the α-C:H films. The decrease of intensity ID/IG ratios revealed the sp3 content arise at different thicknesses of the α-C:H films. In terms of mechanical properties, the high hardness and elastic modulus values showed the elastic and plastic deformation behaviors related to sp3 content in amorphous carbon films. Electrochemical properties showed that the α-C:H films exhibited excellent corrosion resistance in air-saturated 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution for pH 2 at room temperature. Thickness increasing affected the small sp2 clusters in matrix, restricting the velocity transfer and exchange of electrons. The deposited α-C:H films exhibited excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.

Keywords: Thickness, Mechanical properties, Electrochemical corrosion properties, α-C:H film.

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