Search results for: small and medium manufacturing enterprises
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3007

Search results for: small and medium manufacturing enterprises

847 Planar Tracking Control of an Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Authors: Santhakumar M., Asokan T.

Abstract:

This paper addresses the problem of trajectory tracking control of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the horizontal plane. The underwater vehicle under consideration is not actuated in the sway direction, and the system matrices are not assumed to be diagonal and linear, as often found in the literature. In addition, the effect of constant bias of environmental disturbances is considered. Using backstepping techniques and the tracking error dynamics, the system states are stabilized by forcing the tracking errors to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of zero. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is demonstrated through numerical simulations. Simulations are carried out for an experimental vehicle for smooth, inertial, two dimensional (2D) reference trajectories such as constant velocity trajectory (a circle maneuver – constant yaw rate), and time varying velocity trajectory (a sinusoidal path – sinusoidal yaw rate).

Keywords: autonomous underwater vehicle, system matrices, tracking control, time – varying feed back, underactuated control.

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846 Localisation of Anatomical Soft Tissue Landmarks of the Head in CT Images

Authors: M. Ovinis, D. Kerr, K. Bouazza-Marouf, M. Vloeberghs

Abstract:

In this paper, algorithms for the automatic localisation of two anatomical soft tissue landmarks of the head the medial canthus (inner corner of the eye) and the tragus (a small, pointed, cartilaginous flap of the ear), in CT images are describet. These landmarks are to be used as a basis for an automated image-to-patient registration system we are developing. The landmarks are localised on a surface model extracted from CT images, based on surface curvature and a rule based system that incorporates prior knowledge of the landmark characteristics. The approach was tested on a dataset of near isotropic CT images of 95 patients. The position of the automatically localised landmarks was compared to the position of the manually localised landmarks. The average difference was 1.5 mm and 0.8 mm for the medial canthus and tragus, with a maximum difference of 4.5 mm and 2.6 mm respectively.The medial canthus and tragus can be automatically localised in CT images, with performance comparable to manual localisation

Keywords: Anatomical soft tissue landmarks, automatic localisation, Computed Tomography (CT)

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845 Machine Vision System for Automatic Weeding Strategy in Oil Palm Plantation using Image Filtering Technique

Authors: Kamarul Hawari Ghazali, Mohd. Marzuki Mustafa, Aini Hussain

Abstract:

Machine vision is an application of computer vision to automate conventional work in industry, manufacturing or any other field. Nowadays, people in agriculture industry have embarked into research on implementation of engineering technology in their farming activities. One of the precision farming activities that involve machine vision system is automatic weeding strategy. Automatic weeding strategy in oil palm plantation could minimize the volume of herbicides that is sprayed to the fields. This paper discusses an automatic weeding strategy in oil palm plantation using machine vision system for the detection and differential spraying of weeds. The implementation of vision system involved the used of image processing technique to analyze weed images in order to recognized and distinguished its types. Image filtering technique has been used to process the images as well as a feature extraction method to classify the type of weed images. As a result, the image processing technique contributes a promising result of classification to be implemented in machine vision system for automated weeding strategy.

Keywords: Machine vision, Automatic Weeding Strategy, filter, feature extraction

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844 A Novel Reversible Watermarking Method based on Adaptive Thresholding and Companding Technique

Authors: Nisar Ahmed Memon

Abstract:

Embedding and extraction of a secret information as well as the restoration of the original un-watermarked image is highly desirable in sensitive applications like military, medical, and law enforcement imaging. This paper presents a novel reversible data-hiding method for digital images using integer to integer wavelet transform and companding technique which can embed and recover the secret information as well as can restore the image to its pristine state. The novel method takes advantage of block based watermarking and iterative optimization of threshold for companding which avoids histogram pre and post-processing. Consequently, it reduces the associated overhead usually required in most of the reversible watermarking techniques. As a result, it keeps the distortion small between the marked and the original images. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing reversible data hiding schemes reported in the literature.

Keywords: Adaptive Thresholding, Companding Technique, Integer Wavelet Transform, Reversible Watermarking

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843 Preparation of Nanostructure ZnO-SnO2 Thin Films for Optoelectronic Properties and Post Annealing Influence

Authors: Vipin Kumar Jain, Praveen Kumar, Y.K. Vijay

Abstract:

ZnO-SnO2 i.e. Zinc-Tin-Oxide (ZTO) thin films were deposited on glass substrate with varying concentrations (ZnO:SnO2 - 100:0, 90:10, 70:30 and 50:50 wt.%) at room temperature by flash evaporation technique. These deposited ZTO film were annealed at 450 0C in vacuum. These films were characterized to study the effect of annealing on the structural, electrical, and optical properties. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images manifest the surface morphology of these ZTO thin films. The apparent growth of surface features revealed the formation of nanostructure ZTO thin films. The small value of surface roughness (root mean square RRMS) ensures the usefulness in optical coatings. The sheet resistance was also found to be decreased for both types of films with increasing concentration of SnO2. The optical transmittance found to be decreased however blue shift has been observed after annealing.

Keywords: ZTO thin film, AFM, SEM, Optical transmittance, Sheet resistance.

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842 Robust Coordinated Design of Multiple Power System Stabilizers Using Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

Authors: Sidhartha Panda, C. Ardil

Abstract:

Power system stabilizers (PSS) are now routinely used in the industry to damp out power system oscillations. In this paper, particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to coordinately design multiple power system stabilizers (PSS) in a multi-machine power system. The design problem of the proposed controllers is formulated as an optimization problem and PSO is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The non-linear simulation results are presented for various severe disturbances and small disturbance at different locations as well as for various fault clearing sequences to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations.

Keywords: Low frequency oscillations, Particle swarm optimization, power system stability, power system stabilizer, multimachine power system.

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841 Uptake of Off-site Construction: Benefit and Future Application

Authors: Faisal Alazzaz, Andrew Whyte

Abstract:

Off-site construction methods have played an important role in the construction sector in the past few decades. It is increasingly becoming a major alternative technique and strategic direction compared to traditional in-situ method. It produces a significant amount of value for the construction industry and the economy more generally. To date, an impressive number of studies have been lunched on the perceived perception of off-site construction. However, it seems that a quantifying benefit on the offsite construction area is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the recent research literature on the benefits of off- site construction and provides future direction. In the beginning, this paper provides a brief history and current value of the off-site construction followed by a detailed discussion on the benefit of off-site construction. These benefits include but not limited to time saving, quality improvement, relieving skills shortages, cost reduction and productivity improvement. Toward this end, off-site construction should learn from other productive industry similar to services or manufacturing industry by applying operational management tools and techniques with extensive focus on employee empowerment will shed the light on future uptake of Off-site construction. This study is of value in providing scholars have a clear picture of perceived benefit of off-site construction research and give an opportunities for future uptake of off-site method.

Keywords: Building projects, Employer empowerment, Off-site construction benefits, Productivity.

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840 Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) Framework Development

Authors: Puvanasvaran, A. P., Suresh V., N. Norazlin

Abstract:

The Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) framework development is integration between lean core element and ISO 14001. The curiosity on the relationship between continuous improvement and sustainability of lean implementation has influenced this study toward LEMIS. Characteristic of ISO 14001 standard clauses and core elements of lean principles are explored from past studies and literature reviews. Survey was carried out on ISO 14001 certified companies to examine continual improvement by implementing the ISO 14001 standard. The study found that there is a significant and positive relationship between Lean Principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection with the ISO 14001 requirements. LEMIS is significant to support the continuous improvement and sustainability. The integration system can be implemented to any manufacturing company. It gives awareness on the importance on why organizations need to sustain its environmental management system. In the meantime, the lean principle can be adapted in order to streamline daily activities of the company. Throughout the study, it had proven that there is no sacrifice or trade-off between lean principles with ISO 14001 requirements. The framework developed in the study can be further simplified in the future, especially the method of crossing each sub requirements of ISO 14001 standard with the core elements of Lean principles in this study.

Keywords: LEMIS, ISO 14001, integration, framework.

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839 Permanent Magnet Machine Can Be a Vibration Sensor for Itself

Authors: M. Barański

Abstract:

This article presents a new vibration diagnostic method designed to (PM) machines with permanent magnets. Those devices are commonly used in small wind and water systems or vehicles drives. The author’s method is very innovative and unique. Specific structural properties of PM machines are used in this method - electromotive force (EMF) generated due to vibrations. There was analysed number of publications which describe vibration diagnostic methods and tests of electrical PM machines and there was no method found to determine the technical condition of such machine basing on their own signals. In this article will be discussed: the method genesis, the similarity of machines with permanent magnet to vibration sensor and simulation and laboratory tests results. The method of determination the technical condition of electrical machine with permanent magnets basing on its own signals is the subject of patent application and it is the main thesis of author’s doctoral dissertation.

Keywords: Electrical vehicle, generator, permanent magnet, traction drive, vibrations.

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838 Effect of Buoyancy Ratio on Non-Darcy Mixed Convection in a Vertical Channel: A Thermal Non-equilibrium Approach

Authors: Manish K. Khandelwal, P. Bera, A. Chakrabarti

Abstract:

This article presents a numerical study of the doublediffusive mixed convection in a vertical channel filled with porous medium by using non-equilibrium model. The flow is assumed fully developed, uni-directional and steady state. The controlling parameters are thermal Rayleigh number (RaT ), Darcy number (Da), Forchheimer number (F), buoyancy ratio (N), inter phase heat transfer coefficient (H), and porosity scaled thermal conductivity ratio (γ). The Brinkman-extended non-Darcy model is considered. The governing equations are solved by spectral collocation method. The main emphasize is given on flow profiles as well as heat and solute transfer rates, when two diffusive components in terms of buoyancy ratio are in favor (against) of each other and solid matrix and fluid are thermally non-equilibrium. The results show that, for aiding flow (RaT = 1000), the heat transfer rate of fluid (Nuf ) increases upto a certain value of H, beyond that decreases smoothly and converges to a constant, whereas in case of opposing flow (RaT = -1000), the result is same for N = 0 and 1. The variation of Nuf in (N, Nuf )-plane shows sinusoidal pattern for RaT = -1000. For both cases (aiding and opposing) the flow destabilize on increasing N by inviting point of inflection or flow separation on the velocity profile. Overall, the buoyancy force have significant impact on the non-Darcy mixed convection under LTNE conditions.

Keywords: buoyancy ratio, mixed convection, non-Darcy model, thermal non-equilibrium

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837 A Rule-based Approach for Anomaly Detection in Subscriber Usage Pattern

Authors: Rupesh K. Gopal, Saroj K. Meher

Abstract:

In this report we present a rule-based approach to detect anomalous telephone calls. The method described here uses subscriber usage CDR (call detail record) data sampled over two observation periods: study period and test period. The study period contains call records of customers- non-anomalous behaviour. Customers are first grouped according to their similar usage behaviour (like, average number of local calls per week, etc). For customers in each group, we develop a probabilistic model to describe their usage. Next, we use maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to estimate the parameters of the calling behaviour. Then we determine thresholds by calculating acceptable change within a group. MLE is used on the data in the test period to estimate the parameters of the calling behaviour. These parameters are compared against thresholds. Any deviation beyond the threshold is used to raise an alarm. This method has the advantage of identifying local anomalies as compared to techniques which identify global anomalies. The method is tested for 90 days of study data and 10 days of test data of telecom customers. For medium to large deviations in the data in test window, the method is able to identify 90% of anomalous usage with less than 1% false alarm rate.

Keywords: Subscription fraud, fraud detection, anomalydetection, maximum likelihood estimation, rule based systems.

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836 Application of RP Technology with Polycarbonate Material for Wind Tunnel Model Fabrication

Authors: A. Ahmadi Nadooshan, S. Daneshmand, C. Aghanajafi

Abstract:

Traditionally, wind tunnel models are made of metal and are very expensive. In these years, everyone is looking for ways to do more with less. Under the right test conditions, a rapid prototype part could be tested in a wind tunnel. Using rapid prototype manufacturing techniques and materials in this way significantly reduces time and cost of production of wind tunnel models. This study was done of fused deposition modeling (FDM) and their ability to make components for wind tunnel models in a timely and cost effective manner. This paper discusses the application of wind tunnel model configuration constructed using FDM for transonic wind tunnel testing. A study was undertaken comparing a rapid prototyping model constructed of FDM Technologies using polycarbonate to that of a standard machined steel model. Testing covered the Mach range of Mach 0.3 to Mach 0.75 at an angle-ofattack range of - 2° to +12°. Results from this study show relatively good agreement between the two models and rapid prototyping Method reduces time and cost of production of wind tunnel models. It can be concluded from this study that wind tunnel models constructed using rapid prototyping method and materials can be used in wind tunnel testing for initial baseline aerodynamic database development.

Keywords: Polycarbonate, Fabrication, FDM, Model, RapidPrototyping, Wind Tunnel.

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835 A Fast Adaptive Tomlinson-Harashima Precoder for Indoor Wireless Communications

Authors: M. Naresh Kumar, Abhijit Mitra, C. Ardil

Abstract:

A fast adaptive Tomlinson Harashima (T-H) precoder structure is presented for indoor wireless communications, where the channel may vary due to rotation and small movement of the mobile terminal. A frequency-selective slow fading channel which is time-invariant over a frame is assumed. In this adaptive T-H precoder, feedback coefficients are updated at the end of every uplink frame by using system identification technique for channel estimation in contrary with the conventional T-H precoding concept where the channel is estimated during the starting of the uplink frame via Wiener solution. In conventional T-H precoder it is assumed the channel is time-invariant in both uplink and downlink frames. However assuming the channel is time-invariant over only one frame instead of two, the proposed adaptive T-H precoder yields better performance than conventional T-H precoder if the channel is varied in uplink after receiving the training sequence.

Keywords: Tomlinson-Harashima precoder, Adaptive channel estimation, Indoor wireless communication, Bit error rate.

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834 Experimental Study on Smart Anchor Head

Authors: Young-Jun You, Ki-Tae Park, Kyu-Wan Lee

Abstract:

Since prestressed concrete members rely on the tensile strength of the prestressing strands to resist loads, loss of even few them could result catastrophic. Therefore, it is important to measure present residual prestress force. Although there are some techniques for obtaining present prestress force, some problems still remain. One method is to install load cell in front of anchor head but this may increase cost. Load cell is a transducer using the elastic material property. Anchor head is also an elastic material and this might result in monitoring monitor present prestress force. Features of fiber optic sensor such as small size, great sensitivity, high durability can assign sensing function to anchor head. This paper presents the concept of smart anchor head which acts as load cell and experiment for the applicability of it. Test results showed the smart anchor head worked good and strong linear relationship between load and response.

Keywords: SHM, prestress force, anchor head, fiber optic sensor

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833 Response of Wax Apple Cultivars by Applied GA3 and 2,4-D on Fruit Growth and Fruit Quality

Authors: Minh Tuan, Nguyen, Chung-Ruey Yen

Abstract:

The experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of GA3, 2,4-D on fruit growth and fruit quality of wax apple. The experiment consisted of Red A, Monulla, Atu, Red B cultivars. GA3 and 2,4-D were applied at the small bud and petal fall stage. Physiological, biochemical characters of fruit were recoded. The result showed application of GA3, 2,4-D greatly response in increasing fruit set for all treatment as compared to control. Fruit weight, fruit size were increased at 10 ppm 2,4-D in ‘Red A’, ‘Red B’, however it was also enhancing at 10 ppm GA3 in ‘Monulla’, ‘Atu’. For ‘Monulla’, ‘Atu’ fruit crack reduced by 10 ppm 2,4-D application, but ‘Red B’, ‘Red A’ gave least fruit crack at 10 and 30 ppm GA3, respectively. ‘Monulla’, ‘Atu’ and ‘Red B’ resulted in response well to 10 ppm GA3 on improving TSS, whereas application of 30 ppm GA3 greatly enhancing TSS in ‘Red A’. For ‘Atu’ titratable acidity markedly reduced by 10 ppm GA3 application, but spraying with 30 ppm GA3 greatly response in reducing titratable acidity in ‘Red A’, ‘Red B’ and ‘Monulla’. It was concluded that GA3, 2,4-D can be an effective tool to enhancing fruit set, fruit growth as well as improving fruit quality of wax apple.

Keywords: Wax apple, GA3, 2, 4-D, fruit growth, fruit quality. Abbreviations: GA3, gibberellic acid; 2, 4-D, 2, 4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.

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832 Evaluating some Feature Selection Methods for an Improved SVM Classifier

Authors: Daniel Morariu, Lucian N. Vintan, Volker Tresp

Abstract:

Text categorization is the problem of classifying text documents into a set of predefined classes. After a preprocessing step the documents are typically represented as large sparse vectors. When training classifiers on large collections of documents, both the time and memory restrictions can be quite prohibitive. This justifies the application of features selection methods to reduce the dimensionality of the document-representation vector. Four feature selection methods are evaluated: Random Selection, Information Gain (IG), Support Vector Machine (called SVM_FS) and Genetic Algorithm with SVM (GA_FS). We showed that the best results were obtained with SVM_FS and GA_FS methods for a relatively small dimension of the features vector comparative with the IG method that involves longer vectors, for quite similar classification accuracies. Also we present a novel method to better correlate SVM kernel-s parameters (Polynomial or Gaussian kernel).

Keywords: Features selection, learning with kernels, support vector machine, genetic algorithms and classification.

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831 The Effect of Closed Circuit Television Image Patch Layout on Performance of a Simulated Train-Platform Departure Task

Authors: Aaron J. Small, Craig A. Fletcher

Abstract:

This study investigates the effect of closed circuit television (CCTV) image patch layout on performance of a simulated train-platform departure task. The within-subjects experimental design measures target detection rate and response latency during a CCTV visual search task conducted as part of the procedure for safe train dispatch. Three interface designs were developed by manipulating CCTV image patch layout. Eye movements, perceived workload and system usability were measured across experimental conditions. Task performance was compared to identify significant differences between conditions. The results of this study have not been determined.

Keywords: Rail human factors, workload, closed circuit television, platform departure, attention, information processing, interface design.

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830 A Weighted Sum Technique for the Joint Optimization of Performance and Power Consumption in Data Centers

Authors: Samee Ullah Khan, C.Ardil

Abstract:

With data centers, end-users can realize the pervasiveness of services that will be one day the cornerstone of our lives. However, data centers are often classified as computing systems that consume the most amounts of power. To circumvent such a problem, we propose a self-adaptive weighted sum methodology that jointly optimizes the performance and power consumption of any given data center. Compared to traditional methodologies for multi-objective optimization problems, the proposed self-adaptive weighted sum technique does not rely on a systematical change of weights during the optimization procedure. The proposed technique is compared with the greedy and LR heuristics for large-scale problems, and the optimal solution for small-scale problems implemented in LINDO. the experimental results revealed that the proposed selfadaptive weighted sum technique outperforms both of the heuristics and projects a competitive performance compared to the optimal solution.

Keywords: Meta-heuristics, distributed systems, adaptive methods, resource allocation.

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829 Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Annular Flow Boiling in a Microchannel with 70000 Atoms

Authors: D.Toghraie, A.R.Azimian

Abstract:

Molecular dynamics simulation of annular flow boiling in a nanochannel with 70000 particles is numerically investigated. In this research, an annular flow model is developed to predict the superheated flow boiling heat transfer characteristics in a nanochannel. To characterize the forced annular boiling flow in a nanochannel, an external driving force F ext ranging from 1to12PN (PN= Pico Newton) is applied along the flow direction to inlet fluid particles during the simulation. Based on an annular flow model analysis, it is found that saturation condition and superheat degree have great influences on the liquid-vapor interface. Also, the results show that due to the relatively strong influence of surface tension in small channel, the interface between the liquid film and vapor core is fairly smooth, and the mean velocity along the stream-wise direction does not change anymore.

Keywords: Lennard-Jones Potential, Molecular DynamicsSimulation, Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBC), Non-EquilibriumMolecular Dynamics (NEMD), Annular Flow Boiling

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828 Comparing the Behaviour of the FRP and Steel Reinforced Shear Walls under Cyclic Seismic Loading in Aspect of the Energy Dissipation

Authors: H. Rahman, T. Donchev, D. Petkova

Abstract:

Earthquakes claim thousands of lives around the world annually due to inadequate design of lateral load resisting systems particularly shear walls. Additionally, corrosion of the steel reinforcement in concrete structures is one of the main challenges in construction industry. Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforcement can be used as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement. FRP has several excellent mechanical properties than steel such as high resistance to corrosion, high tensile strength and light self-weight; additionally, it has electromagnetic neutrality advantageous to the structures where it is important such as hospitals, some laboratories and telecommunications. This paper is about results of experimental research and it is incorporating experimental testing of two medium-scale concrete shear wall samples; one reinforced with Basalt FRP (BFRP) bar and one reinforced with steel bars as a control sample. The samples are tested under quasi-static-cyclic loading following modified ATC-24 protocol standard seismic loading. The results of both samples are compared to allow a judgement about performance of BFRP reinforced against steel reinforced concrete shear walls. The results of the conducted researches show a promising momentum toward utilisation of the BFRP as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement with the aim of improving durability with suitable energy dissipation in the reinforced concrete shear walls.  

Keywords: Shear walls, internal FRP reinforcement, cyclic loading, energy dissipation and seismic behaviour.

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827 A Simulation-Optimization Approach to Control Production, Subcontracting and Maintenance Decisions for a Deteriorating Production System

Authors: Héctor Rivera-Gómez, Eva Selene Hernández-Gress, Oscar Montaño-Arango, Jose Ramon Corona-Armenta

Abstract:

This research studies the joint production, maintenance and subcontracting control policy for an unreliable deteriorating manufacturing system. Production activities are controlled by a derivation of the Hedging Point Policy, and given that the system is subject to deterioration, it reduces progressively its capacity to satisfy product demand. Multiple deterioration effects are considered, reflected mainly in the quality of the parts produced and the reliability of the machine. Subcontracting is available as support to satisfy product demand; also, overhaul maintenance can be conducted to reduce the effects of deterioration. The main objective of the research is to determine simultaneously the production, maintenance and subcontracting rate, which minimize the total, incurred cost. A stochastic dynamic programming model is developed and solved through a simulation-based approach composed of statistical analysis and optimization with the response surface methodology. The obtained results highlight the strong interactions between production, deterioration and quality, which justify the development of an integrated model. A numerical example and a sensitivity analysis are presented to validate our results.

Keywords: Deterioration, simulation, subcontracting, production planning.

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826 Numerical Investigation of the Performance of a Vorsyl Separator Using a Euler-Lagrange Approach

Authors: Guozhen Li, Philip Hall, Nick Miles, Tao Wu, Jie Dong

Abstract:

This paper presents a Euler-Lagrange model of the water-particles multiphase flows in a Vorsyl separator where particles with different densities are separated. A series of particles with their densities ranging from 760 kg/m3 to 1380 kg/m3 were fed into the Vorsyl separator with water by means of tangential inlet. The simulation showed that the feed materials acquired centrifugal force which allows most portion of the particles with a density less than water to move to the center of the separator, enter the vortex finder and leave the separator through the bottom outlet. While the particles heavier than water move to the wall, reach the throat area and leave the separator through the side outlet. The particles were thus separated and particles collected at the bottom outlet are pure and clean. The influence of particle density on separation efficiency was investigated which demonstrated a positive correlation of the separation efficiency with increasing density difference between medium liquid and the particle. In addition, the influence of the split ratio on the performance was studied which showed that the separation efficiency of the Vorsyl separator can be improved by the increase of split ratio. The simulation also suggested that the Vorsyl separator may not function when the feeding velocity is smaller than a certain critical feeding in velocity. In addition, an increasing feeding velocity gives rise to increased pressure drop, however does not necessarily increase the separation efficiency.

Keywords: Vorsyl separator, separation efficiency, CFD, split ratio.

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825 The Application of Queuing Theory in Multi-Stage Production Lines

Authors: Hani Shafeek, Muhammed Marsudi

Abstract:

The purpose of this work is examining the multiproduct multi-stage in a battery production line. To improve the performances of an assembly production line by determine the efficiency of each workstation. Data collected from every workstation. The data are throughput rate, number of operator, and number of parts that arrive and leaves during part processing. Data for the number of parts that arrives and leaves are collected at least at the amount of ten samples to make the data is possible to be analyzed by Chi-Squared Goodness Test and queuing theory. Measures of this model served as the comparison with the standard data available in the company. Validation of the task time value resulted by comparing it with the task time value based on the company database. Some performance factors for the multi-product multi-stage in a battery production line in this work are shown. The efficiency in each workstation was also shown. Total production time to produce each part can be determined by adding the total task time in each workstation. To reduce the queuing time and increase the efficiency based on the analysis any probably improvement should be done. One probably action is by increasing the number of operators how manually operate this workstation.

Keywords: Production line, manufacturing, performance measurement, queuing theory.

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824 A Review on the Usage of Ceramic Wastes in Concrete Production

Authors: O. Zimbili, W. Salim, M. Ndambuki

Abstract:

Construction and Demolition (C&D) wastes contribute the highest percentage of wastes worldwide (75%). Furthermore, ceramic materials contribute the highest percentage of wastes within the C&D wastes (54%). The current option for disposal of ceramic wastes is landfill. This is due to unavailability of standards, avoidance of risk, lack of knowledge and experience in using ceramic wastes in construction. The ability of ceramic wastes to act as a pozzolanic material in the production of cement has been effectively explored. The results proved that temperatures used in the manufacturing of these tiles (about 900⁰C) are sufficient to activate pozzolanic properties of clay. They also showed that, after optimization (11-14% substitution); the cement blend performs better, with no morphological difference between the cement blended with ceramic waste, and that blended with other pozzolanic materials. Sanitary ware and electrical insulator porcelain wastes are some wastes investigated for usage as aggregates in concrete production. When optimized, both produced good results, better than when natural aggregates are used. However, the research on ceramic wastes as partial substitute for fine aggregates or cement has not been overly exploited as the other areas. This review has been concluded with focus on investigating whether ceramic wall tile wastes used as partial substitute for cement and fine aggregates could prove to be beneficial since the two materials are the most high-priced during concrete production.

Keywords: Blended, morphological, pozzolanic properties, waste.

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823 Modeling of Reinforcement in Concrete Beams Using Machine Learning Tools

Authors: Yogesh Aggarwal

Abstract:

The paper discusses the results obtained to predict reinforcement in singly reinforced beam using Neural Net (NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM-s) and Tree Based Models. Major advantage of SVM-s over NN is of minimizing a bound on the generalization error of model rather than minimizing a bound on mean square error over the data set as done in NN. Tree Based approach divides the problem into a small number of sub problems to reach at a conclusion. Number of data was created for different parameters of beam to calculate the reinforcement using limit state method for creation of models and validation. The results from this study suggest a remarkably good performance of tree based and SVM-s models. Further, this study found that these two techniques work well and even better than Neural Network methods. A comparison of predicted values with actual values suggests a very good correlation coefficient with all four techniques.

Keywords: Linear Regression, M5 Model Tree, Neural Network, Support Vector Machines.

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822 Genetic Algorithm Optimization of a Small Scale Natural Gas Liquefaction Process

Authors: M. I. Abdelhamid, A. O. Ghallab, R. S. Ettouney, M. A. El-Rifai

Abstract:

An optimization scheme based on COM server is suggested for communication between Genetic Algorithm (GA) toolbox of MATLAB and Aspen HYSYS. The structure and details of the proposed framework are discussed. The power of the developed scheme is illustrated by its application to the optimization of a recently developed natural gas liquefaction process in which Aspen HYSYS was used for minimization of the power consumption by optimizing the values of five operating variables. In this work, optimization by coupling between the GA in MATLAB and Aspen HYSYS model of the same process using the same five decision variables enabled improvements in power consumption by 3.3%, when 77% of the natural gas feed is liquefied. Also on inclusion of the flow rates of both nitrogen and carbon dioxide refrigerants as two additional decision variables, the power consumption decreased by 6.5% for a 78% liquefaction of the natural gas feed.

Keywords: Stranded gas liquefaction, genetic algorithm, COM server, single nitrogen expansion, carbon dioxide pre-cooling.

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821 Agent-based Framework for Energy Efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: Hongjoong Sin, Jangsoo Lee, Sungju Lee, Seunghwan Yoo, Sanghyuck Lee, Jaesik Lee, Yongjun Lee, Sungchun Kim

Abstract:

Wireless sensor networks are consisted of hundreds or thousands of small sensors that have limited resources. Energy-efficient techniques are the main issue of wireless sensor networks. This paper proposes an energy efficient agent-based framework in wireless sensor networks. We adopt biologically inspired approaches for wireless sensor networks. Agent operates automatically with their behavior policies as a gene. Agent aggregates other agents to reduce communication and gives high priority to nodes that have enough energy to communicate. Agent behavior policies are optimized by genetic operation at the base station. Simulation results show that our proposed framework increases the lifetime of each node. Each agent selects a next-hop node with neighbor information and behavior policies. Our proposed framework provides self-healing, self-configuration, self-optimization properties to sensor nodes.

Keywords: Agent, Energy Efficiency, Genetic algorithm, Wireless Sensor Networks.

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820 Modeling and Visualizing Seismic Wave Propagation in Elastic Medium Using Multi-Dimension Wave Digital Filtering Approach

Authors: Jason Chien-Hsun Tseng, Nguyen Dong-Thai Dao, Chong-Ching Chang

Abstract:

A novel PDE solver using the multidimensional wave digital filtering (MDWDF) technique to achieve the solution of a 2D seismic wave system is presented. In essence, the continuous physical system served by a linear Kirchhoff circuit is transformed to an equivalent discrete dynamic system implemented by a MD wave digital filtering (MDWDF) circuit. This amounts to numerically approximating the differential equations used to describe elements of a MD passive electronic circuit by a grid-based difference equations implemented by the so-called state quantities within the passive MDWDF circuit. So the digital model can track the wave field on a dense 3D grid of points. Details about how to transform the continuous system into a desired discrete passive system are addressed. In addition, initial and boundary conditions are properly embedded into the MDWDF circuit in terms of state quantities. Graphic results have clearly demonstrated some physical effects of seismic wave (P-wave and S–wave) propagation including radiation, reflection, and refraction from and across the hard boundaries. Comparison between the MDWDF technique and the finite difference time domain (FDTD) approach is also made in terms of the computational efficiency.

Keywords: Seismic Wave Propagation, Multi-dimension WaveDigital Filters, Partial Differential Equations.

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819 The Study of Chain Initiation Effect on the Direct Initiation of Detonation

Authors: Masoud Afrand, Saeid Farahat, Mehdi Alamkar

Abstract:

In this research, effect of combustion reaction mechanism on direct initiation of detonation has been studied numerically. For this purpose, reaction mechanism has been simulated by using a three-step chemical kinetics model. The reaction scheme consists sequentially of a chain-initiation and chainbranching step, followed by a temperature -independent chaintermination. In a previous research, the effect of chain-branching on the direct initiation of detonation is studied. In this research effect of chain-initiation on direct initiation of detonation is investigated. For the investigation, first a characteristic time (τ) for each step of mechanism, which includes effect of different kinetics parameters, is defined. Then the effect of characteristic time of chain-initiation (τI) on critical initiation energy is studied. It is seen that increasing τI, causes critical initiation energy to be increased. Drawing detonation's shock pressure diagrams for different cases, shows that in small value of τI , kinetics has more important effect on the behavior of the wave.

Keywords: Detonation initiation, Initiation energy, Reaction rate, Characteristic time.

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818 Coverage and Connectivity Problem in Sensor Networks

Authors: Meenakshi Bansal, Iqbal Singh, Parvinder S. Sandhu

Abstract:

In over deployed sensor networks, one approach to Conserve energy is to keep only a small subset of sensors active at Any instant. For the coverage problems, the monitoring area in a set of points that require sensing, called demand points, and consider that the node coverage area is a circle of range R, where R is the sensing range, If the Distance between a demand point and a sensor node is less than R, the node is able to cover this point. We consider a wireless sensor network consisting of a set of sensors deployed randomly. A point in the monitored area is covered if it is within the sensing range of a sensor. In some applications, when the network is sufficiently dense, area coverage can be approximated by guaranteeing point coverage. In this case, all the points of wireless devices could be used to represent the whole area, and the working sensors are supposed to cover all the sensors. We also introduce Hybrid Algorithm and challenges related to coverage in sensor networks.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, network coverage, Energy conservation, Hybrid Algorithms.

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