Search results for: Channel Modeling
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2768

Search results for: Channel Modeling

248 Reducing Pressure Drop in Microscale Channel Using Constructal Theory

Authors: K. X. Cheng, A. L. Goh, K. T. Ooi

Abstract:

The effectiveness of microchannels in enhancing heat transfer has been demonstrated in the semiconductor industry. In order to tap the microscale heat transfer effects into macro geometries, overcoming the cost and technological constraints, microscale passages were created in macro geometries machined using conventional fabrication methods. A cylindrical insert was placed within a pipe, and geometrical profiles were created on the outer surface of the insert to enhance heat transfer under steady-state single-phase liquid flow conditions. However, while heat transfer coefficient values of above 10 kW/m2·K were achieved, the heat transfer enhancement was accompanied by undesirable pressure drop increment. Therefore, this study aims to address the high pressure drop issue using Constructal theory, a universal design law for both animate and inanimate systems. Two designs based on Constructal theory were developed to study the effectiveness of Constructal features in reducing the pressure drop increment as compared to parallel channels, which are commonly found in microchannel fabrication. The hydrodynamic and heat transfer performance for the Tree insert and Constructal fin (Cfin) insert were studied using experimental methods, and the underlying mechanisms were substantiated by numerical results. In technical terms, the objective is to achieve at least comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, if not higher increment in the former parameter. Results show that the Tree insert improved the heat transfer performance by more than 16 percent at low flow rates, as compared to the Tree-parallel insert. However, the heat transfer enhancement reduced to less than 5 percent at high Reynolds numbers. On the other hand, the pressure drop increment stayed almost constant at 20 percent. This suggests that the Tree insert has better heat transfer performance in the low Reynolds number region. More importantly, the Cfin insert displayed improved heat transfer performance along with favourable hydrodynamic performance, as compared to Cfinparallel insert, at all flow rates in this study. At 2 L/min, the enhancement of heat transfer was more than 30 percent, with 20 percent pressure drop increment, as compared to Cfin-parallel insert. Furthermore, comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop was observed at 8 L/min. In other words, the Cfin insert successfully achieved the objective of this study. Analysis of the results suggests that bifurcation of flows is effective in reducing the increment in pressure drop relative to heat transfer enhancement. Optimising the geometries of the Constructal fins is therefore the potential future study in achieving a bigger stride in energy efficiency at much lower costs.

Keywords: Constructal theory, enhanced heat transfer, microchannel, pressure drop.

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247 Material Density Mapping on Deformable 3D Models of Human Organs

Authors: Petru Manescu, Joseph Azencot, Michael Beuve, Hamid Ladjal, Jacques Saade, Jean-Michel Morreau, Philippe Giraud, Behzad Shariat

Abstract:

Organ motion, especially respiratory motion, is a technical challenge to radiation therapy planning and dosimetry. This motion induces displacements and deformation of the organ tissues within the irradiated region which need to be taken into account when simulating dose distribution during treatment. Finite element modeling (FEM) can provide a great insight into the mechanical behavior of the organs, since they are based on the biomechanical material properties, complex geometry of organs, and anatomical boundary conditions. In this paper we present an original approach that offers the possibility to combine image-based biomechanical models with particle transport simulations. We propose a new method to map material density information issued from CT images to deformable tetrahedral meshes. Based on the principle of mass conservation our method can correlate density variation of organ tissues with geometrical deformations during the different phases of the respiratory cycle. The first results are particularly encouraging, as local error quantification of density mapping on organ geometry and density variation with organ motion are performed to evaluate and validate our approach.

Keywords: Biomechanical simulation, dose distribution, image guided radiation therapy, organ motion, tetrahedral mesh, 4D-CT.

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246 Influence of Valve Lift Timing on Producer Gas Combustion and Its Modeling Using Two-Stage Wiebe Function

Authors: M. Sreedhar Babu, Vishal Garg, S. B. Akella, Shibu Clement, N. K. S Rajan

Abstract:

Producer gas is a biomass derived gaseous fuel which is extensively used in internal combustion engines for power generation application. Unlike the conventional hydrocarbon fuels (Gasoline and Natural gas), the combustion properties of producer gas fuel are much different. Therefore, setting of optimal spark time for efficient engine operation is required. Owing to the fluctuating tendency of producer gas composition during gasification process, the heat release patterns (dictating the power output and emissions) obtained are quite different from conventional fuels. It was found that, valve lift timing is yet another factor which influences the burn rate of producer gas fuel, and thus, the heat release rate of the engine. Therefore, the present study was motivated to estimate the influence of valve lift timing analytically (Wiebe model) on the burn rate of producer gas through curve fitting against experimentally obtained mass fraction burn curves of several producer gas compositions. Furthermore, Wiebe models are widely used in zero-dimensional codes for engine parametric studies and are quite popular. This study also addresses the influence of hydrogen and methane concentration of producer gas on combustion trends, which are known to cause dynamics in engine combustion.

Keywords: Combustion Duration, crank angle, mass fraction burnt, producer gas, wiebe combustion model, wide open throttle.

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245 Experimental Investigation of Indirect Field Oriented Control of Field Programmable Gate Array Based Five-Phase Induction Motor Drive

Authors: G. Renuka Devi

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the experimental investigation of indirect field oriented control of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based five-phase induction motor drive. A detailed d-q modeling and Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) technique of 5-phase drive is elaborated in this paper. In the proposed work, the prototype model of 1 hp 5-phase Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) fed drive is implemented in hardware. SVPWM pulses are generated in FPGA platform through Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) coding. The experimental results are observed under different loading conditions and compared with simulation results to validate the simulation model.

Keywords: Five-phase induction motor drive, field programmable gate array, indirect field oriented control, multi-phase, space vector pulse width modulation, voltage source inverter, very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language.

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244 Modeling and Experimental Studies on Solar Crop Dryer Coupled with Reversed Absorber Type Solar Air Heater

Authors: Vijay R. Khawale, Shashank B. Thakare

Abstract:

The experiment was carried out to study the performance of solar crop dryer coupled with reversed absorber type solar air heater (SD2). Excel software is used to analyse the raw data obtained from the drying experiment to develop a model. An attempt is made in this paper to correlate the collector efficiency, dryer efficiency and pick-up efficiency. All these efficiencies are dependent on the parameters such as solar flux, ambient temperature, collector outlet temperature and moisture content. The simulation equation was developed to predict the values of collector efficiency. The parameters a, n and drying constant k were determined from a plot of curve using a drying models. Experimental data of drying red chili in conventional solar dryer and solar dryer coupled with reversed absorber solar air heater was compared by fitting with three drying models. The moisture content will be rapidly reduced in solar dryer with reversed absorber due to higher drying temperatures. The best fit model was selected to describe the drying behavior of red chili. For SD2 the values of the coefficient of determination (R2=0.997), mean bias error (MBE=0.00026) and root mean square error (RMSE=0.016) were used to determine the goodness or the quality of the fit. Pages model showed a better fit to drying red chili among Newton model and Henderson & Pabis model.

Keywords: Solar dryer, red chili, reversed absorber, reflector, Buckingham pi theorem, drying model.

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243 Prediction of the Lateral Bearing Capacity of Short Piles in Clayey Soils Using Imperialist Competitive Algorithm-Based Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: Reza Dinarvand, Mahdi Sadeghian, Somaye Sadeghian

Abstract:

Prediction of the ultimate bearing capacity of piles (Qu) is one of the basic issues in geotechnical engineering. So far, several methods have been used to estimate Qu, including the recently developed artificial intelligence methods. In recent years, optimization algorithms have been used to minimize artificial network errors, such as colony algorithms, genetic algorithms, imperialist competitive algorithms, and so on. In the present research, artificial neural networks based on colonial competition algorithm (ANN-ICA) were used, and their results were compared with other methods. The results of laboratory tests of short piles in clayey soils with parameters such as pile diameter, pile buried length, eccentricity of load and undrained shear resistance of soil were used for modeling and evaluation. The results showed that ICA-based artificial neural networks predicted lateral bearing capacity of short piles with a correlation coefficient of 0.9865 for training data and 0.975 for test data. Furthermore, the results of the model indicated the superiority of ICA-based artificial neural networks compared to back-propagation artificial neural networks as well as the Broms and Hansen methods.

Keywords: Lateral bearing capacity, short pile, clayey soil, artificial neural network, Imperialist competition algorithm.

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242 General Regression Neural Network and Back Propagation Neural Network Modeling for Predicting Radial Overcut in EDM: A Comparative Study

Authors: Raja Das, M. K. Pradhan

Abstract:

This paper presents a comparative study between two neural network models namely General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) and Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) are used to estimate radial overcut produced during Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM). Four input parameters have been employed: discharge current (Ip), pulse on time (Ton), Duty fraction (Tau) and discharge voltage (V). Recently, artificial intelligence techniques, as it is emerged as an effective tool that could be used to replace time consuming procedures in various scientific or engineering applications, explicitly in prediction and estimation of the complex and nonlinear process. The both networks are trained, and the prediction results are tested with the unseen validation set of the experiment and analysed. It is found that the performance of both the networks are found to be in good agreement with average percentage error less than 11% and the correlation coefficient obtained for the validation data set for GRNN and BPNN is more than 91%. However, it is much faster to train GRNN network than a BPNN and GRNN is often more accurate than BPNN. GRNN requires more memory space to store the model, GRNN features fast learning that does not require an iterative procedure, and highly parallel structure. GRNN networks are slower than multilayer perceptron networks at classifying new cases.

Keywords: Electrical-discharge machining, General Regression Neural Network, Back-propagation Neural Network, Radial Overcut.

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241 Establishing Econometric Modeling Equations for Lumpy Skin Disease Outbreaks in the Nile Delta of Egypt under Current Climate Conditions

Authors: Abdelgawad, Salah El-Tahawy

Abstract:

This paper aimed to establish econometrical equation models for the Nile delta region in Egypt, which will represent a basement for future predictions of Lumpy skin disease outbreaks and its pathway in relation to climate change. Data of lumpy skin disease (LSD) outbreaks were collected from the cattle farms located in the provinces representing the Nile delta region during 1 January, 2015 to December, 2015. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant association between the degree of the LSD outbreaks and the investigated climate factors (temperature, wind speed, and humidity) and the outbreaks peaked during the months of June, July, and August and gradually decreased to the lowest rate in January, February, and December. The model obtained depicted that the increment of these climate factors were associated with evidently increment on LSD outbreaks on the Nile Delta of Egypt. The model validation process was done by the root mean square error (RMSE) and means bias (MB) which compared the number of LSD outbreaks expected with the number of observed outbreaks and estimated the confidence level of the model. The value of RMSE was 1.38% and MB was 99.50% confirming that this established model described the current association between the LSD outbreaks and the change on climate factors and also can be used as a base for predicting the of LSD outbreaks depending on the climatic change on the future.

Keywords: LSD, climate factors, econometric models, Nile Delta.

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240 Effect of Drawbar Force on the Dynamic Characteristics of a Spindle-Tool Holder System

Authors: Jui-Pui Hung, Yu-Sheng Lai, Tzuo-Liang Luo, Kung-Da Wu, Yun-Ji Zhan

Abstract:

This study presented the investigation of the influence of the tool holder interface stiffness on the dynamic characteristics of a spindle tool system. The interface stiffness was produced by drawbar force on the tool holder, which tends to affect the spindle dynamics. In order to assess the influence of interface stiffness on the vibration characteristic of spindle unit, we first created a three dimensional finite element model of a high speed spindle system integrated with tool holder. The key point for the creation of FEM model is the modeling of the rolling interface within the angular contact bearings and the tool holder interface. The former can be simulated by a introducing a series of spring elements between inner and outer rings. The contact stiffness was calculated according to Hertz contact theory and the preload applied on the bearings. The interface stiffness of the tool holder was identified through the experimental measurement and finite element modal analysis. Current results show that the dynamic stiffness was greatly influenced by the tool holder system. In addition, variations of modal damping, static stiffness and dynamic stiffness of the spindle tool system were greatly determined by the interface stiffness of the tool holder which was in turn dependent on the draw bar force applied on the tool holder. Overall, this study demonstrates that identification of the interface characteristics of spindle tool holder is of very importance for the refinement of the spindle tooling system to achieve the optimum machining performance.

Keywords: Dynamic stiffness, Drawbar force, Interface stiffness, Spindle-tool holder.

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239 Response Delay Model: Bridging the Gap in Urban Fire Disaster Response System

Authors: Sulaiman Yunus

Abstract:

The need for modeling response to urban fire disaster cannot be over emphasized, as recurrent fire outbreaks have gutted most cities of the world. This necessitated the need for a prompt and efficient response system in order to mitigate the impact of the disaster. Promptness, as a function of time, is seen to be the fundamental determinant for efficiency of a response system and magnitude of a fire disaster. Delay, as a result of several factors, is one of the major determinants of promptgness of a response system and also the magnitude of a fire disaster. Response Delay Model (RDM) intends to bridge the gap in urban fire disaster response system through incorporating and synchronizing the delay moments in measuring the overall efficiency of a response system and determining the magnitude of a fire disaster. The model identified two delay moments (pre-notification and Intra-reflex sequence delay) that can be elastic and collectively plays a significant role in influencing the efficiency of a response system. Due to variation in the elasticity of the delay moments, the model provides for measuring the length of delays in order to arrive at a standard average delay moment for different parts of the world, putting into consideration geographic location, level of preparedness and awareness, technological advancement, socio-economic and environmental factors. It is recommended that participatory researches should be embarked on locally and globally to determine standard average delay moments within each phase of the system so as to enable determining the efficiency of response systems and predicting fire disaster magnitudes.

Keywords: Delay moment, fire disaster, reflex sequence, response, response delay moment.

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238 Effect of Concrete Strength and Aspect Ratio on Strength and Ductility of Concrete Columns

Authors: Mohamed A. Shanan, Ashraf H. El-Zanaty, Kamal G. Metwally

Abstract:

This paper presents the effect of concrete compressive strength and rectangularity ratio on strength and ductility of normal and high strength reinforced concrete columns confined with transverse steel under axial compressive loading. Nineteen normal strength concrete rectangular columns with different variables tested in this research were used to study the effect of concrete compressive strength and rectangularity ratio on strength and ductility of columns. The paper also presents a nonlinear finite element analysis for these specimens and another twenty high strength concrete square columns tested by other researchers using ANSYS 15 finite element software. The results indicate that the axial force – axial strain relationship obtained from the analytical model using ANSYS are in good agreement with the experimental data. The comparison shows that the ANSYS is capable of modeling and predicting the actual nonlinear behavior of confined normal and high-strength concrete columns under concentric loading. The maximum applied load and the maximum strain have also been confirmed to be satisfactory. Depending on this agreement between the experimental and analytical results, a parametric numerical study was conducted by ANSYS 15 to clarify and evaluate the effect of each variable on strength and ductility of the columns.

Keywords: ANSYS, concrete compressive strength effect, ductility, rectangularity ratio, strength.

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237 MHD Boundary Layer Flow of a Nanofluid Past a Wedge Shaped Wick in Heat Pipe

Authors: Ziya Uddin

Abstract:

This paper deals with the theoretical and numerical investigation of magneto hydrodynamic boundary layer flow of a nanofluid past a wedge shaped wick in heat pipe used for the cooling of electronic components and different type of machines. To incorporate the effect of nanoparticle diameter, concentration of nanoparticles in the pure fluid, nanothermal layer formed around the nanoparticle and Brownian motion of nanoparticles etc., appropriate models are used for the effective thermal and physical properties of nanofluids. To model the rotation of nanoparticles inside the base fluid, microfluidics theory is used. In this investigation ethylene glycol (EG) based nanofluids, are taken into account. The non-linear equations governing the flow and heat transfer are solved by using a very effective particle swarm optimization technique along with Runge-Kutta method. The values of heat transfer coefficient are found for different parameters involved in the formulation viz. nanoparticle concentration, nanoparticle size, magnetic field and wedge angle etc. It is found that, the wedge angle, presence of magnetic field, nanoparticle size and nanoparticle concentration etc. have prominent effects on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics for the considered configuration.

Keywords: Heat transfer, Heat pipe, numerical modeling, nanofluid applications, particle swarm optimization, wedge shaped wick.

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236 The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Intervention in Alleviating Social Avoidance for Blind Students

Authors: Mohamed M. Elsherbiny

Abstract:

Social Avoidance is one of the most important problems that face a good number of disabled students. It results from the negative attitudes of non-disabled students, teachers and others. Some of the past research has shown that non-disabled individuals hold negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities. The present study aims to alleviate Social Avoidance by applying the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention. 24 Blind students aged 19–24 (university students) were randomly chosen we compared an experimental group (consisted of 12 students) who went through the intervention program, with a control group (12 students also) who did not go through such intervention. We used the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS) to assess social anxiety and distress behavior. The author used many techniques of cognitive behavioral intervention such as modeling, cognitive restructuring, extension, contingency contracts, selfmonitoring, assertiveness training, role play, encouragement and others. Statistically, T-test was employed to test the research hypothesis. Result showed that there is a significance difference between the experimental group and the control group after the intervention and also at the follow up stages of the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale. Also for the experimental group, there is a significance difference before the intervention and the follow up stages for the scale. Results showed that, there is a decrease in social avoidance. Accordingly, cognitive behavioral intervention program was successful in decreasing social avoidance for blind students.

Keywords: Social avoidance, cognitive behavioral intervention, blind disability, disability.

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235 A Comparative Study on the Dimensional Error of 3D CAD Model and SLS RP Model for Reconstruction of Cranial Defect

Authors: L. Siva Rama Krishna, Sriram Venkatesh, M. Sastish Kumar, M. Uma Maheswara Chary

Abstract:

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyze the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.

Keywords: Rapid Prototyping, Selective Laser Sintering, Cranial defect, Dimensional Error.

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234 3D Finite Element Analysis for Mechanics of Soil-Tool Interaction

Authors: A. Armin, R. Fotouhi, W. Szyszkowski

Abstract:

This paper is part of a study to develop robots for farming. As such power requirement to operate equipment attach to such robots become an important factor. Soil-tool interaction plays major role in power consumption, thus predicting accurately the forces which act on the blade during the farming is very important for optimal designing of farm equipment. In this paper, a finite element investigation for tillage tools and soil interaction is described by using an inelastic constitutive material law for agriculture application. A 3-dimensional (3D) nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) is developed to examine behavior of a blade with different rake angles moving in a block of soil, and to estimate the blade force. The soil model considered is an elastic-plastic with non-associated Drucker-Prager material model. Special use of contact elements are employed to consider connection between soil-blade and soil-soil surfaces. The FEA results are compared with experimental ones, which show good agreement in accurately predicting draft forces developed on the blade when it moves through the soil. Also a very good correlation was obtained between FEA results and analytical results from classical soil mechanics theories for straight blades. These comparisons verified the FEA model developed. For analyzing complicated soil-tool interactions and for optimum design of blades, this method will be useful.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, soil-blade contact modeling, blade force.

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233 Simulation of Hydrogenated Boron Nitride Nanotube’s Mechanical Properties for Radiation Shielding Applications

Authors: Joseph E. Estevez, Mahdi Ghazizadeh, James G. Ryan, Ajit D. Kelkar

Abstract:

Radiation shielding is an obstacle in long duration space exploration. Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNTs) have attracted attention as an additive to radiation shielding material due to B10’s large neutron capture cross section. The B10 has an effective neutron capture cross section suitable for low energy neutrons ranging from 10-5 to 104 eV and hydrogen is effective at slowing down high energy neutrons. Hydrogenated BNNTs are potentially an ideal nanofiller for radiation shielding composites. We use Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulation via Material Studios Accelrys 6.0 to model the Young’s Modulus of Hydrogenated BNNTs. An extrapolation technique was employed to determine the Young’s Modulus due to the deformation of the nanostructure at its theoretical density. A linear regression was used to extrapolate the data to the theoretical density of 2.62g/cm3. Simulation data shows that the hydrogenated BNNTs will experience a 11% decrease in the Young’s Modulus for (6,6) BNNTs and 8.5% decrease for (8,8) BNNTs compared to non-hydrogenated BNNT’s. Hydrogenated BNNTs are a viable option as a nanofiller for radiation shielding nanocomposite materials for long range and long duration space exploration.

Keywords: Boron Nitride Nanotube, Radiation Shielding, Young Modulus, Atomistic Modeling.

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232 Modeling Aeration of Sharp Crested Weirs by Using Support Vector Machines

Authors: Arun Goel

Abstract:

The present paper attempts to investigate the prediction of air entrainment rate and aeration efficiency of a free overfall jets issuing from a triangular sharp crested weir by using regression based modelling. The empirical equations, Support vector machine (polynomial and radial basis function) models and the linear regression techniques were applied on the triangular sharp crested weirs relating the air entrainment rate and the aeration efficiency to the input parameters namely drop height, discharge, and vertex angle. It was observed that there exists a good agreement between the measured values and the values obtained using empirical equations, Support vector machine (Polynomial and rbf) models and the linear regression techniques. The test results demonstrated that the SVM based (Poly & rbf) model also provided acceptable prediction of the measured values with reasonable accuracy along with empirical equations and linear regression techniques in modelling the air entrainment rate and the aeration efficiency of a free overfall jets issuing from triangular sharp crested weir. Further sensitivity analysis has also been performed to study the impact of input parameter on the output in terms of air entrainment rate and aeration efficiency.

Keywords: Air entrainment rate, dissolved oxygen, regression, SVM, weir.

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231 Device for 3D Analysis of Basic Movements of the Lower Extremity

Authors: Jiménez Villanueva Mayra Alejandra, Ortíz Casallas Diana Carolina, Luengas Contreras Lely Adriana

Abstract:

This document details the process of developing a wireless device that captures the basic movements of the foot (plantar flexion, dorsal flexion, abduction, adduction.), and the knee movement (flexion). It implements a motion capture system by using a hardware based on optical fiber sensors, due to the advantages in terms of scope, noise immunity and speed of data transmission and reception. The operating principle used by this system is the detection and transmission of joint movement by mechanical elements and their respective measurement by optical ones (in this case infrared). Likewise, Visual Basic software is used for reception, analysis and signal processing of data acquired by the device, generating a 3D graphical representation in real time of each movement. The result is a boot in charge of capturing the movement, a transmission module (Implementing Xbee Technology) and a receiver module for receiving information and sending it to the PC for their respective processing. The main idea with this device is to help on topics such as bioengineering and medicine, by helping to improve the quality of life and movement analysis.

Keywords: abduction, adduction, A / D converter, Autodesk 3DMax, Infrared Diode, Driver, extension, flexion, Infrared LEDs, Interface, Modeling OPENGL, Optical Fiber, USB CDC(Communications Device Class), Virtual Reality.

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230 Design, Modeling and Fabrication of a Tactile Sensor and Display System for Application in Laparoscopic Surgery

Authors: M. Ramezanifard, J. Dargahi, S. Najarian, N. Narayanan

Abstract:

One of the major disadvantages of the minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is the lack of tactile feedback to the surgeon. In order to identify and avoid any damage to the grasped complex tissue by endoscopic graspers, it is important to measure the local softness of tissue during MIS. One way to display the measured softness to the surgeon is a graphical method. In this paper, a new tactile sensor has been reported. The tactile sensor consists of an array of four softness sensors, which are integrated into the jaws of a modified commercial endoscopic grasper. Each individual softness sensor consists of two piezoelectric polymer Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) films, which are positioned below a rigid and a compliant cylinder. The compliant cylinder is fabricated using a micro molding technique. The combination of output voltages from PVDF films is used to determine the softness of the grasped object. The theoretical analysis of the sensor is also presented. A method has been developed with the aim of reproducing the tactile softness to the surgeon by using a graphical method. In this approach, the proposed system, including the interfacing and the data acquisition card, receives signals from the array of softness sensors. After the signals are processed, the tactile information is displayed by means of a color coding method. It is shown that the degrees of softness of the grasped objects/tissues can be visually differentiated and displayed on a monitor.

Keywords: Minimally invasive surgery, Robotic surgery, Sensor, Softness, Tactile.

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229 Simulation of Laser Structuring by Three Dimensional Heat Transfer Model

Authors: Bassim Bachy, Joerg Franke

Abstract:

In this study, a three dimensional numerical heat transfer model has been used to simulate the laser structuring of polymer substrate material in the Three-Dimensional Molded Interconnect Device (3D MID) which is used in the advanced multifunctional applications. A finite element method (FEM) transient thermal analysis is performed using APDL (ANSYS Parametric Design Language) provided by ANSYS. In this model, the effect of surface heat source was modeled with Gaussian distribution, also the effect of the mixed boundary conditions which consist of convection and radiation heat transfers have been considered in this analysis. The model provides a full description of the temperature distribution, as well as calculates the depth and the width of the groove upon material removal at different set of laser parameters such as laser power and laser speed. This study also includes the experimental procedure to study the effect of laser parameters on the depth and width of the removal groove metal as verification to the modeled results. Good agreement between the experimental and the model results is achieved for a wide range of laser powers. It is found that the quality of the laser structure process is affected by the laser scan speed and laser power. For a high laser structured quality, it is suggested to use laser with high speed and moderate to high laser power.

Keywords: Laser Structuring, Simulation, Finite element analysis, Thermal modeling.

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228 Transmission Model for Plasmodium Vivax Malaria: Conditions for Bifurcation

Authors: P. Pongsumpun, I.M. Tang

Abstract:

Plasmodium vivax malaria differs from P. falciparum malaria in that a person suffering from P. vivax infection can suffer relapses of the disease. This is due the parasite being able to remain dormant in the liver of the patients where it is able to re-infect the patient after a passage of time. During this stage, the patient is classified as being in the dormant class. The model to describe the transmission of P. vivax malaria consists of a human population divided into four classes, the susceptible, the infected, the dormant and the recovered. The effect of a time delay on the transmission of this disease is studied. The time delay is the period in which the P. vivax parasite develops inside the mosquito (vector) before the vector becomes infectious (i.e., pass on the infection). We analyze our model by using standard dynamic modeling method. Two stable equilibrium states, a disease free state E0 and an endemic state E1, are found to be possible. It is found that the E0 state is stable when a newly defined basic reproduction number G is less than one. If G is greater than one the endemic state E1 is stable. The conditions for the endemic equilibrium state E1 to be a stable spiral node are established. For realistic values of the parameters in the model, it is found that solutions in phase space are trajectories spiraling into the endemic state. It is shown that the limit cycle and chaotic behaviors can only be achieved with unrealistic parameter values.

Keywords: Equilibrium states, Hopf bifurcation, limit cyclebehavior, local stability, Plasmodium Vivax, time delay.

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227 A Hybrid Neural Network and Traditional Approach for Forecasting Lumpy Demand

Authors: A. Nasiri Pour, B. Rostami Tabar, A.Rahimzadeh

Abstract:

Accurate demand forecasting is one of the most key issues in inventory management of spare parts. The problem of modeling future consumption becomes especially difficult for lumpy patterns, which characterized by intervals in which there is no demand and, periods with actual demand occurrences with large variation in demand levels. However, many of the forecasting methods may perform poorly when demand for an item is lumpy. In this study based on the characteristic of lumpy demand patterns of spare parts a hybrid forecasting approach has been developed, which use a multi-layered perceptron neural network and a traditional recursive method for forecasting future demands. In the described approach the multi-layered perceptron are adapted to forecast occurrences of non-zero demands, and then a conventional recursive method is used to estimate the quantity of non-zero demands. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, their forecasts were compared to those obtained by using Syntetos & Boylan approximation, recently employed multi-layered perceptron neural network, generalized regression neural network and elman recurrent neural network in this area. The models were applied to forecast future demand of spare parts of Arak Petrochemical Company in Iran, using 30 types of real data sets. The results indicate that the forecasts obtained by using our proposed mode are superior to those obtained by using other methods.

Keywords: Lumpy Demand, Neural Network, Forecasting, Hybrid Approach.

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226 Influence of Kinematic, Physical and Mechanical Structure Parameters on Aeroelastic GTU Shaft Vibrations in Magnetic Bearings

Authors: Evgeniia V. Mekhonoshina, Vladimir Ya. Modorskii, Vasilii Yu. Petrov

Abstract:

At present, vibrations of rotors of gas transmittal unit evade sustainable forecasting. This paper describes elastic oscillation modes in resilient supports and rotor impellers modeled during computational experiments with regard to interference in the system of gas-dynamic flow and compressor rotor. Verification of aeroelastic approach was done on model problem of interaction between supersonic jet in shock tube with deformed plate. ANSYS 15.0 engineering analysis system was used as a modeling tool of numerical simulation in this paper. Finite volume method for gas dynamics and finite elements method for assessment of the strain stress state (SSS) components were used as research methods. Rotation speed and material’s elasticity modulus varied during calculations, and SSS components and gas-dynamic parameters in the dynamic system of gas-dynamic flow and compressor rotor were evaluated. The analysis of time dependence demonstrated that gas-dynamic parameters near the rotor blades oscillate at 200 Hz, and SSS parameters at the upper blade edge oscillate four times higher, i.e. with blade frequency. It has been detected that vibration amplitudes correction in the test points at magnetic bearings by aeroelasticity may correspond up to 50%, and about -π/4 for phases.

Keywords: Centrifugal compressor, aeroelasticity, interdisciplinary calculation, oscillation phase displacement, vibration, nonstationarity.

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225 Profit Optimization for Solar Plant Electricity Production

Authors: Fl. Loury, P. Sablonière

Abstract:

In this paper a stochastic scenario-based model predictive control applied to molten salt storage systems in concentrated solar tower power plant is presented. The main goal of this study is to build up a tool to analyze current and expected future resources for evaluating the weekly power to be advertised on electricity secondary market. This tool will allow plant operator to maximize profits while hedging the impact on the system of stochastic variables such as resources or sunlight shortage.

Solving the problem first requires a mixed logic dynamic modeling of the plant. The two stochastic variables, respectively the sunlight incoming energy and electricity demands from secondary market, are modeled by least square regression. Robustness is achieved by drawing a certain number of random variables realizations and applying the most restrictive one to the system. This scenario approach control technique provides the plant operator a confidence interval containing a given percentage of possible stochastic variable realizations in such a way that robust control is always achieved within its bounds. The results obtained from many trajectory simulations show the existence of a ‘’reliable’’ interval, which experimentally confirms the algorithm robustness.

Keywords: Molten Salt Storage System, Concentrated Solar Tower Power Plant, Robust Stochastic Model Predictive Control.

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224 A Study on Human Musculoskeletal Model for Cycle Fitting: Comparison with EMG

Authors: Yoon- Ho Shin, Jin-Seung Choi, Dong-Won Kang, Jeong-Woo Seo, Joo-Hack Lee, Ju-Young Kim, Dae-Hyeok Kim, Seung-Tae Yang, Gye-Rae Tack

Abstract:

It is difficult to study the effect of various variables on cycle fitting through actual experiment. To overcome such difficulty, the forward dynamics of a musculoskeletal model was applied to cycle fitting in this study. The measured EMG data weres compared with the muscle activities of the musculoskeletal model through forward dynamics. EMG data were measured from five cyclists who do not have musculoskeletal diseases during three minutes pedaling with a constant load (150 W) and cadence (90 RPM). The muscles used for the analysis were the Vastus Lateralis (VL), Tibialis Anterior (TA), Bicep Femoris (BF), and Gastrocnemius Medial (GM). Person’s correlation coefficients of the muscle activity patterns, the peak timing of the maximum muscle activities, and the total muscle activities were calculated and compared. BIKE3D model of AnyBody (Anybodytech, Denmark) was used for the musculoskeletal model simulation. The comparisons of the actual experiments with the simulation results showed significant correlations in the muscle activity patterns (VL: 0.789, TA: 0.503, BF: 0.468, GM: 0.670). The peak timings of the maximum muscle activities were distributed at particular phases. The total muscle activities were compared with the normalized muscle activities, and the comparison showed about 10% difference in the VL (+10%), TA (+9.7%), and BF (+10%), excluding the GM (+29.4%). Thus, it can be concluded that muscle activities of model & experiment showed similar results. The results of this study indicated that it was possible to apply the simulation of further improved musculoskeletal model to cycle fitting.

Keywords: Cycle fitting, EMG, Musculoskeletal modeling, Simulation.

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223 Discrete Element Modeling of the Effect of Particle Shape on Creep Behavior of Rockfills

Authors: Yunjia Wang, Zhihong Zhao, Erxiang Song

Abstract:

Rockfills are widely used in civil engineering, such as dams, railways, and airport foundations in mountain areas. A significant long-term post-construction settlement may affect the serviceability or even the safety of rockfill infrastructures. The creep behavior of rockfills is influenced by a number of factors, such as particle size, strength and shape, water condition and stress level. However, the effect of particle shape on rockfill creep still remains poorly understood, which deserves a careful investigation. Particle-based discrete element method (DEM) was used to simulate the creep behavior of rockfills under different boundary conditions. Both angular and rounded particles were considered in this numerical study, in order to investigate the influence of particle shape. The preliminary results showed that angular particles experience more breakages and larger creep strains under one-dimensional compression than rounded particles. On the contrary, larger creep strains were observed in he rounded specimens in the direct shear test. The mechanism responsible for this difference is that the possibility of the existence of key particle in rounded particles is higher than that in angular particles. The above simulations demonstrate that the influence of particle shape on the creep behavior of rockfills can be simulated by DEM properly. The method of DEM simulation may facilitate our understanding of deformation properties of rockfill materials.

Keywords: Rockfills, creep behavior, particle crushing, discrete element method, boundary conditions.

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222 Transient Thermal Modeling of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) Machine Using a Hybrid Thermal Model

Authors: J. Hey, D. A. Howey, R. Martinez-Botas, M. Lamperth

Abstract:

This paper presents the development of a hybrid thermal model for the EVO Electric AFM 140 Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) machine as used in hybrid and electric vehicles. The adopted approach is based on a hybrid lumped parameter and finite difference method. The proposed method divides each motor component into regular elements which are connected together in a thermal resistance network representing all the physical connections in all three dimensions. The element shape and size are chosen according to the component geometry to ensure consistency. The fluid domain is lumped into one region with averaged heat transfer parameters connecting it to the solid domain. Some model parameters are obtained from Computation Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation and empirical data. The hybrid thermal model is described by a set of coupled linear first order differential equations which is discretised and solved iteratively to obtain the temperature profile. The computation involved is low and thus the model is suitable for transient temperature predictions. The maximum error in temperature prediction is 3.4% and the mean error is consistently lower than the mean error due to uncertainty in measurements. The details of the model development, temperature predictions and suggestions for design improvements are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Electric vehicle, hybrid thermal model, transient temperature prediction, Axial Flux Permanent Magnet machine.

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221 A New Model for Question Answering Systems

Authors: Mohammad Reza Kangavari, Samira Ghandchi, Manak Golpour

Abstract:

Most of the Question Answering systems composed of three main modules: question processing, document processing and answer processing. Question processing module plays an important role in QA systems. If this module doesn't work properly, it will make problems for other sections. Moreover answer processing module is an emerging topic in Question Answering, where these systems are often required to rank and validate candidate answers. These techniques aiming at finding short and precise answers are often based on the semantic classification. This paper discussed about a new model for question answering which improved two main modules, question processing and answer processing. There are two important components which are the bases of the question processing. First component is question classification that specifies types of question and answer. Second one is reformulation which converts the user's question into an understandable question by QA system in a specific domain. Answer processing module, consists of candidate answer filtering, candidate answer ordering components and also it has a validation section for interacting with user. This module makes it more suitable to find exact answer. In this paper we have described question and answer processing modules with modeling, implementing and evaluating the system. System implemented in two versions. Results show that 'Version No.1' gave correct answer to 70% of questions (30 correct answers to 50 asked questions) and 'version No.2' gave correct answers to 94% of questions (47 correct answers to 50 asked questions).

Keywords: Answer Processing, Classification, QuestionAnswering and Query Reformulation.

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220 Seismic Assessment of an Existing Dual System RC Buildings in Madinah City

Authors: Tarek M. Alguhane, Ayman H. Khalil, M. N. Fayed, Ayman M. Ismail

Abstract:

A 15-storey RC building, studied in this paper, is representative of modern building type constructed in Madina City in Saudi Arabia before 10 years ago. These buildings are almost consisting of reinforced concrete skeleton i.e. columns, beams and flat slab as well as shear walls in the stairs and elevator areas arranged in the way to have a resistance system for lateral loads (wind – earthquake loads). In this study, the dynamic properties of the 15-storey RC building were identified using ambient motions recorded at several, spatially-distributed locations within each building. Three dimensional pushover analysis (Nonlinear static analysis) was carried out using SAP2000 software incorporating inelastic material properties for concrete, infill and steel. The effect of modeling the building with and without infill walls, on the performance point as well as capacity and demand spectra due to EQ design spectrum function in Madina area has been investigated. ATC- 40 capacity and demand spectra are utilized to get the modification factor (R) for the studied building. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the expected performance of structural systems by estimating, strength and deformation demands in design, and comparing these demands to available capacities at the performance levels of interest. The results are summarized and discussed.

Keywords: Seismic assessment, pushover analysis, ambient vibration, modal update.

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219 Automatic Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling and Analysis of Butterfly Valve Using Python Script

Authors: N. Guru Prasath, Sangjin Ma, Chang-Wan Kim

Abstract:

A butterfly valve is a quarter turn valve which is used to control the flow of a fluid through a section of pipe. Generally, butterfly valve is used in wide range of applications such as water distribution, sewage, oil and gas plants. In particular, butterfly valve with larger diameter finds its immense applications in hydro power plants to control the fluid flow. In-lieu with the constraints in cost and size to run laboratory setup, analysis of large diameter values will be mostly studied by computational method which is the best and inexpensive solution. For fluid and structural analysis, CFD and FEM software is used to perform large scale valve analyses, respectively. In order to perform above analysis in butterfly valve, the CAD model has to recreate and perform mesh in conventional software’s for various dimensions of valve. Therefore, its limitation is time consuming process. In-order to overcome that issue, python code was created to outcome complete pre-processing setup automatically in Salome software. Applying dimensions of the model clearly in the python code makes the running time comparatively lower and easier way to perform analysis of the valve. Hence, in this paper, an attempt was made to study the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of butterfly valves by varying the valve angles and dimensions using python code in pre-processing software, and results are produced.

Keywords: Butterfly valve, fluid-structure interaction, automatic CFD analysis, flow coefficient.

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