Amarasingha Arachchige Mihiri Chathurika   Bhupendra Nath Tiwari   and Chandra Kishore   

The concept of big data has become one of the most important topics in the field of information science and engineering. In this paper, we offer modeling of data and its stability and forecasting by considering anti-symmetric traceless and symmetric models for atmospheric pressure variations. The data sample has been collected every 10 minutes for several years during 2009-2016 at the Weather Station, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. Subsequently, we extend the proposed model with a probabilistic transformation matrix by considering the Google search random surfer matrix with a small damping factor . Following the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), our study plays a vital role in big data samples and their stability analysis. A comparative discussion is provided for the above transformation matrix and its probabilistic counterpart. Finally, predictions are made towards feature selection, PCA and data compression sensing in the light of big data.

Anamekere Ime Jacob   Harrison Osasogie Edokpolor   and Enyenihi Henry Johnson   

In this paper, the real-time automatic irrigation system was designed to supply water to the root zone of plant only when soil moisture content goes below a certain level known as critical moisture content. Particularly, models for the DC motor driven centrifugal irrigation pump, sprinkler irrigation nozzle, plant water uptake process, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller were obtained using analytical methods. Automatic control logic was designed using the finite state machine (FSM) concept to act as a supervisory controller for the real-time automatic irrigation system. The models for the different sections of the system were assembled on MATLAB workspace, and then simulated and tested to ascertain the workability of the system. Specifically, the model was simulated for 0.5 seconds and the step response and impulse response were also computed. The results showed that the system performance is quite suitable for the irrigation system because a response time of 2 seconds offer a 1.36 seconds rise time for the system to reach its peak unit amplitude of 1.06, although with a much longer settling time of 4.21seconds. The results also showed that 1.7145×10⁵mm³H₂O/mm³Soil was consumed by the plant within the simulation period. In all, the simulation results obtained showed that the irrigation system was able to supply the needed water to replenish the soil moisture deficit without frequent human intervention. The models presented in this research are useful for planning, designing and analysis of automatic irrigation system for mechanized farming.

Ali Ulvi   Murat Yakar   Abdurahman Yasin Yiğit   and Yunus Kaya   

Forming 3 dimensional models of the existing historical buildings and objects has a great importance in terms of conserving historical works, sustaining our history, and being able to transfer them to the next generations. For catching the fine geometrical views and details and digitally modelling, it is important to identify a suitable method. It is necessary to digitally record, document, and conserve our cultural assets due to still ongoing wars, natural disasters, and climatic changes. The simplest way for permanently storing the original form and location of historical works with high quality views and details in digital media, forming base for the different projects, and making ready for use, if necessary, is to model the works in 3 dimensions. Beginning from the increase of importance to historical works, in parallelism with this, the importance and sorts of documentation also have begun to increase. Among the existing documentation methods, the method that is suitable to work in metric (via measurement), visual (photographing) and digital (computerized) media and appropriate in terms of time, space, and cost is photogrammetry. In forming and documenting 3 dimensional model of Selime Sultan Tomb located near Ihlara Valley, two different kinds of software of photogrammetric assessment were used.

Md. Reazuddin Repon   Md. Nura Alam Shiddique   and Rajib Al Mamun   

This study investigates the effect of different knit structure on various properties of rib knitted fabric. The acrylic yarns were used to make 1×1, 2×1, 2×2, 3×1 and 3×3 rib structured fabrics using manual V-bed knitting machine in this research work. The effects of knit structure were measured concerning drape co-efficient percentage, bending length, flexural rigidity and tightness factor. The results disclosed that the fabric properties are greatly influenced by knit structures. 1×1 rib knit fabric showed the lowest value for all tested properties and 3×3 rib knit fabric showed the highest value except drape co-efficient. The bending length and flexural rigidity was investigated in both wale and course direction. At the same time, surface and back sides bending length were also calculated. It has been identified from the test results that the effect of knit structure on flexural rigidity in both wale and course direction were influenced in a same chronological way.

Muhammad Abdus Samad   Md.Tanvir Hasan   and Md. Umar Faruk   

Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry plays an important role for the economic development of Bangladesh. This industry has promoted our country in the world through the motto ‘Made in Bangladesh'. But this sector has got a number of formidable challenges for the sustainable future growth. The phase out of export quota system has made the trading environment severely competitive. Moreover, in today's fast fashion, customer wants to get products of low cost and short lead time. To sustain in this competitive market, there is no alternative to adopt lean philosophy in every sphere of apparel industry for the sustainable development. The concept of lean is to eliminate the wastes that don't add value for the products and to reduce the lead time. This study focused on the reduction of lead time by minimizing the wastes that are responsible for longer lead time by using lean tools. Data was collected using time study method. Some data were also collected from interviewing with management. Then the current state of the value stream mapping was drawn. Wastes were identified by using value stream mapping. Pareto analysis was used to rank the wastes which were playing significant role for long lead time. Then root cause analysis was used to identify causes behind the wastes. Lean tools like Kanban, Single Minute Exchange of Die and Total Productive Maintenance were used to minimize the wastes. Then the future state of the value stream mapping was drawn that depicted the improvement. Finally, this study suggested some recommendations for minimizing wastes and making their processes more efficient and leaner. This study extracts the common scenario of the garments sector of Bangladesh by depicting the existing pictures of the value stream. It is high time apparel industry of Bangladesh fully absorbed lean philosophy and walked through the path of continuous improvement.

Musbah Guma Musbah   Allam Musbah Al Allam   Hosni Abdulruhman Saleh   and Ibrahim Mousbah Ateeg   

Nowadays, the most widely used construction materials in the market for both structural and non-structural applications are concrete-based. Concrete in general is made up of a combination of cement, aggregate, water and an additional material known as an admixture. The admixture is sometimes added to modify certain properties of concrete. Superplasticizer (SP) is one type of the admixtures, which was used for this study to modify the properties of concrete. Correct composition of admixture is important as usage of incorrect admixture, mix proportion and improper dosage of SP might cause high-slump concrete, bleeding, segregation and cracking due to shrinkage. Therefore, this project aimed to determine the optimum dosage of SP for normal strength concrete by studying the effects of three different dosages of SP, (500, 750 and 1000 ml/100kg) on properties of concrete in fresh and hardened state. Two series of concrete mix consisting of eight samples for both grades C25 and C30 were prepared for the experimental work. The control mix (without SP) was designed based on the DOE method. One type of specimen was used in different quantity. As a result, the optimum dosage of SP for the studied concrete properties was 750 ml/100kg of cement for both grades C25 and C30. Some comparative analyses were done to determine the relationships between the various parameters. It was found that the mechanical properties of the concrete mix with optimum SP, namely the compressive strength is higher than the control specimens. It was also found that the physical properties of the concrete mix with the optimum SP dosage improve workability.

Ali Karci   

The derivative concept was defined by Newton and Leipzig. After these scientific, there are many approaches about the order of derivative, since derivative defined by Newton and Leipzig considered as order of 1. Many scientists such as Caputo, Riemann, etc. defined the fractional order derivative. Karcı is one of them who defined fractional order derivative. was defined by Karcı, and it is not a linear derivative operator; it is a non-linear derivative operator. In this paper, we verified the most important properties of . has got an α parameter and this parameter can be any complex number. The properties of , which are derivative of product, derivative of quotient, the chain rule, the relationship between and complex numbers, etc., were verified in this paper. The most of these properties were not satisfied by other definitions for fractional order derivatives such as Caputo, Riemann-Lioville, Euler, etc. Khallil and his friends also defined fractional order derivative in a special case. This derivative satisfies these properties for special functions; in general, this definition also does not satisfy these properties.

Hosni Abdulruhman Saleh   and Allam Musbah Al Allam   

The major objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of Rynite Polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) particles on the mechanical properties of hot mix asphalt by conducting several tests such as; resilient modulus, dynamic creep and wheel tracking test. Various RPET contents namely; 3, 5 and 7% by weight of bitumen were added to asphalt mixture using wet method. From resilient modulus test, it was found that the stiffness of modified mixtures with RPET increased compared with unmodified asphalt mixture. The improvement of stiffness for intermediate and high temperatures was between 68 % for 3% of PET, while 3.88% for 7% PET respectively. The results of dynamic creep have shown a better improvement to rutting, the 3% of RPET showed the best resistance to permanent deformation compared to control sample. The results of wheel tracking test proved that the modification of asphalt mixture with RPET improved significantly the resist to permanent deformation (rutting). The addition of RPET has good performance in hot mix asphalt.

Enyenihi Henry Johnson   Simeon Ozuomba   and Kalu Constance   

In this paper development and validation of a simple linear model for estimating radio refractivity from meteorological parameters are presented. Twelve months radiosonde meteorological data for Cross River state which was obtained from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) was used to determine the radio refractivity (N). The correlation between the refractivity and the atmospheric temperature (T), atmospheric pressure (P) and relative humidity (U) were examined for twelve months dataset. The correlation values showed that temperature (T) and the product of P, H and T had the highest correlation with respect to N in all the twelve months. Based on the correlation values among the parameters examined, a simple linear model was developed to estimate the radio refractivity. In all the twelve months dataset, the mathematical model gave worst case absolute percentage error of about 3.3%. Two sample meteorological dataset from published articles were also used to validate the model. The model gave a maximum absolute percentage error of 2.46 % for the first test meteorological dataset while it gave a maximum absolute percentage error of 1.25 % for the second test meteorological dataset. In all, the linear model presented in this paper will make it easier to compute the radio refractivity from available meteorological data. The results from the validation dataset showed that the model can also be applied to every other region other than the case study area where the data for the model development were obtained.

Idorenyin Markson   Simeon Ozuomba   and Iniobong Edifon Abasi-Obot   

In this paper, sizing of solar water pumping system for irrigation of oil palm plantation in Abia State, Nigeria was presented. The relevant meteorological data for the case study site were obtained from the NASA website. The daily water requirements for the oil palm trees were determined and the pumping system was simulated using PVSyst software. According to the results, the annual water demand for the oil palm plantation was 14636 m³ but the pumping system was able to supply about 12251 m³ of water which was equivalent to a missing water of about 16.3% per year. Based on the missing water, the month of February was identified as the critical month with the lowest water supply to the plants. Furthermore, when the rainwater capture on the palm plantation was also considered along with the solar pumped water, it was found that in the month of February, the grown-up yielding oil palm trees can still get their required maximum daily water requirement of 200 liters per day while the older palm trees can get their daily water requirement of 338.55 liters/day. In essence, the shortfalls in the irrigation water pumping system can be supplied by the rainwater. In all, the solar-powered pumping system and the rainwater capture in the oil palm plantation can effectively meet the water need of the oil palm trees in the case study plantation.

Esra Yılmaz   and Sibel T. Özyer   

In robotic car, real time obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance are significant issues. In this study, design and implementation of a robotic car have been presented with regards to hardware, software and communication environments with real time obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance. Arduino platform, android application and Bluetooth technology have been used to implementation of the system. In this paper, robotic car design and application with using sensor programming on a platform has been presented. This robotic device has been developed with the interaction of Android-based device. Arduino Uno has been used as the robot's brain. The robot has many hardware components such as Bluetooth module, PIR sensor, ultrasonic sensor, and buzzers. It also consists of the software component that uses a mobile application. The desired direction or mode by mobile application can be selected by the user of the robotic car to control the movement of the car. The user can control the robot movements from his/her own intelligent device or take the robot in automatic mode and let the car drive its own way. Thus, the robot can flee from the obstacle and also detect live objects. The purpose of this article is to alert the civilian and military personnel to potential terrorist attacks especially in military areas with live detectable sensors.

Kalu Constance   

In this paper, the design of a program algorithm for using path profile and coordinate geometry approach in the determination of the exact radius of curvature for rounded edge diffraction loss computation is presented. In addition to the radius of curvature, the program determined the values of other essential parameters required for the computation of rounded edge diffraction loss. The additional parameters include; occultation distance, the line of sight clearance height and the external angle between the tangent lines to the path profile. Importantly, the requisite mathematical expressions and detailed algorithm for the program are presented. Then a program was developed in Visual Basic for Application (VBA) based on the algorithm. Furthermore, sample elevation data was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program in the determination of the radius of curvature along with the other essential parameters required for the rounded edge diffraction loss computation. A sample path elevation profile was obtained using Geocontext path profile software for a 5233.692 m path that has a hilly obstruction with a maximum elevation of 593.0363 m that occurred at about a distance of 1861.649 m from the transmitter. The program result showed that for the sample path profile the rounded edge should be of a circle with a radius of 9,392.78 m, the occultation distance is 2,002.15 m, the line of sight clearance height which is 176.469 m and finally the angle between the tangent lines at their point of intersection is 0.212916 radians. The result is particularly useful because it is easy to generate the coordinates of elevation points which the program developed in this paper can use to automatically generate the essential parameters needed for the computation of rounded edge diffraction loss.

Jamal Mohammad Amous   

Catalyst Porous structure parameters and activity were investigated during the catalytic hydro-treatment of Heavy Arabian Oil atmospheric residuum utilizing a fixed bed catalytic reactor with recycle. Two model Hydro-treating catalysts CAT-1 containing 0.5 wt% Molecular Sieves (MS) 13X, and CAT-2, having different physical and chemical properties were used in this investigation. Spent, extracted and dried, catalyst samples were analyzed for their physical features and chemical deposits for both types, CAT-1 and CAT-2, with sizes having (L_po) = 0. 059 mm and . It was found that carbonaceous deposits on CAT-1, approached 41.91 wt% (S, C, H and N) g/100 g_{regen. Cat.}. The porous structure parameters were affected by the deposited materials. Surface areas lost due to deposits were in the range of 45 to 55% and pore volumes decrease was in the range of 43 to 52% compared with the fresh samples. Probable pore diameters decreased from around 80 Å to 43 Å. Pores in the range between 105 to 165 Å disappeared Especially in CAT-1 samples. Coke content of S, C, H, and N with respect to the weight of the regenerated catalyst was around 4.0, 34.0, 1.9 and 0.50 wt. % respectively. Vanadium (V) and Nickle (Ni) contents were in the range 0.63 and 0.27 wt. % respectively. Extracted and dried spent catalysts samples were oxidized with dry air stream at 380℃. Upon regeneration the carbonaceous deposits were removed and the porous structure parameters were recovered up to levels approaching 79-89% of those recorded for the fresh samples, depending on their sizes.

Claudiu-Ionel Nicola   Marcel Nicola   Adrian Vintilă   and Ion Pătru   

The crimping process is mainly determined by the initial tolerance field of the fitting-rod assembly and the hardness of the fittings. The initial tolerance field of the fitting-rod assembly results in a higher crimping pressure as the tolerance field increases. The greater the hardness of the fittings, the higher the crimping pressure. In practice, due to the above mentioned factors, it is impossible to set an optimum crimping pressure to ensure a correct fitting-rod assembly. The article presents a system for monitoring the acoustic emissions during the crimping process of composite insulators. The system achieves an automatic classification of the type of crimping, a database of the acoustic emission graph recordings, the storage of the values as TDMS files, and generates automatic reports of the crimping process. This method was successfully tested.

Khizar Hayat Satti   Tania Jabbar   M. Dilband   Khalid Khan   Abdul Rashid   and Abdul Jabbar   

The activity concentration of natural and anthropogenic radionuclides and associated doses were determined in soil samples collected from Muree and its surroundings to provide baseline radioactivity data. High purity Germanium (HPGe) based spectrometry system was used for determination of activity concentration. The activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs varied between 20.0─29.5, 43.4─62.4, 163.0─493.6 and 1.3─54.1Bqkg^-1 respectively. Radium equivalent activity was measured in range 107-148 with average 128.0Bqkg^-1. The average annual effective absorbed dose was found to be 72.9 ±1.0µSvy^-1which was comparable to world's average. The radium equivalent activity Ra_eq, indoor and outdoor hazard indices were lower than the safe limit of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report for general public.

Abdul Al Mortuza   Md. Firoz Pervez   Md. Khalid Hossain   Sapan Kumar Sen   Md. Nasrul Haque Mia   M. K. Basher   and Md. Shah Alam   

A Pico-ammeter has versatile application in the measurement of low current of nuclear detector, biological cell or tissues and to know the character of new electronic devices. But noise can be generated due to some internal and external sources such as, poor design, placement of ammeter, dust, humidity, bending of connecting wires and even the selection of electronic devices, thus the measurement goes tricky. Several design techniques, guarding, shielding, and an unconventional wiring technique can help to measure low current accurately by reducing noise. This paper describes this low current measurement problems in detail and their corresponding solutions. It also shows the comparison of different low current measurement systems (LCMS). Feedback type ammeters are more preferable than shunt ammeter and current conveyor technique. In operational amplifier selection, CMOS type op-amp is better than BJT and FET.

Hakan Çandar   and İ. Hüseyin Filiz   

This study presents analytical approach for the determination of optimum autofrettage pressure of a thick walled cylinder which is commercially used as a high pressure cylinder of a waterjet intensifier pump. Bilinear kinematic hardening model is used in the derivation of analytical model based on plane strain, Von-Mises yield criteria and incompressible volume assumptions. Elasto-plastic radius is dependent on autofrettage pressure and optimum value of autofrettage pressure is found as a value that will give minimum value of maximum Von-Mises stress on the wall of the cylinder under operating pressure. Hence, considering elasto-plastic radius as the design variable, its optimum value is determined for the specified operating pressure. Reverse yielding owing to Bauschinger effect is used as the only non-linear constraint, Matlab© optimtool finds optimum value of the elasto-plastic radius and the corresponding autofrettage pressure is then calculated. By using ANSYS 15©, stress analysis of the autofrettaged cylinder has been performed and the results obtained from both methods are found to be almost the same.

Chii-Huei Yu   

This paper uses the mathematical software Maple to study four types of limit problems. The solutions of the four types of limits can be obtained mainly using complex function method. On the other hand, we propose some examples to demonstrate the calculations. The research method adopted in this study is to find solutions through manual calculations and verify the answers using Maple. This method can not only allow the discovery of calculation errors, but also help modify the original directions of thinking.

Iftikhar A Raja   and Shabir Wazir   

Biogas appears to have potential as an alternative energy source particularly for rural community. The technology is simple and is booming in the world energy markets. Biomass resources are being available worldwide, new high technology with improved efficiency plants have been introduced. While based on ongoing research and development in this field smart biogas plants will be in operation soon. This overview of some salient points and perspectives of biogas technology explains the fundamental processes, basic technology used in production of biogas and available resources. The biogas plants can be used where ever the bio-waste is available/ dumped. The study suggests that biogas technology must be encouraged, promoted, and invested in for implementation and demonstration, especially in remote rural areas.

Sana Arshad   Mahwish Nawaz Malik   and Majid Malik   

Studying the relationship between urban growth and land use changes is of considerable importance. Urban growth of small and big cities is largely dependent upon conversion and transformation of land use. Determining the impacts of land use changes on urban growth is also affected by population growth and distribution. The current research is also focused on the analyzing the process of urban growth of a small city present on the western side of Bahawalpur district named "Uch Sharif". Before 1980, it was included in one of the urbanizing town of the Pakistan which gained the status of small city due to increased urban population and land use development after 1981. The major objective of the current research is to analyze the spatial and temporal dimensions of urban and population growth of the city from 1973 to 2016. Study is based on land use maps of the city prepared in GIS environment to determine the residential and urban growth of the city. At the end rate of urban expansion and population growth rate concludes the urban expansion of the city is taking place in different directions verifying urbanization of this small city. Such studies are very useful to get appropriate knowledge of land use growth and its associated factors for future urban planning.

Ahmad Samim Noorzad   and Tomonobu Senjyu   

Afghanistan Kabul City Distribution System (KDS) is functioning in adverse condition, and there is always programmed or un-programmed load shedding imposed by the Power Distribution Company. There are four indicators to be optimized for the sustainability of KDS, power loss reduction, stability, reliability, preservation and protection. In this paper, the optimization of power loss reduction and optimal voltage control of Kabul Distribution System (KDS) in the presence of Distributed Generation (DG) and Step-Voltage Regulator (SVR) connected to the network is proposed. In particular, Kabul city has plentiful sources of renewable energy such as Photovoltaic (PV) and wind power as a countermeasure for diminishing the losses of the system. The Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) based on two objective functions regarding hourly power loss reduction and voltage profile improvement of the distribution network is considered. The application of PV as DG in distribution system regarding their optimal number, size, and location justifies as loss reduction, reducing the entire grid peak demand and minimizing the congestion of the network. However, the optimized tap ratios and position of SVR are treats to enhance and stabilize the voltage prole and to control the violation of the system voltage according to load conditions. The 24 hours technical data of the practically functioning Kabul city Distribution System Junction Station II are used as a case study. Finally, the proposed algorithm has been simulated using MATLAB^® software, and the results are presented.

Rajib Al Mamun   Md. Reazuddin Repon   Mohammad Abdul Jalil   and Ahmed Jalal Uddin   

Yarn characteristics extensively influence by spinning process. The aim of this study is to observe the effect of conventional ring and compact spinning processes on properties of yarn. 100% CIS-Turkey cotton was used to produce conventional ring card yarn and card compact yarn. The twist per inch of 16.99 and 19.57 were settled to fabricate 20 Ne and 30 Ne count of yarn respectively both for conventional ring and compact spinning. The positive effect of spinning process on the yarn properties were evaluated by co-efficient of variation (CVm %), imperfection index (IPI), hairiness, tenacity, count strength product (CSP) and elongation (%). The results exposed that yarn qualities of compact spinning were exhibited higher than conventional ring spinning.

Hafsa Bashir   and Shiekh Saeed Ahmad   

With the increased urbanization, the phenomenon of global climatic modification is observed. The global climate change has more effects over developing countries like Pakistan. The change in climate varies over time scale as well as from country to country and region to region. The changing scenario has increased the risk of deforestations, changes in crop production yield, glacier melting's, temperature fluctuations and unexpected increase or decrease in river catchments. This review paper will give a brief view about the climatic modification and hazards that were observed as a result of it in Pakistan.

S. A. Mehdi   S. U. Rahman   K. Khan   A. Jabbar   and M. Rafique   

Human beings are persistently exposed to ionizing radiation caused by terrestrial, extra-terrestrial and anthropogenic radionuclides. In order to assess the risks associated with exposure due to the natural radioactivity in soil, a radiological environmental monitoring survey was carried out in district Chakwal. In the present study, activities of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K are measured in soil samples using an HPGe based gamma spectrometry system. The measured mean specific radioactivity concentration of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in the studied samples was 31.08 ± 1.2 Bqkg^-1, 47.67 ± 2.30 Bqkg^-1 and 558.23 ± 17.52 Bqkg^-1, respectively. From the measured activity concentration, radium equivalent activity, external and internal hazard indices, terrestrial absorbed dose and annual effective dose were calculated. Mean radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), outdoor radiation hazard index (H_ex), indoor radiation hazard index (H_in) and absorbed dose rate (D) for the area under study were determined as 142.18 Bqkg^-1, 0.38, 0.47 and 66.13 nGyh^-1 respectively. The annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) varied in the range from 0.10 mSv y^-1 to 0.16 mSv y^-1. On the basis of measured activity and calculated values of hazards indices, it is concluded that the surveyed area does not pose any significant radiological risk to the population and environment.

Zubaidah Abdulhakeem Majeed   and Sibel Tariyan Özyer   

We are living in an epoch of changes during which highly competitive advantages are always required for quick and effective reactions in any organization. It is expected that the rate of change will increase greatly in the upcoming future along with the high development rate of new technologies. Today's businesses need either to adapt to these changes or be more innovative to meet these new necessities. In this research, the Human Resources Management (HRM) has been aim to study and especially Human Resources Information System (HRIS) has been studied. In addition, the benefits and constraints of the implementation of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) on an institution have been discussed in this study. Moreover, HRIS open source software platforms have been investigated and comparative study has been proposed. Selected open source software platform has been designed to implement HRIS to the University of Kirkuk.

Mohammad Amin Rashidifar   Ali Amin Rashidifar   and Abdolah Abertavi   

In this paper, the inverse problem of the nonlinear vibration of pile foundations has been studied. The methodology proposed by Novak is used to identify the parameters of the soil-pile system from the measured response displaying nonlinear features. A comprehensive study involving both vertical dynamic testing of piles and theoretical analysis is described. The dynamic tests are carried out on single and 2 × 2 group piles in the field under varying levels of vertical harmonic load. From the measured nonlinear response curves, the effective pile-soil system mass, stiffness and damping are determined using the methodology of Novak assuming nonlinear restoring force and linear damping force. It is found that the stiffness of pile-soil system markedly decrease with increasing exciting intensity but the damping increase with exciting moments. Finally the dynamic responses of piles are back-calculated using the estimated nonlinear parameters. It is found that theoretical nonlinear response curves agree well with that obtained from vertical vibration tests.

Hazan Dağlayan   and Murat Karakaya   

In this work, we propose a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for effectively scheduling ambulances aftermath of a disaster. Given the limited number and capacity of ambulances, we aim to minimize the number of ambulance tours and the average time to take all injured people to a hospital. Both of these goals require that the total tour length of all routes should be minimized as well. This problem can be considered as an extension of the well-known Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). We developed a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and tested using some of the CVRP benchmark files. For the possible number of injures at each location, we define three different scenarios. The proposed GA aims to minimize the tour lengths of the ambulances while respecting all real life constraints given in these scenarios. In order to evaluate the proposed GA, we also developed a rival method based on the Nearest Neighbor (NN) heuristic. The results of extensive simulation test NN heuristic.

J. K. Kuipo   B. N. Tiwari   N. Gupta   M. Khosravy   S. Bellucci   and N. Marina   

In this paper, we introduce an optical objective function in order to obtain the optimized image of a dynamical object by an optical instrument having a variable zooming range. To be precise, about a given fixed point of the focal length of a single lens, mirror or an extended optical instrument, the local stability of the image thus formed is characterized by the positivity of pure correlation components of the fluctuation matrix. On the other hand, the corresponding global stability of the image is characterized by the positivity of the determinant of the fluctuation matrix. We also observed that converging and diverging lenses and mirrors show a clear cut distinction about the line of unit lateral magnification. Industrial applications of our proposed optical objective function are anticipated to enhance quality of the lenses, mirrors and their combinations.

Hazan Dağlayan   and Murat Karakaya   

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is one of the well-known NP hard problems requiring excessive time to be exactly solved. Therefore, for solving this type of problems, some researchers implemented meta-heuristics such as Genetic Algorithm (GA). In this paper, we study the Capacitated VRP (CVRP) which has some constraints on the capacities of the vehicles used in VRP. The goal of this study is to observe the impact of the selected operators of GA on the quality of the generated solutions. Therefore, we propose 6 different GAs by mixing and combining 3 crossover and 5 mutation operators. We observed the performance of these solutions by applying them over 10 CVRP benchmarks.

Md. Reazuddin Repon   Md. Abdullah Al Mamun   and M Tauhidul Islam   

Temperature has a promising role in textile coloration process. This study intends to optimize the dyeing temperature for sustainable coloration of cotton fabric employing banana waste. Natural dye retrieved from banana floral stem by roller squeezer machine. To explore the effect of temperature, samples were dyed for 60℃, 70℃, 80℃, 90℃, 100℃ and 110℃ respectively by keeping constant time at 60 minutes. Effect of temperature variation on colorimetric appearance were expressed using CIE L^*a^*b^* color space in terms of color co-ordinates, color strength (K/S), brightness index (BI) and degree of color levelness values. The dye fiber bonding stability was accessed via color fastness to wash, water, perspiration, rubbing and light. Except light fastness property almost color fastness value was 3-5 i.e. good to excellent. Best result of K/S, bright index % and color levelness value recorded 0.65, 50.58 and 0.069 respectively for 100℃. Excellent color fastness properties also appeared for 100℃. This reports prognosis an environmental begins approach for coloration of cotton fabric by deploying of banana plant waste.

Peter Uchenna Okoye   

This study applied the principles of social ecological model in developing a safety performance improvement framework in Nigeria construction industry. When the data collected through questionnaires distributed to the construction workers were statistically analysed using Pearson Product Moment correlation, the study found that safety behaviour intervention factors were positively correlated with safety performance. The correlation coefficient (r) ranges from 0.9713 (for community attributes) to 0.9991 (for interpersonal attributes), all of which were statistically significant at 5% significance level and the degree of freedom of 3 (i.e. p<0.05 in all cases). The coefficient of determination also ranges from 94.34% (for community attributes) to 99.82% (for interpersonal attributes). This represented the amount of safety performance improvement that would be achieved when behaviour intervention were positively applied, and translated to the percentage of accident reduction on site. Based on this result, social ecological model of safety performance improvement (SEM-SPI) framework was developed. The framework involved four implementation strategic steps through which it could be applied. This framework would be used to model the behaviour of construction workers towards behaving safely. The study recommended a practical application of the framework so as to improve the safety performance of construction workers.

Muhammad Abdus Samad   and Vijay Anand   

It has been observed that inventory problems related to too small or very large order quantities may be the reason of failure in business. Optimal inventory management is very essential in order to reduce cost, stock out and meet the uncertain demand continuously. This simulation is done over a maintenance warehouse of facilities management department at Southeast Missouri State University. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of proper inventory management is the reason for excessive cost in the maintenance warehouse of facilities management department at Southeast Missouri State University. Sometimes stock out of lamp occurs which cost extra money due to urgent order made. The purpose of this study is to develop an inventory model of a lamp that will optimize the inventory level and minimize cost and stock out of this lamp of the maintenance warehouse of facilities management department at Southeast Missouri State University, and at the same time meet the uncertain needs or demands of the different departments that arise randomly throughout the year.

D. K. Sambariya   and A. S. Rajawat   

In this paper, the technique applicable to reduce a high-order system to a low-order system is presented. The methods used are Routh stability array (RSA) method and stability equation (SE) method to get the reduced model of systems. The application of the techniques is examined over SISO linear time invariant systems and extended to MIMO systems. The step response performance of the reduced models gets compared to the original system as well as reduced models in literature in terms of rise-time, settling-time, peak-time and peak of the system. The comparative study reveals that the performances of the reduced models using proposed RSA and SE methods are encouraging as compared to that of with reduced models in literature.

Susan Smith Nash   

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the current state of shale play development in the United States to determine the recent advances in the understanding of reservoir behaviors and the most effective uses of new techniques and technologies. It emphasizes reservoir optimization, and the application of new technologies and techniques to reduce costs and to improve recoverability of hydrocarbons to improve ultimate recoverable reserves. It specifically addresses issues of decline curves, stranded pay between laterals, stacked pay logistics, and pad drilling. In addition, the presentation looks at sweet spot optimization, effective investments, hydraulic fracturing, and geomechanics. In a low price environment, with extreme volatility, the paper also examines strategies employed by companies to preserve their assets and recoverable reserves, which include drilling but not completing and alternative stimulation strategies.

Mehdi Alinaghian   and Mehrdad Karamipour   

Supply chain management has increasingly attracted attention as a systematic approach to integrate the supply chain in order to planning and controlling the materials and information from suppliers to customers. Increasing importance of environmental issues led to the creation of a new concept called the Green supply chain management in the sphere of business that is actually a combination of environmental thought and as an aims to reduce the effects of supply chain manufacturing industries on the environment. Supplier selection is one of the most important issues in green supply chain management. In this paper, proper criteria are selected to evaluate the suppliers in livestock and poultry feed industry. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are used as a hybrid multiple attribute decision making method to rank the suppliers. Finally proposed hybrid method and 16 criteria are applied to evaluate and rank three producers of livestock and poultry feed in Isfahan state of Iran.

Ali Karci   

The fractional order derivative is a famous subject and it has been studied about three centuries. There are not any studies on the physical and geometrical interpretation of fractional order derivative. The aim of this study is to interpret the geometrical meaning of the fractional order derivatives of any function. We used a new definition for fractional order derivative to interpret it. At this aim, simple and easily understandable subjects distance, velocity and acceleration were used to depict the experimental results and interpretations. The important contribution of this paper is that when the order of fractional order derivative approaches to 1, the result of derivative process approaches to classical derivative and operator is linear; otherwise, the result of derivative process is different from classical derivative and applied operator is non-linear.

Ali Karci   

The differential equations were considered as fractional order differential equations in literature. Homotopy Analysis Method was used to obtain analytical solutions of these equations. We applied reverse processes to analytical solutions of some fractional order differential equations, and observed that solutions could not satisfy the corresponding equations. Due to this case, we proposed a new approach for fractional order derivative and it was verified by using this new approach that any differential equations cannot be converted into fractional order differential equations so simply.

Ali Karci   

The concept of fractional order derivative can be found in extensive range of many different subject areas. For this reason, the concept of fractional order derivative should be examined. After giving different methods mostly used in engineering and scientific applications, the omissions or errors of these methods will be discussed in this study. The mostly used methods are Euler, Riemann-Liouville and Caputo which are fractional order derivatives. The applications of these methods to constant and identity functions will be given in this study. Obtained results demonstrated that all of three methods have errors and deficiencies. In fact, the obtained results demonstrated that the methods given as fractional order derivatives are curve fitting or curve approximation methods. In this paper, we redefined fractional order derivative by using classical derivative definition and L'Hospital method, since classical derivative definition concluded in indefinite limit such as 0/0. The obtained definition is same as classical derivative definition in case of fractional order is equal to 1. This implies that definitions and theorems in this paper sound and complete.

Muna S. Kassim   Fouad A. Saleh   and Mohammed A. Kadhum   

Experimental and numerical investigations to study the effect of adding slots to the blades on the rotating stall phenomenon and pressure fluctuations in centrifugal blower. The experimental test rig which concludes a centrifugal blower, pressure sensors and measurement instrumentations are design and constructed for the present work. The experimental study has been carried out by measuring the static pressure variation and pressure fluctuation for two cases of impeller (with and without slots). Measuring of static values has been completed at various points prepared on the front-wall of the volute casing along one path for two cases of impeller. Enhancement in pressure distribution adds slots to the blades comparison with cases without slots at values of mass flow rate between non-flow and 0.02254 kg/s. The pressure fluctuations increase with decrease values of mass flow rates. We concluded also that pressure fluctuations decrease with adding slots to blades. This led to decrease occur of rotating stall phenomenon and increase stability of centrifugal blower. Numerical simulation has been carried out on present centrifugal blower to analyze both flow field and pressure fluctuations by using FLUENT 14 package. The numerical simulation has been completed by solving the continuity and momentum equations with moving reference frame technique inside the blower. The results of numerical simulation give a good agreement with the experimental results.

S. R. Kalbande   and Sneha Deshmukh   

The performance evaluation of photovoltaic based vapour compression refrigeration system was carried out in the Department of Unconventional Energy Sources and Electrical Engineering, Dr. PDKV Akola. The DC refrigerator was powered by a field of solar panels, a battery bank, and a solar charge controller. It was observed that the energy consumption of a photovoltaic operated vapour compression refrigerator was typically 429 - 660 W per day for recommended storage condition of vaccines (2-8℃).The performance of thermoelectric refrigerator had found impact of ambient temperature on its performance in terms of cooling effect and power consumption which was more than the vapour compression refrigerator. The output power of the photovoltaic system was determined at no load and full load conditions. The experimental data were used for the calculation of the energy and exergy efficiencies of the PV systems. The average photovoltaic efficiency was found to be 8.4 and 8.2% for no load and full load conditions while exergy efficiency was 11.4 and 11.2%, respectively multiple regression analysis carried out to predict the power output, photovoltaic efficiency and exergy efficiency and showed significant results.

L. A. Dahake   S. P. Komble   and K. A. Goudiya   

Adsorption refrigeration system are of significance to meet the need for cooling requirements such as ice making , food preservation and also it can works on solar energy or waste heat. Adsorption refrigeration system has various advantages over traditional refrigeration system. This covers the performance of commonly used adsorption pair. A model is constructed for the experimental investigation of single bed silica gel/water adsorption chiller. This paper includes the working principles of the adsorption system and includes sorption refrigeration cycle, it also mentioned the properties of the adsorption pairs.

Sachin Jambhale   Sudhir Kumar   and Sanjeev Kumar   

Friction stir spot welding is the energy efficiency, environment friendly and relatively new low energy technology adopted from Friction stir welding (FSW) with many potential applications in joining light alloys in the automotive industry. In 2001, Friction stir spot welding (FSSW) was developed in the automotive industry to substitute resistance spot welding for aluminum sheets. FSSW process has some advantages such as ease of joining materials, low distortion, excellent mechanical properties, low power consumption, low cost and more economical than RSW. The strength of welds is critical when applying FSSW to load bearing components. This strength is affected mainly by process parameters and tool geometry. Tool geometry, such as shoulder diameter and shape, pin shape, length, diameter and feature is a key parameter to affect heat generation and material flow. The objective of this paper is to review open literature sources to assess the current state-of-the-art developments in Friction Stir Spot Welding, effect of various welding variables like tool rotation, transverse speed, dwell time, tool tilt, plunge depth and tool design on mechanical properties in the welding of aluminium alloys or various dissimilar alloys. However the Literature review indicates that there is need to identify the effect of different process parameters on Mechanical properties in FSSW.

Abdul Munaf Shaik   V V S. Kesava Rao   and Ch. Srinivasa Rao   

Modularity is a general concept, and many engineering problems can be generalized under the umbrella of modularity. Special structure of products poses challenges in the design of assembly systems which involves layout design, buffer design, line balancing, and transportation design and resource selection. An assembly line of Drying and Distribution Unit of an automobile has been selected for analysis and application of modularity. Assembly times at individual stations during different times of a day have been observed and analyzed. Modularity has been applied on the assembly line to minimize the total assembling time and idle time. It was found that the total number of components assembled has been increased by 7% after applying modularity. Flexsim simulation software has been used to simulate the assembly line, before and after applying the modularity and the results have been compared.

Zahra Abbasi   and Mokhtar Aghababaei   

In the present work nano-hydroxyapatite/ Carboxymethyl Cellulose (n-HApCMC) composite was synthesized by precipitation method and was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) crystallography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The n-HApCMC composite was tested for the adsorption of Mercury from aqueous solution and compared its removal capacity with nano-hydroxyapatite (HAp). Effect of various physico-chemical parameters such as pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, initial metal ion concentration and temperature on adsorption of metal ions onto n-HApCMC composite was investigated. The adsorption process followed pseudo-second order kinetics and intra-particle diffusion model. Equilibrium data were fitted well in the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The thermodynamic analysis also established that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous.

Wei-Ting Kary Chien   Randy Kang   Howking Sii   and Ming Li   

This paper describes the challenges faced in predicting the reliability of very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits. Currently, lots of trial-and-errors are still needed for the parameters selected to develop a neural network prediction model, whose result is with a great deal of uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to provide a novel and practical approach to design a reliability prediction model using neural network. We propose a seven-step procedure to formulate an optimal neural network design and explain it in details using a case study on semiconductor reliability. We combine reliability test characteristics (e.g., early failures) with statistical methods such as regression and design of experiment (DOE) for this optimal neural network model and get comparably small prediction errors. Following our proposed approach, analysts can develop effective designs with higher prediction accuracy. We further introduce an operation flow to maximize the benefits from the obtained optimal prediction model by earlier nonconformance detection and faster lot dispositions, which are reported in the case study on successfully implementing our methodology to predict inter metal dielectric (IMD) reliability risks. Our proposed approach can be easily applied on many other fields like yield prediction.

M. R. Yousefi   and M. Shirvani   

An empirical start-up transient model was developed for rotary drums using the data obtained from a pilot scale apparatus. The structure of the model is composed of dimensionless groups which reflect the effects of important operational variables on transient material filling-up inside the drum. The model is composed of two parts. One for predicting the displacing time of the material apex to any specified length of drum in an initially empty drum. The other one predicts the variations of the bed depth of material during filing-up period. It was shown that the model can be used, also, for steady state condition of material bed depth profile inside rotary drums.

Shazia Asim   Shahid Nadeem Qureshi   Qasim Mirza   Umer Saleem   Sajjad Ali   Mohammad Haroon   and Mohammad Tahir   

Safed-koh Trend is located in D.G.Khan district, Punjab province, Pakistan. It is a north south trending fold belt that lies in Eastern Part of Sulaiman Fold Belt. Seismic data correlation is done with the help of well data, Formations’ tops, Synthetics and general stratigraphy of the area. The Structural and Stratigraphical interpretation shows subsurface variations. Depth model shows Dhodak, Rodho, Afiband and Zindapir anticlines, the four culminations of Safed-Koh Trend without marking the faults. Dhodak is a northern lower most culmination. Zindapir is the most uplifted one and broader structure comparatively that lies at southern edge. 3D subsurface Time & Depth models of Rubbly Limestone, Dunghan Formation, Pab Sandstone, Lower Goru Formation and Chiltan Limestone map Dhodak anticlinal structure with reverse faults at its flanks. Dunghan, Ranikot, Pab and Chiltan Formations in this area have already proved to be good quality reservoirs for gas. Pab Sandstone and sands of Lower Goru Formation of Cretaceous and Chilton Limestone of Jurassic age could also be the important reservoirs in unexplored area. Rock Physics analysis of Chilton Formation confirms the hydrocarbon potential.

Morteza Bagherpour   MH.Bagherpour   and K. Roodani   

Underground Gas Reservoir (UGS) is one of the important types of reservoirs which after depletion, a significant amount of gas will inject into the reservoir. Then, in winter and in emergency cases, the stored gas will transfer to consumption centers. Here, forecasting of gas production rate will play an important role to discover when the reservoir will be depleted and, how much stored gas amount will be then injected. The forecasting procedure of UGS highly depends on affecting factors such as pressure, gas in place, bulk volume and etc. Due to complexity and non-linearity manner of input and output variables, an intelligent data driven modeling procedure is useful to apply. In this paper, therefore, a Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network is applied to predict the production rate. Also, a time series model is conducted to predict time based variables. The results show a 99 percent of accuracy which demonstrate superiority of the proposed approach over existing traditional models.

Yu. Kyrychuk   

The article is devoted to the analysis of a single-axle system designed for shock and vibration protection using dry friction that limits maximum acceleration of an insulated body at single high-level shocks and vibrations without a static dead band near a balance point to a specified level.

Mohammadreza Sadeghi Moghaddam   Mohadese Yazdipour   Elahe Yazdiha   and Salameh Azimi   

Lost urban spaces are unique spaces inside the city which have not been used at all or significantly. In other words, they are unpleasant urban areas which have no positive relationship with surrounding environment and users in redesigning process of spaces. Hence, organization and reclamation of lost and left spaces through performance injection from resources and wealth which give identity is a part of technologies which can be experienced and tested by experts in order to provide places for presence, spending time, observing and be seen from these excluded urban spaces. With this description and the importance of the subject, the present paper sought to introduce urban lost spaces and consider criteria in order to revive identity in these spaces using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) model and also to consider the succeeded level of the recovery plan of identity in Akhoond district in Qazvin using a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the present study indicated that the recovery plan of identity in Akhoond district was not successful due to the lack of attention to main criteria of giving identity to spaces and it has not transferred identity, mobility and fixation to its residents.

Chii-Huei Yu   and Bing-Huei Chen   

This article uses the mathematical software Maple for the auxiliary tool to study the differential problem of two types of functions. We can obtain the infinite series forms of any order derivatives of these two types of functions by using binomial series, Leibniz differential rule and differentiation term by term theorem, and hence greatly reduce the difficulty of calculating their higher order derivative values. On the other hand, we propose two examples to do calculation practically. The research methods adopted in this study involved finding solutions through manual calculations and verifying these solutions by using Maple. This type of research method not only allows the discovery of calculation errors, but also helps modify the original directions of thinking from manual and Maple calculations. For this reason, Maple provides insights and guidance regarding problem-solving methods.

Boris Khristoforov   

Experimental studies and calculations of large plastic deformations and fracture of the aluminum alloy plates of different thickness by the shock waves of blasts of powerful explosives in tubes of different lengths and diameters were carried out. The deformations the plates were investigated with a single and consistent impact loading by shock waves. Parameters of shock waves and loads on the plates in the tubes were measured and method of their calculation was worked. The empirical dependences of the maximum residual deflections and increment area of the plates depending on the load pulse parameters and the plates were obtained. Dynamic strength of the aluminum alloy was defined.

Dennis Hite   Colin Murphy   and Nagendra Singh   

This writing describes a 5.8 GHz microwave system that is suitable for use in undergraduate laboratories or as a demonstration tool. The system is constructed mainly from off-the-shelf components and can be configured by anyone possessing a basic knowledge of electronics. The types of demonstrations that the system can be used for is vast and cannot be addressed in a single writing. Therefore, the authors outline one exercise and results that explores wave interference based on propagation and phase delays. The phase delays are produced via spatial and feed line delays.

Vokhmin Sergey Antonovich   Trebush Yury Prokopevich   Kurchin Georgy Sergeevich   Mayorov Evgeniy Sergeevich   and Zajtseva Katherine Vasilevna   

Methodological approach is considered in this article which refer to evaluation of reasonable ore loss and dilution in mineral extraction in underground mining of kimberlite ore deposits in mine “International” and “Mir” of OJSC “ALROSA” concerning to the of descending mining in slices and consolidating stowing in worked-out areas with mechanized (continuous) mining. This work shows us the condition of conformation loss and dilution in mining and also computation algorithm

Yi Xiao   Ali Abdollahi   and Qing H. Qin   

Osteoporosis or ‘porous bones’ is the major cause of bone fracture in elderly post-menopausal women. As such, predicting fracture occurrence can significantly reduce the associated morbidity and reduce health-care expenditures. Examining local micro-structure of trabecular bone is becoming increasingly important for investigating bone fracture behavior. Conventional voxel based measures of bone architecture cannot provide morphology information regarding the fractures occurring at individual trabeculae. In this paper, the Delaunay triangulation, a computational geometry technique is used for assessing the effect of trabeculae structure on local micro-fracture, from sequential 2D images of the cross section of a hamster femur surface undergone a multistage loading until fracture occurrence. The most significant structural parameters to characterizethe strength of cancellous bone and the change in morphology of individual trabeculae during the fracture process are investigated. The results from different regions were compared to describe the possible architectural factors affecting the local micro-damages.

Ugo Icardi   and Federico Sola   

Multilayered composites can be weakened by local failures, which can give rise to singular stress fields. Singularities can be removed or integrated to obtain bounded quantities which may be used for the analysis. In any case, the participation of singular stresses should be identified. Serving this purpose, a new mixed singular wedge element based on interpolation functions with a variable singularity power is developed, which can adapt to the problem and can represent the non-singular fields as a particular case. The displacements and the interlaminar stresses are assumed as nodal d.o.f. to a priori fulfill the kinematic and stress contact conditions at the material interfaces and the stress boundary conditions in point form. The application to sample cases taken from literature shows that the element can be successfully employed for the analysis of singular fields. The variable singular representation and the mixed formulation give more accurate results than their displacement-based, non-singular, or singular counterparts with a fixed singularity. The failure loads of initially delaminated specimens are accurately predicted either using the virtual crack closure technique or a mesoscale model by running in a reasonable time on a personal laptop computer.

Chii-Huei Yu   and Bing-Huei Chen   

This paper uses the mathematical software Maple for the auxiliary tool to study the partial differential problem of four types of multivariable functions. We can obtain the infinite series forms of any order partial derivatives of these four types of multivariable functions by using differentiation term by term theorem, and hence greatly reduce the difficulty of calculating their higher order partial derivative values. On the other hand, we propose some examples to do calculation practically. The research methods adopted in this study involved finding solutions through manual calculations and verifying these solutions by using Maple. This type of research method not only allows the discovery of calculation errors, but also helps modify the original directions of thinking from manual and Maple calculations. For this reason, Maple provides insights and guidance regarding problem-solving methods.

J. Biazar   and P. Shams Derakhsh   

The Adomian's decomposition method, the Homotopy perturbation method, and lyapunov’s method are three powerful methods which consider an approximate solution of linear and non-linear equations, as an infinite series. In this paper, we show that these three methods are equivalent in solving functional equations. To illustrate the capability and reliability of the methods two examples are provided. Numerical solutions obtained by these methods are compared with the exact solutions we see that usually converging to an exact solution.

Bernhard Peters   Xavier Besseron   Alvaro Estupinan   Florian Hoffmann   Mark Michael   and Amir Mahmoudi   

A vast number of engineering applications include a continuous and discrete phase simultaneously, and therefore, cannot be solved accurately by continuous or discrete approaches only. Problems that involve both a continuous and a discrete phase are important in applications as diverse as pharmaceutical industry e.g. drug production, agriculture food and processing industry, mining, construction and agricultural machinery, metals manufacturing, energy production and systems biology. A novel technique referred to as Extended Discrete Element Method (XDEM) is developed, that offers a significant advancement for coupled discrete and continuous numerical simulation concepts. The Extended Discrete Element Method extends the dynamics of granular materials or particles as described through the classical discrete element method (DEM) to additional properties such as the thermodynamic state or stress/strain for each particle coupled to a continuum phase such as fluid flow or solid structures. Contrary to a continuum mechanics concept, XDEM aims at resolving the particulate phase through the various processes attached to particles. While DEM predicts the spacial-temporal position and orientation for each particle, XDEM additionally estimates properties such as the internal temperature and/or species distribution. These predictive capabilities are further extended by an interaction to fluid flow by heat, mass and momentum transfer and impact of particles on structures.

Vladimír Volčko   Žaneta Eleschová   Martin Liška   and Miroslava Smitková   

This paper deals with the 22 kV distribution grids with higher penetration of distributed generation and the possibility of loss of this generation in case of fault. In the first part the reasons of distributed generation growth are shortly explained. For simulation of faults of different parts of distribution grid the model of such distribution grid with substantial amount of distributed generation was created. The second part contents the simulations of two-phase faults in two different power lines of model in order to evaluate and analyze the impact of these faults on distributed generation. The second part focuses on the impacts of short circuit occurred in different feeders of distribution grid on individual power sources and on the feeder with higher penetration of distributed generation.

Mashekov Serik Akimovich   Smaylova Nurgul Temirgalievna   Smagulova Nazim K   Mashekova Aygerim Serikovna   and Tukibay Asilzat Ahmetkizi   

In article influence of temperature and deformation modes of rolling and cooling on regularity of structure formation of the steel, rolled on a new longitudinally maple camp is probed. Cages of a longitudinally maple camp contain working and reference rolls of constant diameter, and in sequentially located cages diameter of working rolls decreases, and diameters of reference rolls increase in the direction of rolling. It is set that it is necessary to make rolling of bands with a temperature of the end of rolling 830-840℃ and temperature of cooling of the hot-rolled bands on leading-out live rolls 610-650℃.

Ramy H. Mohammed   

In this paper, we present some findings from an experimental and numerical study aimed to obtain physical insight into the influence of the presence of the shield and its position on the hydraulic and thermal performance of square pin fin heat sink without top by-pass. The variation of the Nusselt number and friction factor is obtained under varied parameters such as Reynolds number and shield position. The numerical code is validated by comparing the numerical results with the available experimental data. It is shown that, there is a good agreement between the temperature predictions based on the model and the experimental data. Results show that, as the presence of the shield, the heat transfer of fin array is enhanced and the flow resistance increased. The surface temperature distribution of the heat sink base is more uniform when the dimensionless shield position equals to 1/3 or 2/3. The comprehensive performance evaluation approach based on identical pumping power criteria is adopted and shows that the optimum shield position is at x/L=0.43 where the smallest energy consumption is.

Ali KARCI   

The fractional order derivative (FOD) concept is an important concept, since FOD has application area in engineering and science. The concept of FOD can be found in extensive range of many different subject areas. For this reason, the concept of FOD should be examined in detail. After giving different methods mostly used in engineering and scientific applications, the deficiencies, omissions or errors of these methods will be discussed in this study. Some of these methods are Euler, Riemann-Liouville and Caputo which are FOD methods. There are important deficiencies of Euler, Riemann-Liouville and Caputo methods, and these deficiencies were illustrated for constant and identity functions. Due to these deficiencies, FOD fconcept was redefined in this paper. After defining the FOD concept, the applications of FOD for polynomial, exponential, trigonometric and logarithmic functions were handled in this study. Euler, Riemman-Liouville and Caputo methods can be regarded as curve fitting or curve approximation methods not FOD methods. The method in this paper is a new point of view for FOD.

V.S. Eremenko   A.V. Pereidenko   and E.F. Suslov   

The aim of the research was: the scientific justification and development of non-destructive testing system of products made of composite materials using low-frequency acoustic methods. During the work the following problems have been pointed and solved: 1. Analysis of the statistical characteristics of information signals and forming a set of diagnostic parameters. 2. Justification of necessity to use artificial neural networks for the technical state classification of products from composite materials. Comparative analysis of classification and decision making using of the statistical methods (based on chi-square statistics, metric distances, etc.), separating hyperplanes and neural networks. The type of neural network was defined, as a base for the neural network based classifier of composite materials defects. 3. Hardware and software development of information-diagnostic system for non-destructive testing of products from composite materials. Developed software includes three main parts: mathematical support, dataware and I/O module software. 4. Experimental investigation of developed information-diagnostic system in general.

Dr. Kanat M Dyussenov   Janna Dyussenova   and Ivan Nedugov   

On the basis of information on impact of ultrasonic and hydrodynamic cavitation on water in various engineering and agrochemical applications parameters of the frequencies favoring to an intensification of growth of some grades of tomatoes, shanks of decorative roses and saplings of a pine ordinary are defined. The example of the engineering application of operated hydrodynamic cavitation on the basis of the independent generator of warmth for heating is presented. This example was patented and successfully used further for water structuring in some agrochemical applications. Results of researches of influence of acoustic radiations in the range of frequencies of 20 Hz - 50 kHz and operated hydrodynamic cavitation on growth of some types of plants and data on influence of the specified private range on some physical and chemical properties of irrigation water are presented. It is shown that for a productive drop irrigation of skilled plants the range of ultrasonic radiation in a range close to 20 kHz which leads to increase of concentration of microcells of the metals dissolved in irrigation water is most effective and also influences favorable change of pH of irrigation water. Experimentally an established fact of increase of productivity of tomatoes for 15 % at rather short-term period of watering by the structured water and considerable effect of increase in growth of root system at saplings of decorative roses. Also established an experimentally fact of decrease in an electric conductivity of irrigation water after hydrodynamic cavitational impact on 18-23 %, along with favorable change of pH of water. Some factors influencing an intensification of growth of saplings and development of root system with considerable decrease in pathogenic micro flora are analyzed and revealed.

Mashekov Serik Akimovich   Smaylova Nurgul Temirgaliyevna   Nugman Yerik Z   Bekmukhanbetova Sholpan A   and Smailova G.A   

This paper proposes a new design of mill. Using the software of finite element (FE) analysis, specialized for the calculation of metal forming processes MSC. SuperForge и MSC, visualNastran 4D, calculated the stress-strain state (SSS) rolled billet and heavy-duty elements of the proposed mill. It is proved that when a new rolling mill thin strips deforming force reduced, the amount of elastic deformation and displacement rolls are small elements. The investigation has also shown that sufficiently high rigidity roller assembly work stand and resulting in heavy-duty elements of the equivalent voltage does not exceed the maximum allowable values, for the material strength.

Ekaterina Chukanova   Nikola Stosic   and Ahmed Kovacevic   

An experimental and analytical study of screw compressor operation under unsteady conditions has been carried out. For this purpose a one dimensional model of the processes within a compressor was extended to include other plant components, including tanks and connecting piping. This was based on the differential equations of conservation of mass and energy. The results derived from the model have been verified by experiment in order to obtain a reliable tool that can simulate a variety of scenarios which may occur in everyday compressor plant operation. The analytical model was then further developed to demonstrate whole plant transient operation when a screw compressor is connected with storage tanks, control valves and heat exchangers in a complete system.

E.Y.Khachiyan   

This paper is presenting development of a method for determination of dominating periods (frequencies) of vibrations of heterogeneous, multilayer foundations. By the method of wave mechanics precise complex transcendent equations of frequencies have been obtained for a foundation of two, three and four layers. To obtain such equations for a foundation having more than four layers is practically impossible. To avoid obtaining such complex frequency equations and to solve such equations using special computer programs a simplified method has been developed in this paper. The main point of the presented method is in successive reduction of a multilayer foundation to two-layer one for which depending upon ratios of amplitudes and periods of vibrations of layers, were computed roots of transcendent equations for more than 5000 combinations of these ratios have been tabulated, extrapolation formula has been derived. The procedure designed for determining values of T₀₁ periods of vibrations for any thickness of n layers is performed in the following sequence. First on the basis of data obtained during well-boring or by other geotechnical methods, according to values of H_k thickness, shear waves v_sk velocities, shear moduli G_k, and densities ρ_k of layers are calculated all periods of each layer (as of homogeneous) by the formula T_k=4H_k/v_sk. Next it is regarded that the foundation consists of only two upper layers with their H₁, H₂ and T₁ and T₂. By a special table and a formula the vibration period is calculated. Then two upper layers are regarded as one layer of H₁+H₂ thickness and period, and it considered with the third layer of H₃ thickness and T₃ period. In similar manner by ratio values H₁+H₂ and H₃ and and T₃ a the period of conditional sandwich thickness. This process proceeds for all layers. The obtained at the last stage the value of the period is assumed as a sought value of dominated period of the entire thickness of n layers. The method is illustrated be examples and estimation of its error is given.

R. Amirante A. Lippolis and P. Tamburrano 

The aim of this paper is to analyze the driving system actuated by a proportional directional control valve on a hydraulic cylinder. In order to evaluate the dynamic interaction between the proportional valve and the cylinder theoretical analysis, numerical simulations as well as experimental test are performed. Coupling cylinder and proportional valve, it is very important to know the ratio of their natural frequencies. In particular, if the valve is characterized by a lower natural frequency, its behavior prevails so that no resonance peak can be observed on the coupled system. On the contrary, resonance phenomena can be observed in all the other cases. It is important that these phenomena are preventively taken into account to realize a precise and accurate control system of a hydraulic axle. At last, three different control methods are tested on the coupled system: Proportional Integral Derivative technique (PID), the adaptive “One-Step-Ahead” control technique, and an expert control technique and the obtained precisions are very interesting.

K Girija and R. Radha 

Hemodialysis patients are significantly less active than healthy, sedentary individuals and a low intrinsic motivation has been identified as a major barrier to prescribing exercise. Regular physical activity is associated with enhanced health and well being. World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that regular physical activity is widely recognized as a mean of preventing the occurrence of many chronic diseases and reduced risk of all-cause mortality. Physical activity during illness results in improvement in physical function. Physical activity helps dialysis patients to improve their well-being. The association of decreasing levels of leisure-time physical activity with increased mortality risk is less certain in ESRD patients than in the general population. Studies have shown that hemodialysis patients physically being active had efficient clearance of urea during dialysis compared to physically inactive patients. Yoga and exercise in hemodialysis patient increases the quality of life through reduced stress level. In our country there is lack of awareness of potential benefits of physical activity in hemodialysis patients and there are no facilities available in in-centre hemodialysis centre to implicate the exercise programe during dialysis compared to Western hemodialysis centres. So there is the great need to impart the knowledge among the patients to obtain the complete standard of living with daily physical activity during on and off dialysis days.

Masoud Baghfalaki and Samir K. Das 

This paper deals with the mathematical modelling and frequency-based analysis for uncoupled roll motions of a floating body in regular waves with the variation of speed. First we compute hydrodynamic coefficients by using strip theory formulation. Considering sinusoidal wave with frequency (ω) varying between 0.3 to 1.2 acts on beam to the floating body for zero and non-zero forward speed (U=0 and 12 m/s) governing equation is obtained. Using the normalization procedure and frequency based analysis; group based equations are formulated for each case. Based on relative importance of the hydrodynamic coefficients, analytical solutions are derived for zero and non-zero forward speed. The sensitivity analysis with respect to the effect of damping is also investigated. This study could be useful to understand the effect of waves on roll motion due to the variation of speed for various frequencies.

Boris Khristoforov. 

The optimum conditions of use of the high explosive blasts in tubes with air for technology and modeling were researched. The experimental studies and calculations parameters of the direct, reflected, and outgoing shock waves at blasts on the open and closed ends of the tubes of different lengths and diameters were carried out. Comparisons the parameters of shock waves in tubes and at contacting blasts were conducted. The possible advantages of the use of explosives blasts in the tubes as compared with the contacting blasts in a variety of technical applications were investigated.

Emad Y. Moawad 

Time is a relative dimension varies from a frame of reference to another according to the required mission and the given geometry. Thus, the consideration of the same interval of time is relatively different from a frame of reference to another. Such different consideration for the same duration of normal time (T_n) is expressed by the relativity of the time. Stretching Time (T_st) means to achieve more rate of execution than the usual rates in same period of time using more kinetic energy (KE) where the more kinetic energy the more the normal time is stretched. Thus, each frame of reference is characterized by its own relative time which should be assayed according to the capability of the permitted execution within the boarders of the frame of reference. The utmost necessity to stretch the duration of all stages of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) trip reveals the importance of the ST concept which is expressed mathematically by: to provide a new vision to the interception technique for the ICBM using satellite-interception technique (SIT) to be used instead of the Grounded Defensible Technique (GDT). SIT enables to compare the capability of execution for the interceptor satellites in different orbits of different altitudes to choose the proper satellite interceptor for the ICBM in each phase of its trip according to the required mission and the given geometry. SIT will be more effective in intercepting the ICBM than the current techniques, where such efficiency (ef) at any moment can be calculated by knowing the ratio of velocities of the SIT and that of the ICBM as follows: , where V_m , V_i are velocities of the ICBM and the SIT respectively. SIT would be a guard for the sky from the ICBMs, without geographical difficulties, with too much less budget as it decreases the fixed, operating and damage costs of applying GDT.

Christopher Provatidis 

In this paper closed form analytical expressions were derived in order to simulate the possible action of "halteres" used in the ancient Greek long jump. For the sake of simplicity, elementary theory of rigid body dynamics is used, which however is capable of simulating the motion of a hypothetical rigid jumper for whom the Cartesian components of the initial velocity at the take-off and the angular velocity of rotating arms are prescribed. Particular attention is paid on the initial position and the direction of arms' rotation as well as on the role of the amount of masses due to the "halteres". It was found that if at the take-off the upper limbs are upwards, also rotate forwards, whereas at the landing they are almost downwards, the length of the jump increases as the weight of the halters.

David Kim and Joon Om 

Hexavalent chromium concentration in solutions was determined directly at 363 nm with a path length of 1 cm using quartz cuvettes. The validity of the proposed method was evaluated by comparing it with the commonly accepted diphenylcarbazide colorimetric assay. According to Student's t-test comparison, one of three trials was accepted without statistical differences. Comparing the % recovery observation with Cr(VI)-spiked samples, higher accuracy was obtained with the direct spectroscopic method while better precision was found with the diphenylcarbazide colorimetric method. It was also shown that the direct spectroscopic method is in tolerance with common ions, such as Al³⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^-, NO^3-, CO₃^2-, SO₄^2-, in different degrees of effectiveness.