Influence of Dilution and Lean-premixed on Mild Combustion in an Industrial Burner

Understanding of how and where NOx formation occurs in industrial burner is very important for efficient and clean operation of utility burners. Also the importance of this problem is mainly due to its relation to the pollutants produced by more burners used widely of gas turbine in thermal power plants and glass and steel industry. In this article, a numerical model of an industrial burner operating in MILD combustion is validated with experimental data.. Then influence of air flow rate and air temperature on combustor temperature profiles and NOX product are investigated. In order to modification this study reports on the effects of fuel and air dilution (with inert gases H2O, CO2, N2), and also influence of lean-premixed of fuel, on the temperature profiles and NOX emission. Conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy, and transport equations of species concentrations, turbulence, combustion and radiation modeling in addition to NO modeling equations were solved together to present temperature and NO distribution inside the burner. The results shows that dilution, cause to a reduction in value of temperature and NOX emission, and suppresses any flame propagation inside the furnace and made the flame inside the furnace invisible. Dilution with H2O rather than N2 and CO2 decreases further the value of the NOX. Also with raise of lean-premix level, local temperature of burner and the value of NOX product are decreases because of premixing prevents local “hot spots" within the combustor volume that can lead to significant NOx formation. Also leanpremixing of fuel with air cause to amount of air in reaction zone is reach more than amount that supplied as is actually needed to burn the fuel and this act lead to limiting NOx formation

Pulsation Suppression Device Design for Reciprocating Compressor

Design and evaluation of reciprocating compressors should include a pulsation study. The object is to ensure that predicted pulsation levels meet guidelines to limit vibration, shaking forces, noise, associated pressure drops, horsepower losses and fabrication cost and time to acceptable levels. This paper explains procedures and recommendations to select and size pulsation suppression devices to obtain optimum arrangement in terms of pulsation, vibration, shaking forces, performance, reliability, safety, operation, maintenance and commercial conditions. Model and advanced formulations for pulsation study are presented. The effect of the full fluid dynamic model on the prediction of pulsation waves and resulting frequency spectrum distributions are discussed. Advanced and optimum methods of controlling pulsations are highlighted. Useful recommendations and guidelines for pulsation control, piping pulsation analysis, pulsation vessel design, shaking forces, low pressure drop orifices, pulsation study report and devices to mitigate pulsation and shaking problems are discussed.

Double Diffusive Convection in a Partially Porous Cavity under Suction/Injection Effects

Double-diffusive steady convection in a partially porous cavity with partially permeable walls and under the combined buoyancy effects of thermal and mass diffusion was analysed numerically using finite volume method. The top wall is well insulated and impermeable while the bottom surface is partially well insulated and impermeable and partially submitted to constant temperature T1 and concentration C1. Constant equal temperature T2 and concentration C2 are imposed along the vertical surfaces of the enclosure. Mass suction/injection and injection/suction are respectively considered at the bottom of the porous centred partition and at one of the vertical walls. Heat and mass transfer characteristics as streamlines and average Nusselt numbers and Sherwood numbers were discussed for different values of buoyancy ratio, Rayleigh number, and injection/suction coefficient. It is especially noted that increasing the injection factor disadvantages the exchanges in the case of the injection while the transfer is augmented in case of suction. On the other hand, a critical value of the buoyancy ratio was highlighted for which heat and mass transfers are minimized.

Automation of Packing Cell in Fresh Fish Facilities

The problem discussed in this paper involves packing fresh fish fileet of the northern Cod into a standard square container. The fish is first cleaned and split and then collected on a belt ready to be stacked in a container. The aim of our work is to pack the fish into the container with constraints on the amount of overlap allowed for the fileets. The current focus is to design a packing cell that can be real-time and of practical use, while finding the optimal solution to the degree of overlap and minimise the unused space of the container.

Experimental Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Al2O3/Water Nanofluid in Laminar Flow Regime inside a Circular Tube

In the present study, Convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of Al2O3/water nanofluid in laminar flow regime under constant heat flux conditions inside a circular tube were experimentally investigated. Al2O3/water nanofluid with 0.5% and 1% volume concentrations with 15 nm diameter nanoparticles were used as working fluid. The effect of different volume concentrations on convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor was studied. The results emphasize that increasing of particle volume concentration leads to enhance convective heat transfer coefficient. Measurements show the average heat transfer coefficient enhanced about 11-20% with 0.5% volume concentration and increased about 16-27% with 1% volume concentration compared to distilled water. In addition, the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid enhances with increase in heat flux. From the results, the average ratio of (fnf/fbf) was about 1.10 for 0.5% volume concentration. Therefore, there is no significant increase in friction factor for nanofluids.

An MADM Framework toward Hierarchical Production Planning in Hybrid MTS/MTO Environments

This paper proposes a new decision making structure to determine the appropriate product delivery strategy for different products in a manufacturing system among make-to-stock, make-toorder, and hybrid strategy. Given product delivery strategies for all products in the manufacturing system, the position of the Order Penetrating Point (OPP) can be located regarding the delivery strategies among which location of OPP in hybrid strategy is a cumbersome task. In this regard, we employ analytic network process, because there are varieties of interrelated driving factors involved in choosing the right location. Moreover, the proposed structure is augmented with fuzzy sets theory in order to cope with the uncertainty of judgments. Finally, applicability of the proposed structure is proven in practice through a real industrial case company. The numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed decision making structure in order partitioning and OPP location.

Unified Fusion Approach with Application to SLAM

In this paper, we propose the pre-processor based on the Evidence Supporting Measure of Similarity (ESMS) filter and also propose the unified fusion approach (UFA) based on the general fusion machine coupled with ESMS filter, which improve the correctness and precision of information fusion in any fields of application. Here we mainly apply the new approach to Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) of Pioneer II mobile robots. A simulation experiment was performed, where an autonomous virtual mobile robot with sonar sensors evolves in a virtual world map with obstacles. By comparing the result of building map according to the general fusion machine (here DSmT-based fusing machine and PCR5-based conflict redistributor considereded) coupling with ESMS filter and without ESMS filter, it shows the benefit of the selection of the sources as a prerequisite for improvement of the information fusion, and also testifies the superiority of the UFA in dealing with SLAM.

A Novel Pareto-Based Meta-Heuristic Algorithm to Optimize Multi-Facility Location-Allocation Problem

This article proposes a novel Pareto-based multiobjective meta-heuristic algorithm named non-dominated ranking genetic algorithm (NRGA) to solve multi-facility location-allocation problem. In NRGA, a fitness value representing rank is assigned to each individual of the population. Moreover, two features ranked based roulette wheel selection including select the fronts and choose solutions from the fronts, are utilized. The proposed solving methodology is validated using several examples taken from the specialized literature. The performance of our approach shows that NRGA algorithm is able to generate true and well distributed Pareto optimal solutions.

Productive Design and Calculation of Intermittent Mechanisms with Radial Parallel Cams

The paper deals with the kinematics and automated calculation of intermittent mechanisms with radial cams. Currently, electronic cams are increasingly applied in the drives of working link mechanisms. Despite a huge advantage of electronic cams in their reprogrammability or instantaneous change of displacement diagrams, conventional cam mechanisms have an irreplaceable role in production and handling machines. With high frequency of working cycle periods, the dynamic load of the proper servomotor rotor increases and efficiency of electronic cams strongly decreases. Though conventional intermittent mechanisms with radial cams are representatives of fixed automation, they have distinct advantages in their high speed (high dynamics), positional accuracy and relatively easy manufacture. We try to remove the disadvantage of firm displacement diagram by reducing costs for simple design and automated calculation that leads reliably to high-quality and inexpensive manufacture.

Control Strategy for an Active Suspension System

The paper presents the virtual model of the active suspension system used for improving the dynamic behavior of a motor vehicle. The study is focused on the design of the control system, the purpose being to minimize the effect of the road disturbances (which are considered as perturbations for the control system). The analysis is performed for a quarter-car model, which corresponds to the suspension system of the front wheel, by using the DFC (Design for Control) software solution EASY5 (Engineering Analysis Systems) of MSC Software. The controller, which is a PIDbased device, is designed through a parametric optimization with the Matrix Algebra Tool (MAT), considering the gain factors as design variables, while the design objective is to minimize the overshoot of the indicial response.

A Study on Mode of Collapse of Metallic Shells Having Combined Tube-Frusta Geometry Subjected to Axial Compression

The present paper deals with the experimental and computational study of axial collapse of the aluminum metallic shells having combined tube-frusta geometry between two parallel plates. Shells were having bottom two third lengths as frusta and remaining top one third lengths as tube. Shells were compressed to recognize their modes of collapse and associated energy absorption capability. An axisymmetric Finite Element computational model of collapse process is presented and analysed, using a non-linear FE code FORGE2. Six noded isoparametric triangular elements were used to discretize the deforming shell. The material of the shells was idealized as rigid visco-plastic. To validate the computational model experimental and computed results of the deformed shapes and their corresponding load-compression and energy-compression curves were compared. With the help of the obtained results progress of the axisymmetric mode of collapse has been presented, analysed and discussed.

Mathematical Modeling to Predict Surface Roughness in CNC Milling

Surface roughness (Ra) is one of the most important requirements in machining process. In order to obtain better surface roughness, the proper setting of cutting parameters is crucial before the process take place. This research presents the development of mathematical model for surface roughness prediction before milling process in order to evaluate the fitness of machining parameters; spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut. 84 samples were run in this study by using FANUC CNC Milling α-Τ14ιE. Those samples were randomly divided into two data sets- the training sets (m=60) and testing sets(m=24). ANOVA analysis showed that at least one of the population regression coefficients was not zero. Multiple Regression Method was used to determine the correlation between a criterion variable and a combination of predictor variables. It was established that the surface roughness is most influenced by the feed rate. By using Multiple Regression Method equation, the average percentage deviation of the testing set was 9.8% and 9.7% for training data set. This showed that the statistical model could predict the surface roughness with about 90.2% accuracy of the testing data set and 90.3% accuracy of the training data set.

The Effects of Plate-Support Condition on Buckling Strength of Rectangular Perforated Plates under Linearly Varying In-Plane Normal Load

Mechanical buckling analysis of rectangular plates with central circular cutout is performed in this paper. The finiteelement method is used to study the effects of plate-support conditions, aspect ratio, and hole size on the mechanical buckling strength of the perforated plates subjected to linearly varying loading. Results show that increasing the hole size does not necessarily reduce the mechanical buckling strength of the perforated plates. It is also concluded that the clamped boundary condition increases the mechanical buckling strength of the perforated plates more than the simply-supported boundary condition and the free boundary conditions enhance the mechanical buckling strength of the perforated plates more effectively than the fixed boundary conditions. Furthermore, for the bending cases, the critical buckling load of perforated plates with free edges is less than perforated plates with fixed edges.

Robotic End-Effector Impedance Control without Expensive Torque/Force Sensor

A novel low-cost impedance control structure is proposed for monitoring the contact force between end-effector and environment without installing an expensive force/torque sensor. Theoretically, the end-effector contact force can be estimated from the superposition of each joint control torque. There have a nonlinear matrix mapping function between each joint motor control input and end-effector actuating force/torques vector. This new force control structure can be implemented based on this estimated mapping matrix. First, the robot end-effector is manipulated to specified positions, then the force controller is actuated based on the hall sensor current feedback of each joint motor. The model-free fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) strategy is employed to design the position and force controllers, respectively. All the hardware circuits and software control programs are designed on an Altera Nios II embedded development kit to constitute an embedded system structure for a retrofitted Mitsubishi 5 DOF robot. Experimental results show that PI and FSMC force control algorithms can achieve reasonable contact force monitoring objective based on this hardware control structure.

Arrival and Departure Scheduling at Hub Airports Considering Airlines Level

As the air traffic increases at a hub airport, some flights cannot land or depart at their preferred target time. This event happens because the airport runways become occupied to near their capacity. It results in extra costs for both passengers and airlines because of the loss of connecting flights or more waiting, more fuel consumption, rescheduling crew members, etc. Hence, devising an appropriate scheduling method that determines a suitable runway and time for each flight in order to efficiently use the hub capacity and minimize the related costs is of great importance. In this paper, we present a mixed-integer zero-one model for scheduling a set of mixed landing and departing flights (despite of most previous studies considered only landings). According to the fact that the flight cost is strongly affected by the level of airline, we consider different airline categories in our model. This model presents a single objective minimizing the total sum of three terms, namely 1) the weighted deviation from targets, 2) the scheduled time of the last flight (i.e., makespan), and 3) the unbalancing the workload on runways. We solve 10 simulated instances of different sizes up to 30 flights and 4 runways. Optimal solutions are obtained in a reasonable time, which are satisfactory in comparison with the traditional rule, namely First- Come-First-Serve (FCFS) that is far apart from optimality in most cases.

An Analytical Solution for Vibration of Elevator Cables with Small Bending Stiffness

Responses of the dynamical systems are highly affected by the natural frequencies and it has a huge impact on design and operation of high-rise and high-speed elevators. In the present paper, the variational iteration method (VIM) is employed to investigate better understanding the dynamics of elevator cable as a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) swing system. Comparisons made among the results of the proposed closed-form analytical solution, the traditional numerical iterative time integration solution, and the linearized governing equations confirm the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach. Furthermore, based on the results of the proposed closed-form solution, the linearization errors in calculating the natural frequencies in different cases are discussed.

Verification of a Locked CFD Approach to Cool Down Modeling

Increasing demand on the performance of Subsea Production Systems (SPS) suggests a need for more detailed investigation of fluid behavior taking place in subsea equipment. Complete CFD cool down analyses of subsea equipment are very time demanding. The objective of this paper is to investigate a Locked CFD approach, which enables significant reduction of the computational time and at the same time maintains sufficient accuracy during thermal cool down simulations. The result comparison of a dead leg simulation using the Full CFD and the three LCFD-methods confirms the validity of the locked flow field assumption for the selected case. For the tested case the LCFD simulation speed up by factor of 200 results in the absolute thermal error of 0.5 °C (3% relative error), speed up by factor of 10 keeps the LCFD results within 0.1 °C (0.5 % relative error) comparing to the Full CFD.

Tool Wear and Surface Roughness Prediction using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) in Turning Steel under Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL)

Tool wear and surface roughness prediction plays a significant role in machining industry for proper planning and control of machining parameters and optimization of cutting conditions. This paper deals with developing an artificial neural network (ANN) model as a function of cutting parameters in turning steel under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). A feed-forward backpropagation network with twenty five hidden neurons has been selected as the optimum network. The co-efficient of determination (R2) between model predictions and experimental values are 0.9915, 0.9906, 0.9761 and 0.9627 in terms of VB, VM, VS and Ra respectively. The results imply that the model can be used easily to forecast tool wear and surface roughness in response to cutting parameters.

A Branch and Bound Algorithm for Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem Subject to Cumulative Resources

Renewable and non-renewable resource constraints have been vast studied in theoretical fields of project scheduling problems. However, although cumulative resources are widespread in practical cases, the literature on project scheduling problems subject to these resources is scant. So in order to study this type of resources more, in this paper we use the framework of a resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) with finish-start precedence relations between activities and subject to the cumulative resources in addition to the renewable resources. We develop a branch and bound algorithm for this problem customizing precedence tree algorithm of RCPSP. We perform extensive experimental analysis on the algorithm to check its effectiveness and performance for solving different instances of the problem in question.

Implicit Lyapunov Control of Multi-Control Hamiltonians Systems Based On the State Error

In the closed quantum system, if the control system is strongly regular and all other eigenstates are directly coupled to the target state, the control system can be asymptotically stabilized at the target eigenstate by the Lyapunov control based on the state error. However, if the control system is not strongly regular or as long as there is one eigenstate not directly coupled to the target state, the situations will become complicated. In this paper, we propose an implicit Lyapunov control method based on the state error to solve the convergence problems for these two degenerate cases. And at the same time, we expand the target state from the eigenstate to the arbitrary pure state. Especially, the proposed method is also applicable in the control system with multi-control Hamiltonians. On this basis, the convergence of the control systems is analyzed using the LaSalle invariance principle. Furthermore, the relation between the implicit Lyapunov functions of the state distance and the state error is investigated. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed implicit Lyapunov control method. The comparisons of the control effect using the implicit Lyapunov control method based on the state distance with that of the state error are given.