Computational Investigation of the Combined Effects of Yaw, Rotation and Ground Proximity on the Aerodynamics of an Isolated Wheel

An exploratory computational investigation using RANS & URANS was carried out to understand the aerodynamics around an isolatedsingle rotating wheel with decreasing ground proximity. The wheel was initially modeled in free air conditions, then with decreasing ground proximity and increased yaw angle with rotational speeds. Three speeds of rotation were applied to the wheel so that the effect of different angular velocities can be investigated. In addition to rotation, three different yaw angles were applied to the rotating wheel in order to understand how these two variables combined affect the aerodynamic flow field around the wheel.

Modeling Parametric Vibration of Multistage Gear Systems as a Tool for Design Optimization

This work presents a numerical model developed to simulate the dynamics and vibrations of a multistage tractor gearbox. The effect of time varying mesh stiffness, time varying frictional torque on the gear teeth, lateral and torsional flexibility of the shafts and flexibility of the bearings were included in the model. The model was developed by using the Lagrangian method, and it was applied to study the effect of three design variables on the vibration and stress levels on the gears. The first design variable, module, had little effect on the vibration levels but a higher module resulted to higher bending stress levels. The second design variable, pressure angle, had little effect on the vibration levels, but had a strong effect on the stress levels on the pinion of a high reduction ratio gear pair. A pressure angle of 25o resulted to lower stress levels for a pinion with 14 teeth than a pressure angle of 20o. The third design variable, contact ratio, had a very strong effect on both the vibration levels and bending stress levels. Increasing the contact ratio to 2.0 reduced both the vibration levels and bending stress levels significantly. For the gear train design used in this study, a module of 2.5 and contact ratio of 2.0 for the various meshes was found to yield the best combination of low vibration levels and low bending stresses. The model can therefore be used as a tool for obtaining the optimum gear design parameters for a given multistage spur gear train.

Climatic Range for Comfort Evaporative Cooling

This paper presents the climatic range calculations for comfort evaporative cooling for Tehran. In this study the minimum climatic conditions required to achieve an appropriate comfort zone will be presented. Physiologically uncomfortable conditions in arid climates are mainly caused by the extreme heat and dryness. Direct evaporative cooling adds moisture to the air stream until the air stream is close to saturation. The dry bulb temperature is reduced, while the wet bulb temperature stays the same. Evaporative cooling is economical, effective, environmentally friendly, and healthy. Comfort cooling by direct evaporative cooling (passive or fan forced) in the 35. 41 N (such as Tehran) latitude requires design wet-bulb temperature not over 25.4 C. Evaporative cooling outside this limit cannot achieve the required 26.7 ET, and is recommended for relief cooling only.

Thermodynamic Analysis of R507A-R23 Cascade Refrigeration System

The present work deals with thermodynamic analysis of cascade refrigeration system using ozone friendly refrigerants pair R507A and R23. R507A is azeotropic mixture composed of HFC refrigerants R125/R143a (50%/50% wt.). R23 is a single component HFC refrigerant used as replacement to CFC refrigerant R13 in low temperature applications. These refrigerants have zero ozone depletion potential and are non-flammable and as R507A an azeotropic mixture there is no problem of temperature glide. This study thermodynamically analyzed R507A-R23 cascade refrigeration system to optimize the design and operating parameters of the system. The design and operating parameters include: Condensing, evaporating, subcooling and superheating temperatures in the high temperature circuit, temperature difference in the cascade heat exchanger, Condensing, evaporating, subcooling and superheating temperatures in the low temperature circuit.

Biaxial Testing of Fabrics - A Comparison of Various Testing Methodologies

In textile industry, besides the conventional textile products, technical textile goods, that have been brought external functional properties into, are being developed for technical textile industry. Especially these products produced with weaving technology are widely preferred in areas such as sports, geology, medical, automotive, construction and marine sectors. These textile products are exposed to various stresses and large deformations under typical conditions of use. At this point, sufficient and reliable data could not be obtained with uniaxial tensile tests for determination of the mechanical properties of such products due to mainly biaxial stress state. Therefore, the most preferred method is a biaxial tensile test method and analysis. These tests and analysis is applied to fabrics with different functional features in order to establish the textile material with several characteristics and mechanical properties of the product. Planar biaxial tensile test, cylindrical inflation and bulge tests are generally required to apply for textile products that are used in automotive, sailing and sports areas and construction industry to minimize accidents as long as their service life. Airbags, seat belts and car tires in the automotive sector are also subject to the same biaxial stress states, and can be characterized by same types of experiments. In this study, in accordance with the research literature related to the various biaxial test methods are compared. Results with discussions are elaborated mainly focusing on the design of a biaxial test apparatus to obtain applicable experimental data for developing a finite element model. Sample experimental results on a prototype system are expressed.

Bamboo -An Alternative Building Material for Modest Houses, to Increase the Stock of Affordable Housing, for the Urban Poor Living Close to Bamboo Producing Regions in India

A large section of the society in Urban India is unable to afford a basic dwelling unit. Housing shortage due to the rising unafforability makes it logical to consider alternative technologies more seriously for their application How far do these alternative technologies match up with the conventional techniques? How do these integrate with the present-day need for urban amenities and facilities? Are the owners of bamboo dwellings, for instance, a part of the mainstream housing sector, having the same rights and privileges as those enjoyed by other property owners? Will they have access to loans for building, improving, renovating or repairing their dwellings? Why do we still hesitate to build a bamboo house for ourselves? Is our policy framework and political resolve in place, to welcome such alternative technologies? It is time we found these answers, in order to explore the reasons for large-scale nonacceptance, of a technology proven for its worthiness.

Impacts of Climate Change under the Threat of Global Warming for an Agricultural Watershed of the Kangsabati River

The effects of global warming on India vary from the submergence of low-lying islands and coastal lands to the melting of glaciers in the Indian Himalayas, threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of India and South Asia. In India, such effects are projected to impact millions of lives. As a result of ongoing climate change, the climate of India has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades; this trend is expected to continue. Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges, with implications for food production, water supply, health, energy, etc. Addressing climate change requires a good scientific understanding as well as coordinated action at national and global level. The climate change issue is part of the larger challenge of sustainable development. As a result, climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development paths more sustainable. The impact of climate variability and change, climate policy responses, and associated socio-economic development will affect the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development goals. A very well calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (R2 = 0.9968, NSE = 0.91) was exercised over the Khatra sub basin of the Kangsabati River watershed in Bankura district of West Bengal, India, in order to evaluate projected parameters for agricultural activities. Evapotranspiration, Transmission Losses, Potential Evapotranspiration and Lateral Flow to reach are evaluated from the years 2041-2050 in order to generate a picture for sustainable development of the river basin and its inhabitants. India has a significant stake in scientific advancement as well as an international understanding to promote mitigation and adaptation. This requires improved scientific understanding, capacity building, networking and broad consultation processes. This paper is a commitment towards the planning, management and development of the water resources of the Kangsabati River by presenting detailed future scenarios of the Kangsabati river basin, Khatra sub basin, over the mentioned time period. India-s economy and societal infrastructures are finely tuned to the remarkable stability of the Indian monsoon, with the consequence that vulnerability to small changes in monsoon rainfall is very high. In 2002 the monsoon rains failed during July, causing profound loss of agricultural production with a drop of over 3% in India-s GDP. Neither the prolonged break in the monsoon nor the seasonal rainfall deficit was predicted. While the general features of monsoon variability and change are fairly well-documented, the causal mechanisms and the role of regional ecosystems in modulating the changes are still not clear. Current climate models are very poor at modelling the Asian monsoon: this is a challenging and critical region where the ocean, atmosphere, land surface and mountains all interact. The impact of climate change on regional ecosystems is likewise unknown. The potential for the monsoon to become more volatile has major implications for India itself and for economies worldwide. Knowledge of future variability of the monsoon system, particularly in the context of global climate change, is of great concern for regional water and food security. The major findings of this paper were that of all the chosen projected parameters, transmission losses, soil water content, potential evapotranspiration, evapotranspiration and lateral flow to reach, display an increasing trend over the time period of years 2041- 2050.

Studying the Relationship between Different Dimensions of CRM and Innovation Capabilities in Melli Bank of Iran

This paper investigates the relationship between different dimensions of customer relationship management and innovation capabilities in Melli Bank of Iran. Five dimensions of CRM include information sharing, customer involvement, long-term partnership, joint problem solving and technology-based CRM are selected to measure their relationship with innovation capabilities including innovation in product, innovation in process, innovation in administrative affairs, innovation in marketing, and finally innovation in services. Research findings indicate that there is significant relationship between CRM dimensions and innovation capabilities in Melli bank of Iran.

Experimental Investigation of Vessel Volume and Equivalence Ratio in Vented Gas

An experiment of vented gas explosions involving two different cylinder vessel volumes (0.2 and 0.0065 m3) was reported, with equivalence ratio (Φ) ranged from 0.3 to 1.6. Both vessels were closed at the rear end and fitted at the other side with a circular orifice plate that gives a constant vent coefficient (K =Av/V2/3) of 16.4. It was shown that end ignition gives higher overpressures than central ignition, even though most of the published work on venting uses central ignition. For propane and ethylene, it is found that rich mixtures gave the highest overpressures and these mixtures are not considered in current vent design guidance; which the guideline is based on mixtures giving the maximum flame temperature. A strong influence of the vessel volume at constant K was found for methane, propane, ethylene and hydrogen-air explosions. It can be concluded that self- acceleration of the flame, which is dependent on the distance of a flame from the ignition and the ‘suction’ at the vent opening are significant factors affecting the vent flow during explosion development in vented gas explosion. This additional volume influence on vented explosions is not taken into account in the current vent design guidance.

Experimental Study of Thermal Environment in a Room with Mixing Ventilation

This paper reports an experimental study on a sleeping thermal manikin in a room equipped with a mixing ventilation system. In the experimental work, heat loss from the sleeping thermal manikin was measured under different conditions. The supply air temperature was in a range of 17°C to 27°C. Apart from the heat loss of the sleeping thermal manikin, the velocity distributions and temperature distributions were also measured in the experiments for subsequent analysis.

The New AIMD Congestion Control Algorithm

Congestion control is one of the fundamental issues in computer networks. Without proper congestion control mechanisms there is the possibility of inefficient utilization of resources, ultimately leading to network collapse. Hence congestion control is an effort to adapt the performance of a network to changes in the traffic load without adversely affecting users perceived utilities. AIMD (Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease) is the best algorithm among the set of liner algorithms because it reflects good efficiency as well as good fairness. Our control model is based on the assumption of the original AIMD algorithm; we show that both efficiency and fairness of AIMD can be improved. We call our approach is New AIMD. We present experimental results with TCP that match the expectation of our theoretical analysis.

Effect of Turbulence Models on Simulated Iced Aircraft Airfoil

The present work describes a computational study of aerodynamic characteristics of GLC305 airfoil clean and with 16.7 min ice shape (rime 212) and 22.5 min ice shape (glaze 944).The performance of turbulence models SA, Kε, Kω Std, and Kω SST model are observed against experimental flow fields at different Mach numbers 0.12, 0.21, 0.28 in a range of Reynolds numbers 3x106, 6x106, and 10.5x106 on clean and iced aircraft airfoil GLC305. Numerical predictions include lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients at different Mach numbers and at different angle of attacks were done. Accuracy of solutions with respect to the effects of turbulence models, variation of Mach number, initial conditions, grid resolution and grid spacing near the wall made the study much sensitive. Navier Stokes equation based computational technique is used. Results are very close to the experimental results. It has seen that SA and SST models are more efficient than Kε and Kω standard in under study problem.

Seismic Time History Analysis for Cable-Stayed Bridge Considering Different Geometrical Configuration For Near Field Earthquakes

To increase the maximum span of cable-stayed bridges, Uwe Starossek has developed a modified statical system. The basic idea of this new concept is the use of pairs of inclined pylon legs that spread out longitudinally from the foundation base or from the girder level. Spread-pylon cable-stayed bridge has distinct advantage like reduction of sag of cables and oscillation of cable during earthquake over traditional cable-stayed bridges. Spread-pylon also improves seismic performance of deck during strong ground motion.

A Quantitative Analysis of GSM Air Interface Based on Radiating Columns and Prediction Model

This paper explains the cause of nonlinearity in floor attenuation hither to left unexplained. The performance degradation occurring in air interface for GSM signals is quantitatively analysed using the concept of Radiating Columns of buildings. The signal levels were measured using Wireless Network Optimising Drive Test Tool (E6474A of Agilent Technologies). The measurements were taken in reflected signal environment under usual fading conditions on actual GSM signals radiated from base stations. A mathematical model is derived from the measurements to predict the GSM signal levels in different floors. It was applied on three buildings and found that the predicted signal levels deviated from the measured levels with in +/- 2 dB for all floors. It is more accurate than the prediction models based on Floor Attenuation Factor. It can be used for planning proper indoor coverage in multi storey buildings.

CFD Modeling of PROX Microreactor for Fuel Processing

In order to investigate a PROX microreactor performance, two-dimensional modeling of the reacting flow between two parallel plates is performed through a finite volume method using an improved SIMPLE algorithm. A three-step surface kinetics including hydrogen oxidation, carbon monoxide oxidation and water-gas shift reaction is applied for a Pt-Fe/γ-Al2O3 catalyst and operating temperatures of about 100ºC. Flow pattern, pressure field, temperature distribution, and mole fractions of species are found in the whole domain for all cases. Also, the required reactive length for removing carbon monoxide from about 2% to less than 10 ppm is found. Furthermore, effects of hydraulic diameter, wall temperature, and inlet mole fraction of air and water are investigated by considering carbon monoxide selectivity and conversion. It is found that air and water addition may improve the performance of the microreactor in carbon monoxide removal in such operating conditions; this is in agreement with the pervious published results.

Study of Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Unmanned Aircraft in the Wake

The methodology of numerical simulation and calculation of aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft taking into account impact of wake on it has been developed. The results of numerical experiment in comparison with the data obtained in the wind tunnel are presented. Efficiency of methodology of calculation and the reliability of the results is shown.

Schedule Management of an Enterprise Receiving Orders Considering Dependency between Unit Tasks of a Collaborative Project

This study suggests how an order-receiving company can avoid disclosing schedule information on unit tasks to the order-placing company when carrying out a collaborative project on the value chain in an order-oriented industry. Specifically, it suggests methods for keeping schedule information confidential, and categorizes potential situations by inter-task dependency. Lastly, an approach to select the most optimal non-disclosure method is discussed. With the methods for not disclosing work-related information suggested in the study, order-receiving companies can logically deal with political issues relating to the question of whether or not to disclose information upon the execution of a collaborative project in cooperation with an order-placing firm. Moreover, order-placing companies can monitor undistorted information, while respecting the legitimate rights of an order-receiving company. Therefore, it is fair to say that the suggestions made in this study will contribute to the smooth operation of collaborative intercompany projects.

Auto-Selective Three Term Control of Position and Compliance of a Pneumatic Actuator

Due to their high power-to-weight ratio and low cost, pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotics and automation applications; however, achieving fast and accurate control of their position have been known as a complex control problem. The paper presents a methodology for obtaining controllers that achieve high position accuracy and preserve the closed-loop characteristics over a broad operating range. Experimentation with a number of conventional (or "classical") three-term controllers shows that, as repeated operations accumulate, the characteristics of the pneumatic actuator change requiring frequent re-tuning of the controller parameters (PID gains). Furthermore, three-term controllers are found to perform poorly in recovering the closed-loop system after the application of load or other external disturbances. The key reason for these problems lies in the non-linear exchange of energy inside the cylinder relating, in particular, to the complex friction forces that develop on the piston-wall interface. In order to overcome this problem but still remain within the boundaries of classical control methods, we designed an auto selective classicaql controller so that the system performance would benefit from all three control gains (KP, Kd, Ki) according to system requirements and the characteristics of each type of controller. This challenging experimentation took place for consistent performance in the face of modelling imprecision and disturbances. In the work presented, a selective PID controller is presented for an experimental rig comprising an air cylinder driven by a variable-opening pneumatic valve and equipped with position and pressure sensors. The paper reports on tests carried out to investigate the capability of this specific controller to achieve consistent control performance under, repeated operations and other changes in operating conditions.

Influencing of Rice Residue Management Method on GHG Emission from Rice Cultivation

Thailand is one of the world-s leaders of rice producers and exporters. Farmers have to increase the rice cultivation frequency for serving the national increasing of export-s demand. It leads to an elimination of rice residues by open burning which is the quickest and costless management method. The open burning of rice residue is one of the major causes of air pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Under ASEAN agreement on trans-boundary haze, Thailand set the master plan to mitigate air pollutant emission from open burning of agricultural residues. In this master plan, residues incorporation is promoted as alternative management method to open burning. However, the assessment of both options in term of GHG emission in order to investigate their contribution to long-term global warming is still scarce or inexistent. In this study, a method on rice residues assessment was first developed in order to estimate and compare GHG emissions from rice cultivation under rice residues open burning and the case with incorporation of the same amount of rice residues, using 2006 IPCC guidelines for emission estimation and Life Cycle Analysis technique. The emission from rice cultivation in different preparing area practice was also discussed.

Minimization of Non-Productive Time during 2.5D Milling

In the modern manufacturing systems, the use of thermal cutting techniques using oxyfuel, plasma and laser have become indispensable for the shape forming of high quality complex components; however, the conventional chip removal production techniques still have its widespread space in the manufacturing industry. Both these types of machining operations require the positioning of end effector tool at the edge where the cutting process commences. This repositioning of the cutting tool in every machining operation is repeated several times and is termed as non-productive time or airtime motion. Minimization of this non-productive machining time plays an important role in mass production with high speed machining. As, the tool moves from one region to the other by rapid movement and visits a meticulous region once in the whole operation, hence the non-productive time can be minimized by synchronizing the tool movements. In this work, this problem is being formulated as a general travelling salesman problem (TSP) and a genetic algorithm approach has been applied to solve the same. For improving the efficiency of the algorithm, the GA has been hybridized with a noble special heuristic and simulating annealing (SA). In the present work a novel heuristic in the combination of GA has been developed for synchronization of toolpath movements during repositioning of the tool. A comparative analysis of new Meta heuristic techniques with simple genetic algorithm has been performed. The proposed metaheuristic approach shows better performance than simple genetic algorithm for minimization of nonproductive toolpath length. Also, the results obtained with the help of hybrid simulated annealing genetic algorithm (HSAGA) are also found better than the results using simple genetic algorithm only.