Modeling Strategy and Numerical Validation of the Turbulent Flow over a two-Dimensional Flat Roof

The construction of a civil structure inside a urban area inevitably modifies the outdoor microclimate at the building site. Wind speed, wind direction, air pollution, driving rain, radiation and daylight are some of the main physical aspects that are subjected to the major changes. The quantitative amount of these modifications depends on the shape, size and orientation of the building and on its interaction with the surrounding environment.The flow field over a flat roof model building has been numerically investigated in order to determine two-dimensional CFD guidelines for the calculation of the turbulent flow over a structure immersed in an atmospheric boundary layer. To this purpose, a complete validation campaign has been performed through a systematic comparison of numerical simulations with wind tunnel experimental data.Several turbulence models and spatial node distributions have been tested for five different vertical positions, respectively from the upstream leading edge to the downstream bottom edge of the analyzed model. Flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the building model have been numerically investigated, allowing a quantification of the capabilities of the CFD code to predict the flow separation and the extension of the recirculation regions.The proposed calculations have allowed the development of a preliminary procedure to be used as a guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and corresponding turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a twodimensional roof architecture dominated by flow separation.

Study on Various Measures for Flood in Specific Region: A Case Study of the 2008 Lao Flood

In recent years, the number of natural disasters in Laos has a trend to increase, especially the disaster of flood. To make a flood plan risk management in the future, it is necessary to understand and analyze the characteristics of the rainfall and Mekong River level data. To reduce the damage, this paper presents the flood risk analysis in Luangprabang and Vientiane, the prefecture of Laos. In detail, the relationship between the rainfall and the Mekong River level has evaluated and appropriate countermeasure for flood was discussed.

Research on the Correlation of the Fluctuating Density Gradient of the Compressible Flows

This work is to study a roll of the fluctuating density gradient in the compressible flows for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A new anisotropy tensor with the fluctuating density gradient is introduced, and is used for an invariant modeling technique to model the turbulent density gradient correlation equation derived from the continuity equation. The modeling equation is decomposed into three groups: group proportional to the mean velocity, and that proportional to the mean strain rate, and that proportional to the mean density. The characteristics of the correlation in a wake are extracted from the results by the two dimensional direct simulation, and shows the strong correlation with the vorticity in the wake near the body. Thus, it can be concluded that the correlation of the density gradient is a significant parameter to describe the quick generation of the turbulent property in the compressible flows.

Evaluation of Risk Attributes Driven by Periodically Changing System Functionality

Modeling of the distributed systems allows us to represent the whole its functionality. The working system instance rarely fulfils the whole functionality represented by model; usually some parts of this functionality should be accessible periodically. The reporting system based on the Data Warehouse concept seams to be an intuitive example of the system that some of its functionality is required only from time to time. Analyzing an enterprise risk associated with the periodical change of the system functionality, we should consider not only the inaccessibility of the components (object) but also their functions (methods), and the impact of such a situation on the system functionality from the business point of view. In the paper we suggest that the risk attributes should be estimated from risk attributes specified at the requirements level (Use Case in the UML model) on the base of the information about the structure of the model (presented at other levels of the UML model). We argue that it is desirable to consider the influence of periodical changes in requirements on the enterprise risk estimation. Finally, the proposition of such a solution basing on the UML system model is presented.

Application of 0-1 Fuzzy Programming in Optimum Project Selection

In this article, a mathematical programming model for choosing an optimum portfolio of investments is developed. The investments are considered as investment projects. The uncertainties of the real world are associated through fuzzy concepts for coefficients of the proposed model (i. e. initial investment costs, profits, resource requirement, and total available budget). Model has been coded by using LINGO 11.0 solver. The results of a full analysis of optimistic and pessimistic derivative models are promising for selecting an optimum portfolio of projects in presence of uncertainty.

Asymptotic Stabilization of an Active Magnetic Bearing System using LMI-based Sliding Mode Control

In this paper, stabilization of an Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) system with varying rotor speed using Sliding Mode Control (SMC) technique is considered. The gyroscopic effect inherited in the system is proportional to rotor speed in which this nonlinearity effect causes high system instability as the rotor speed increases. Also, transformation of the AMB dynamic model into a new class of uncertain system shows that this gyroscopic effect lies in the mismatched part of the system matrix. Moreover, the current gain parameter is allowed to be varied in a known bound as an uncertainty in the input matrix. SMC design method is proposed in which the sufficient condition that guarantees the global exponential stability of the reduced-order system is represented in Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI). Then, a new chattering-free control law is established such that the system states are driven to reach the switching surface and stay on it thereafter. The performance of the controller applied to the AMB model is demonstrated through simulation works under various system conditions.

A Finite Volume Procedure on Unstructured Meshes for Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems

Flow through micro and mini channels requires relatively high driving pressure due to the large fluid pressure drop through these channels. Consequently the forces acting on the walls of the channel due to the fluid pressure are also large. Due to these forces there are displacement fields set up in the solid substrate containing the channels. If the movement of the substrate is constrained at some points, then stress fields are established in the substrate. On the other hand, if the deformation of the channel shape is sufficiently large then its effect on the fluid flow is important to be calculated. Such coupled fluid-solid systems form a class of problems known as fluidstructure interactions. In the present work a co-located finite volume discretization procedure on unstructured meshes is described for solving fluid-structure interaction type of problems. A linear elastic solid is assumed for which the effect of the channel deformation on the flow is neglected. Thus the governing equations for the fluid and the solid are decoupled and are solved separately. The procedure is validated by solving two benchmark problems, one from fluid mechanics and another from solid mechanics. A fluid-structure interaction problem of flow through a U-shaped channel embedded in a plate is solved.

Mining Network Data for Intrusion Detection through Naïve Bayesian with Clustering

Network security attacks are the violation of information security policy that received much attention to the computational intelligence society in the last decades. Data mining has become a very useful technique for detecting network intrusions by extracting useful knowledge from large number of network data or logs. Naïve Bayesian classifier is one of the most popular data mining algorithm for classification, which provides an optimal way to predict the class of an unknown example. It has been tested that one set of probability derived from data is not good enough to have good classification rate. In this paper, we proposed a new learning algorithm for mining network logs to detect network intrusions through naïve Bayesian classifier, which first clusters the network logs into several groups based on similarity of logs, and then calculates the prior and conditional probabilities for each group of logs. For classifying a new log, the algorithm checks in which cluster the log belongs and then use that cluster-s probability set to classify the new log. We tested the performance of our proposed algorithm by employing KDD99 benchmark network intrusion detection dataset, and the experimental results proved that it improves detection rates as well as reduces false positives for different types of network intrusions.

A Study on Flammability of Bio Oil Combustible Vapour Mixtures

Study of fire and explosion is very important mainly in oil and gas industries due to several accidents which have been reported in the past and present. In this work, we have investigated the flammability of bio oil vapour mixtures. This mixture may contribute to fire during the storage and transportation process. Bio oil sample derived from Palm Kernell shell was analysed using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to examine the composition of the sample. Mole fractions of 12 selected components in the liquid phase were obtained from the GC-FID data and used to calculate mole fractions of components in the gas phase via modified Raoult-s law. Lower Flammability Limits (LFLs) and Upper Flammability Limits (UFLs) for individual components were obtained from published literature. However, stoichiometric concentration method was used to calculate the flammability limits of some components which their flammability limit values are not available in the literature. The LFL and UFL values for the mixture were calculated using the Le Chatelier equation. The LFLmix and UFLmix values were used to construct a flammability diagram and subsequently used to determine the flammability of the mixture. The findings of this study can be used to propose suitable inherently safer method to prevent the flammable mixture from occurring and to minimizing the loss of properties, business, and life due to fire accidents in bio oil productions.

Changes in Selected Fuel Properties of Sewage Sludge as a Result of its Storage

The article presents test results on the changes occurring in sewage sludge during the process of its storage. Tests were conducted on mechanically dehydrated sewage sludge derived from large municipal sewage treatment plants equipped with biological sewage treatment systems. In testing presented in the paper the focus was on the basic fuel properties of sewage sludge: moisture content, heat of combustion, carbon share. In the first part of the article the overview of the issues concerning the sewage sludge management is presented and the genesis of tests is explained. Further in the paper, selected results of conducted tests are discussed. Changes in tested parameters were determined in the period of a 10- month sewage storage.

A Study on Remote On-Line Diagnostic System for Vehicles by Integrating the Technology of OBD, GPS, and 3G

This paper presents a remote on-line diagnostic system for vehicles via the use of On-Board Diagnostic (OBD), GPS, and 3G techniques. The main parts of the proposed system are on-board computer, vehicle monitor server, and vehicle status browser. First, the on-board computer can obtain the location of deriver and vehicle status from GPS receiver and OBD interface, respectively. Then on-board computer will connect with the vehicle monitor server through 3G network to transmit the real time vehicle system status. Finally, vehicle status browser could show the remote vehicle status including vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, engine coolant temperature, and diagnostic trouble codes. According to the experimental results, the proposed system can help fleet managers and car knockers to understand the remote vehicle status. Therefore this system can decrease the time of fleet management and vehicle repair due to the fleet managers and car knockers who find the diagnostic trouble messages in time.

When Construction Material Traders Goes Electronic: Analysis of SMEs in Malaysian Construction Industry

This paper analyzed the perception of e-commerce application services by construction material traders in Malaysia. Five attributes were tested: usability, reputation, trust, privacy and familiarity. Study methodology consists of survey questionnaire and statistical analysis that includes reliability analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA and regression analysis. The respondents were construction material traders, including hardware stores in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur. Findings support that usability and familiarity with e-commerce services in Malaysia have insignificant influence on the acceptance of e-commerce application. However, reputation, trust and privacy attributes have significant influence on the choice of e-commerce acceptance by construction material traders. E-commerce applications studied included customer database, e-selling, emarketing, e-payment, e-buying and online advertising. Assumptions are made that traders have basic knowledge and exposure to ICT services. i.e. internet service and computers. Study concludes that reputation, privacy and trust are the three website attributes that influence the acceptance of e-commerce by construction material traders.

Speed Sensorless IFOC of PMSM Based On Adaptive Luenberger Observer

In this paper, Speed Sensorless Indirect Field Oriented Control (IFOC) of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous machine (PMSM) is studied. The closed loop scheme of the drive system utilizes fuzzy speed and current controllers. Due to the well known drawbacks of the speed sensor, an algorithm is proposed in this paper to eliminate it. In fact, based on the model of the PMSM, the stator currents and rotor speed are estimated simultaneously using adaptive Luenberger observer for currents and MRAS (Model Reference Adaptive System) observer for rotor speed. To overcome the sensivity of this algorithm against parameter variation, adaptive for on line stator resistance tuning is proposed. The validity of the proposed method is verified by an extensive simulation work.

Robust Integrated Design for a Mechatronic Feed Drive System of Machine Tools

This paper aims at to develop a robust optimization methodology for the mechatronic modules of machine tools by considering all important characteristics from all structural and control domains in one single process. The relationship between these two domains is strongly coupled. In order to reduce the disturbance caused by parameters in either one, the mechanical and controller design domains need to be integrated. Therefore, the concurrent integrated design method Design For Control (DFC), will be employed in this paper. In this connect, it is not only applied to achieve minimal power consumption but also enhance structural performance and system response at same time. To investigate the method for integrated optimization, a mechatronic feed drive system of the machine tools is used as a design platform. Pro/Engineer and AnSys are first used to build the 3D model to analyze and design structure parameters such as elastic deformation, nature frequency and component size, based on their effects and sensitivities to the structure. In addition, the robust controller,based on Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT), will be applied to determine proper control parameters for the controller. Therefore, overall physical properties of the machine tool will be obtained in the initial stage. Finally, the technology of design for control will be carried out to modify the structural and control parameters to achieve overall system performance. Hence, the corresponding productivity is expected to be greatly improved.

A New Approach for Effect Evaluation of Sediment Management

Safety, river environment, and sediment utilization are the elements of the target of sediment management. As a change in an element by sediment management, may affect the other two elements, and the priority among three elements depends on stakeholders. It is necessary to develop a method to evaluate the effect of sediment management on each element and an integrated evaluation method for socio-economic effect. In this study, taking Mount Merapi basin as an investigation field, the method for an active volcanic basin was developed. An integrated evaluation method for sediment management was discussed from a socio-economic point on safety, environment, and sediment utilization and a case study of sediment management was evaluated by means of this method. To evaluate the effect of sediment management, some parameters on safety, utilization, and environment have been introduced. From a utilization point of view, job opportunity, additional income of local people, and tax income to local government were used to evaluate the effectiveness of sediment management. The risk degree of river infrastructure was used to describe the effect of sediment management on a safety aspect. To evaluate the effects of sediment management on environment, the mean diameter of grain size distribution of riverbed surface was used. On the coordinate system designating these elements, the direction of change in basin condition by sediment management can be predicted, so that the most preferable sediment management can be decided. The results indicate that the cases of sediment management tend to give the negative impacts on sediment utilization. However, these sediment managements will give positive impacts on safety and environment condition. Evaluation result from a social-economic point of view shows that the case study of sediment management reduces job opportunity and additional income for inhabitants as well as tax income for government. Therefore, it is necessary to make another policy for creating job opportunity for inhabitants to support these sediment managements.

Eye Gesture Analysis with Head Movement for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Road traffic accidents are a major cause of death worldwide. In an attempt to reduce accidents, some research efforts have focused on creating Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) able to detect vehicle, driver and environmental conditions and to use this information to identify cues for potential accidents. This paper presents continued work on a novel Non-intrusive Intelligent Driver Assistance and Safety System (Ni-DASS) for assessing driver point of regard within vehicles. It uses an on-board CCD camera to observe the driver-s face. A template matching approach is used to compare the driver-s eye-gaze pattern with a set of eye-gesture templates of the driver looking at different focal points within the vehicle. The windscreen is divided into cells and comparison of the driver-s eye-gaze pattern with templates of a driver-s eyes looking at each cell is used to determine the driver-s point of regard on the windscreen. Results indicate that the proposed technique could be useful in situations where low resolution estimates of driver point of regard are adequate. For instance, To allow ADAS systems to alert the driver if he/she has positively failed to observe a hazard.

LAYMOD; A Layered and Modular Platform for CAx Collaboration Management and Supporting Product data Integration based on STEP Standard

Nowadays companies strive to survive in a competitive global environment. To speed up product development/modifications, it is suggested to adopt a collaborative product development approach. However, despite the advantages of new IT improvements still many CAx systems work separately and locally. Collaborative design and manufacture requires a product information model that supports related CAx product data models. To solve this problem many solutions are proposed, which the most successful one is adopting the STEP standard as a product data model to develop a collaborative CAx platform. However, the improvement of the STEP-s Application Protocols (APs) over the time, huge number of STEP AP-s and cc-s, the high costs of implementation, costly process for conversion of older CAx software files to the STEP neutral file format; and lack of STEP knowledge, that usually slows down the implementation of the STEP standard in collaborative data exchange, management and integration should be considered. In this paper the requirements for a successful collaborative CAx system is discussed. The STEP standard capability for product data integration and its shortcomings as well as the dominant platforms for supporting CAx collaboration management and product data integration are reviewed. Finally a platform named LAYMOD to fulfil the requirements of CAx collaborative environment and integrating the product data is proposed. The platform is a layered platform to enable global collaboration among different CAx software packages/developers. It also adopts the STEP modular architecture and the XML data structures to enable collaboration between CAx software packages as well as overcoming the STEP standard limitations. The architecture and procedures of LAYMOD platform to manage collaboration and avoid contradicts in product data integration are introduced.

Response of King Abdulla Canal Water to the Upgrade of As Samra WWTP

The response of King Abdulla Canal (KAC) water to the upgrade of As Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant which discharges its effluent to the Zarqa River is investigated. Time series quality data that extends between October 2005 and December 2009 obtained by a state of the art telemetric monitoring system were analyzed for COD, EC, TP and TN at two monitoring stations located upstream and downstream of the confluence of the Zarqa River with KAC. The samples- means and the t-test showed that there has been significant improvement in the quality of the KAC water for COD, and TP. However, the improvement in the TN was found statistically insignificant, whereas the EC of the KAC was unaffected by the upgrade. Comparing the selected parameters with the standards and guidelines for using treated wastewater in irrigation showed that the KAC water has improved towards meeting the required standards and guidelines for treated wastewater reuse in irrigation.

Group Invariant Solutions for Radial Jet Having Finite Fluid Velocity at Orifice

The group invariant solution for Prandtl-s boundary layer equations for an incompressible fluid governing the flow in radial free, wall and liquid jets having finite fluid velocity at the orifice are investigated. For each jet a symmetry is associated with the conserved vector that was used to derive the conserved quantity for the jet elsewhere. This symmetry is then used to construct the group invariant solution for the third-order partial differential equation for the stream function. The general form of the group invariant solution for radial jet flows is derived. The general form of group invariant solution and the general form of the similarity solution which was obtained elsewhere are the same.

Comparison of Compression Ability Using DCT and Fractal Technique on Different Imaging Modalities

Image compression is one of the most important applications Digital Image Processing. Advanced medical imaging requires storage of large quantities of digitized clinical data. Due to the constrained bandwidth and storage capacity, however, a medical image must be compressed before transmission and storage. There are two types of compression methods, lossless and lossy. In Lossless compression method the original image is retrieved without any distortion. In lossy compression method, the reconstructed images contain some distortion. Direct Cosine Transform (DCT) and Fractal Image Compression (FIC) are types of lossy compression methods. This work shows that lossy compression methods can be chosen for medical image compression without significant degradation of the image quality. In this work DCT and Fractal Compression using Partitioned Iterated Function Systems (PIFS) are applied on different modalities of images like CT Scan, Ultrasound, Angiogram, X-ray and mammogram. Approximately 20 images are considered in each modality and the average values of compression ratio and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) are computed and studied. The quality of the reconstructed image is arrived by the PSNR values. Based on the results it can be concluded that the DCT has higher PSNR values and FIC has higher compression ratio. Hence in medical image compression, DCT can be used wherever picture quality is preferred and FIC is used wherever compression of images for storage and transmission is the priority, without loosing picture quality diagnostically.